http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7540649.stm
Recent years have seen a spate of books marketed at managers, often
from the worlds of "behavioural economics" and pop psychology, and
yours may be the latest to enthuse about nudges, tipping points,
wikinomics, or - for those behind the curve - long tails.
Oh wow
These books are easy to spot: they have a simple metaphor, usually
expressed in a single word that makes for a large-type, grabby cover.
They relate a string of Bill Bryson-style anecdotes or quirky
experiments to elicit "oh wow" moments from the reader and to suggest
that everything you believe is laughably wrong. Words like "secret"
and "undercover" are likely to appear in the secondary title.
And they tend to insinuate that their central simple metaphor explains
everything you've ever wondered about, from why people pick their nose
to how wars start.
Economics getting tough
There's actually nothing new in explaining how people decide or why
people believe - it's called sociology. But if your boss wouldn't want
to be caught with a sociology book in their luggage, there is now a
range of delicious bite-sized chunks in books with titles like The
Undercover Economist, The Rogue Economist and The Hidden Side Of
Everything. Economics - once academia's dry "dismal science" - has
decided to get tough.
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