I found this really interesting. I've never seen an interview in this style before, and I don't know if it's a haaretz thing or just this reporter, but I liked it.
Most interviews I read feel very polished and on-message; more like a spoken article than a conversation. This was very raw, and didn't cover much of his work or have much structure to it. It was more like an old friend coming by to catch up, and happening to bring a tape recorder.
I feel like I learned a lot more about Dan Ariely as a person than I would have from a more manicured interview. I knew he'd been burned in an accident, but I didn't know how badly it affected him. I assumed he was busy, but it made me empathise with that sense of wanting to do so much and never having the time.
If nothing else, it's nice to see through the bio on the cover of his book to something a bit more human.
I like Dan Ariely, I have read his books and they are really insightful and interesting but this interview was really superficial despite being so long, there was a lot of ridiculous name dropping at the beginning and I don't feel I learned something.
> The British government has a special office for behavioral economics, and I work with them. At the moment we are focusing particularly on taxes − trying to get people to be persuaded to pay taxes − and on education.
As much as I enjoy Dan Ariely, I think it's important not to think of him as some kind of demigod that knows all there is to know about human behaviour.
How are you affected by the knowledge that our behavior is an open book to you?
That question is a very dangerous one, because our behaviour is NOT an open book to him. There are far too many variables to even count.
Dan Ariely is one of my favorite authors. He is both incredibly insightful about human nature and very funny, his first book is one of my favorites. Wikipedia has a great overview here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictably_Irrational.
After reading the article and your comment, I went to watch "Why we think it's OK to cheat and steal (sometimes)" on youtube, while downloading both his books with bittorrent.
Most interviews I read feel very polished and on-message; more like a spoken article than a conversation. This was very raw, and didn't cover much of his work or have much structure to it. It was more like an old friend coming by to catch up, and happening to bring a tape recorder.
I feel like I learned a lot more about Dan Ariely as a person than I would have from a more manicured interview. I knew he'd been burned in an accident, but I didn't know how badly it affected him. I assumed he was busy, but it made me empathise with that sense of wanting to do so much and never having the time.
If nothing else, it's nice to see through the bio on the cover of his book to something a bit more human.