Rory Sutherland - Alchemy

A flower is simply a weed with an advertising budget: The Lessons of Alchemy by Rory Sutherland

The Lessons of Alchemy by Rory Sutherland

Rory Sutherland’s Alchemy is one of those fun books that you pick up every now and then that makes you stop and think ‘duh’ of course. The book helps you to challenge the basic assumptions we hold about logic, decision-making, and human behavior framed from the perspective of an advertising executive. It’s call to arms for irrationality and an exploration of the advertising magic that emerges when we stop trying to explain everything through rational thought.

Rory, an executive at the advertising agency Ogilvy, started appearing in the short clips on my instagram feed. His quick soundbite friendly takes from interviews and presentations were enough to capture my attention and want to read on. The Algorithm clearly knows me well enough! Alchemy is a collection of short chapters that read exactly as he speaks.

The False Promise of Logic

Logic promises clarity, predictability, and fairness. I feel comfortable in the land of logic but Rory argues that it can trap us in the complex and contradictory way humans actually think.

Take, for instance, the idea that “The opposite of a good idea can also be a good idea.” It’s counterintuitive, but it’s a cornerstone of creative problem-solving. When we limit ourselves to what seems logical, we narrow our vision. As Rory puts it, “When you demand logic, you pay a hidden price: you destroy magic.” Machines operate on logic; humans do not. Humans just think they operate on logic.

Logic might help us defend a decision, but it’s rarely the spark that leads to one. “A good guess which stands up to observation is still science. So is a lucky accident” Instead, breakthroughs often come from those moments of irrational insight that defy conventional wisdom. Rory reminds us, “If there were a logical answer, we would have found it already.” To innovate, we must first become comfortable in flexing the rigidity that logic demands.

The Power of Irrationality

In a world obsessed with rationality, irrationality must therefore be a superpower. Rory’s insights reveal that the unpredictable and eccentric hold a unique kind of influence. Irrational people can be better negotiators because their behavior is harder to anticipate. “If you are wholly predictable, people learn to hack you,”. Mr Trump is ostensibly a master of this, his acolytes will claim ‘5-d chess’. As I write, he is picking trade wars with China, promising a 10% tariff on all Chinese imports from day one of his presidency. “Irrational people are much more powerful than rational people, because their threats are so much more convincing.” Whether irrational or not the perception of irrationality is enough.

This unpredictability isn’t just useful in personal dynamics; it’s critical for businesses and markets. Rory observes that “In competitive markets, it pays to have (and to cultivate) eccentric tastes.” The middle ground is safe, but it’s also boring. Innovation and influence are found on the edges, in the unexpected, where irrationality thrives.

Understanding Human Behavior

At the heart of Alchemy is the idea that human behavior defies conventional economic theory. People don’t act like the rational agemts imagined by economists—they seek meaning, reassurance, and emotional fulfillment. “Logic demands a direct connection between reason and action”

Consider why people visit doctors. Rory points out that “What people are mostly seeking is not treatment, but reassurance.” He points out that we infrequently visit the dentist for reassurance. This insight seems simple but has implications for designing systems and services. When we focus on what people actually want, rather than what we think they should want, we unlock new possibilities.

Similarly, Rory challenges the way we think about value. “We don’t value things; we value their meaning,” he writes. A flower is beautiful not because of its physical properties, but because of what it represents. Value is psychological, not intrinsic.

Perception Over Reality

One of the more ‘duh obvious!’ ideas in Alchemy is that product perception matters more than reality. Success, he suggests, is often less about the product itself and more about the story we tell about it. While traditional thinking focuses on improving the tangible, Rory claims that we can achieve “massive improvements in perception at a fraction of the cost of equivalent improvements in reality.” This is not a call for deception but a recognition that how something is advertised and marketed can make it outweigh what it objectively is. Of course the advertising executive would argue for more investement in advertising rather than R&D spend but there is a parsimonious logic to the suggestion.

The Role of Extremes in Innovation

Rory’s take on innovation is refreshing. While most businesses obsess over averages, he shows that true breakthroughs come from the extremes. Metrics like averages and medians encourage us to play it safe “No one was ever fired for pretending economics was true”, but “innovation happens at the extremes.”

The story of the sandwich is a perfect example. It wasn’t invented for the average eater but for the Earl of Sandwich, an obsessive gambler who needed a way to eat without leaving his card table. Necessity at the edges, not consensus at the center, drives invention.

This principle extends beyond products to people. Complementary talent, Rory suggests, is far more valuable than conformity. As he advises young professionals, “Find one or two things your boss is rubbish at and be quite good at them.”

Conclusion

Question everything. Many of our assumptions about the world are built on shaky foundations, yet we rarely stop to challenge them. “To reach intelligent answers, you often need to ask really dumb questions,” he writes. And while it’s tempting to dismiss unconventional ideas as nonsense, doing so often obscures their hidden value.

The world is messy, human, and irrational, and that’s where its beauty lies. If we embrace the illogical, the magical, and the eccentric, we open ourselves to possibilities we might never have imagined.

“While in physics the opposite of a good idea is generally a bad idea, in psychology the opposite of a good idea can be a very good idea indeed.” The world is not as logical or predictable as we want it to be. Once we accept this, we can start to see the potential in ideas that initially seem absurd.