Rory Sutherland is widely regarded as one of the most influential (and most entertaining) thinkers in marketing and behavioral science. He’s the vice chairman of Ogilvy UK, the author of Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life, and the founder of Nudgestock, the world’s biggest festival of behavioral science and creativity. He champions thinking from first principles and using human psychology—what he calls “thinking psycho-logically”—over mere logic. In our conversation, we cover: • Why good products don’t always succeed, and bad ones don’t necessarily fail • Why less functionality can sometimes be more valuable • The importance of fame in building successful brands • The importance of timing in product success • The concept of “most advanced, yet acceptable” • Why metrics-driven workplaces can be demotivating • Lots of real-world case studies • Much more Note: We encountered some technical difficulties that led to less than ideal video quality for this episode, but the lessons from this conversation made it impossible for me to not publish it anyway. Thanks for your understanding and for bearing with the less-than-ideal video quality. — Brought to you by: • Pendo—The only all-in-one product experience platform for any type of application: https://www.pendo.io/lenny • Cycle—Your feedback hub, on autopilot: https://www.cycle.app/lenny?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=lenny • Coda—The all-in-one collaborative workspace: https://coda.io/lenny Find the transcript and references at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/what-most-people-miss-about-marketing Where to find Rory Sutherland: • X: https://x.com/rorysutherland • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rorysutherland • Book: Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life: https://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Curious-Science-Creating-Business/dp/006238841X Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ In this episode, we cover: Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.