'Big Fan' investigates fandom from darts and football to Taylor Swift

Science and reason create technological marvels, but they’re less successful at shaping human behavior. Since humans are irrational creatures, irrationality can be a useful tool for pushing various agendas big and small. In Alchemy, Rory Sutherland suggests that to solve economic and political problems, we should leverage people’s illogical—and even magical—ways of thinking. If business and political leaders can better understand the human psyche, they can use it to tackle the issues of the modern world.

As vice chairman of the advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather, Sutherland merged commercial advertising with behavioral science to “hack” the human mind. In this guide, we’ll examine what Sutherland believes are the faulty assumptions of standard economics, the peculiar quirks of human perception, and why meaning is more important than fact. We’ll delve into the underlying research on behavioral psychology and discuss the implications of using irrationality to influence the public at large.

Have you ever wondered why some companies have legions of die-hard fans but most companies don't? Superfans explains the process that turns ordinary customers into passionate, lifelong fans.

Author Pat Flynn is an entrepreneur, podcaster, and blogger, with over 300,000 subscribers on YouTube. His podcast, Smart Passive Income, was named one of Forbes’s top podcasts for entrepreneurs. He draws from personal experience to let you in on the strategies he's used to create a thriving community of superfans. He argues that the quality of your fans' devotion matters much more to the success of your brand than the mere quantity of customers.

In this guide, you'll find a collection of strategies you can start applying today to build community, engagement, and enthusiasm around your brand. Along the way, you'll learn about the value of staging live events, the importance of word choice in your marketing, and why you might want to hire your biggest fans.

In The Captain Class, sports journalist Sam Walker overturns the conventional wisdom about what makes a professional sports team excel. He argues that the most important factor in team success isn’t star talent, coaching, or financial resources—it’s the team captain. This is because team captains have the unique ability to motivate fellow players to elevate their performance through the examples they set and the relationships they build with their teammates.

While effective team captains vary in their personality and play style, all of them exhibit four key leadership traits: self-sacrifice, perseverance, one-on-one relationships, and nonverbal communication. Walker argues that these aren’t rare gifts, but traits almost anyone can adopt through effort. This guide explores these traits in greater detail, offering insights for managers, supervisors, and other leaders of high-performing teams. You’ll learn why Hollywood’s portrayals of sports leaders are typically wrong, and why star players are often a poor choice for leadership roles. We’ll also discuss the psychology behind sports leadership and the historical context surrounding Walker’s examples.

Have you ever wondered why some companies have legions of die-hard fans but most companies don't? Superfans explains the process that turns ordinary customers into passionate, lifelong fans.

Author Pat Flynn is an entrepreneur, podcaster, and blogger, with over 300,000 subscribers on YouTube. His podcast, Smart Passive Income, was named one of Forbes’s top podcasts for entrepreneurs. He draws from personal experience to let you in on the strategies he's used to create a thriving community of superfans. He argues that the quality of your fans' devotion matters much more to the success of your brand than the mere quantity of customers.

In this guide, you'll find a collection of strategies you can start applying today to build community, engagement, and enthusiasm around your brand. Along the way, you'll learn about the value of staging live events, the importance of word choice in your marketing, and why you might want to hire your biggest fans.

In The Captain Class, sports journalist Sam Walker overturns the conventional wisdom about what makes a professional sports team excel. He argues that the most important factor in team success isn’t star talent, coaching, or financial resources—it’s the team captain. This is because team captains have the unique ability to motivate fellow players to elevate their performance through the examples they set and the relationships they build with their teammates.

While effective team captains vary in their personality and play style, all of them exhibit four key leadership traits: self-sacrifice, perseverance, one-on-one relationships, and nonverbal communication. Walker argues that these aren’t rare gifts, but traits almost anyone can adopt through effort. This guide explores these traits in greater detail, offering insights for managers, supervisors, and other leaders of high-performing teams. You’ll learn why Hollywood’s portrayals of sports leaders are typically wrong, and why star players are often a poor choice for leadership roles. We’ll also discuss the psychology behind sports leadership and the historical context surrounding Walker’s examples.

When’s the last time you did something fun? For many of us, as we get older, fun starts to take a backseat to the neverending list of adult responsibilities. But what if it didn't have to be that way? In The Power of Fun, award-winning science writer Catherine Price uses research and personal anecdotes to explain why fun is fundamental to living a happy and healthy life and how everyone can start having more fun.

In this guide, we’ll define fun and why it matters and elaborate on how modern society has made it harder to prioritize fun. We’ll then outline Price’s step-by-step guide to invite more fun into your life. In our commentary, we’ll expand on Price’s research with insight from other writers and experts in the psychology of well-being, including Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of Flow, Stuart Brown, founder of the Institute for Play, and Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project.