Bricklin on Technology

5.1. Dan Ariely, March 2, 2008

In 2008, behavioral economics Professor Dan Ariely published a book titled Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions.^[] I interviewed Dan at a conference a few weeks after the book's release. I concentrated my questions on issues related to Open Source software (a cooperative development method popularized by the success of products such as the Linux operating system and the Firefox browser) and the differences between doing something for free vs. for pay.

^[] HarperCollins, ISBN: 006135323X

This is the first of three transcribed interviews in this chapter. The interviews were done informally, either sitting in a corner off a hotel lobby at a conference or on the phone. They were then released as podcasts on my web site that people could, and did, download to listen to on their computers or MP3 players. They are like long blog posts to share my experiences with others.

I'm not a professional interviewer and these transcripts are pretty raw and true to the actual audio. Most people, especially me, do not speak in full, well-formed paragraphs or sometimes even sentences. Try to read these as conversations, not speeches. You may also want to listen to the original recordings by going to the web site (the appropriate URL is noted for each of the interviews). The timecodes in the transcripts should help you jump to a particular part.