Why most bestselling business books are BS

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Feb 3, 2025

Alex Edmans, a finance professor at London Business School and author of 'May Contain Lies', delves into the pitfalls of bestselling business books. He discusses how cognitive biases, like confirmation bias, distort our understanding and acceptance of oversimplified advice. Edmans critiques popular concepts, from the Atkins diet to Simon Sinek's 'Start With Why', highlighting the danger of black-and-white thinking. He urges listeners to critically evaluate the claims made in these books and emphasizes the importance of nuanced, evidence-based insights.

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INSIGHT

Black-and-White Thinking Bias

Black-and-white thinking, a bias from our ancestors, simplifies complex situations.
This simplification can lead to misjudgments even in today's world.

ANECDOTE

Atkins Diet Example

The Atkins diet, which demonizes carbs, exemplifies black-and-white thinking in nutrition.
Its simplicity made it popular, despite being potentially harmful long-term.

INSIGHT

Nuance Over Extremes

Black-and-white thinking affects various topics, from Brexit to company diversity.
Recognizing nuances and avoiding extremes is crucial.

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Business books are everywhere, offering seemingly simple solutions to complex problems—but are they truly helpful? In this episode, Alex Edmans explores the biases that make us fall for oversimplified advice and why many popular business books fail to deliver.

You’ll learn:

How black-and-white thinking fuels the success of books like Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution and Start With Why.

Why confirmation bias leads us to believe unproven claims (feat. Simon Sinek’s “Why” theory).

The dangers of ignoring nuance, such as in Angela Duckworth’s Grit and Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule.

Real-world examples of flawed reasoning, from the London Marathon tragedy to corporate missteps.

How to critically evaluate the advice offered in bestsellers and avoid falling for universal “truths.”

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Download the Reading List: https://nudge.kit.com/readinglist

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phill-agnew-22213187/

Watch Nudge on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nudgepodcast/

Alex’s book May Contain Lies: https://maycontainlies.com/

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Sources:

Edmans, A. (2024). May contain lies: How stories, statistics, and studies exploit our biases—and what we can do about it. University of California Press.

Atkins, R. C. (1972). Dr. Atkins' diet revolution: The high calorie way to stay thin forever. New York: Bantam Books.

Seidelmann, Sara B. et al. (2018): ‘Dietary carbohydrate intake and mortality: a prospective cohort study and meta-analysis’, Lancet Public Health 3, E419–E428

DeLosh, Edward L., Jerome R. Busemeyer and Mark A. McDaniel (1997): ‘Extrapolation: the sine qua non for abstraction in function learning’, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 23, 968–86.

Fisher, Matthew and Frank Kiel (2018): ‘The binary bias: a systematic distortion in the integration of information’. Psychological Science 29, 1846–58

Sinek, S. (2009). Start with why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action. Portfolio.

Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers: The story of success. Little, Brown and Company.

Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The power of passion and perseverance. Scribner.