Book · 2022 · Business & Economics
The Voltage Effect
How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale
- mentions
- 13
- people
- 5
- podcasts
- 4
- episodes
- 6
- critical mentions
- 0
Uh the book's called The Voltage Effect, but in many ways, you know, I think of this book, which is a wonderful mix of applied economics and behavioral economics and empirical work as uh illustrating what I think of as uh the truth is elusive.
What they say about it
- Discusses book title and scaling“the voltage effect”7
The best things said about it
The experimental economist John list who's been on the show before has just published a book called the voltage effect how to make good ideas great and great ideas scale next week we'll hear from it and him in a special edition of the Freakonomics radio book club.
The Voltage Effect is really what I would call the back nine of my career.
In your book, John, you write, 'I don't believe Travis Kalanick is a bad person; he's a good person who made several bad calls at scale.'.
The reason I love this is that it really ties in with the other example one of the other examples in the book which is the challenge of Jamie Oliver's restaurant chain.
The new book is The Voltage Effect: How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale.
Tim Ferriss The Tim Ferriss Show · Jan 2022 Where and when it comes up
Most mentions, by podcast
5 people who brought it up
Why people recommend it
The Voltage Effect by John A. List is a behavioral economics book that explores the science of why good ideas scale successfully while others fail. The host of Freakonomics Radio introduced the work, stating it would be featured in the show's book club and discussing core concepts such as optimal quitting and the traits of scaling with List himself. Steve Levitt and John List also appeared on People I (Mostly) Admire to discuss the book, contrasting it with List's previous work, The Y-Axis, and framing it as a defining milestone in the latter half of his career. Additionally, Reginald Dwayne Betts brought up The Voltage Effect across multiple episodes of People I (Mostly) Admire when talking about scale and library initiatives. Throughout these podcast appearances, the speakers highlighted how List's empirical field experiments translate into broader principles for avoiding common pitfalls when ideas are expanded on a massive scale. Podcast hosts and guests consistently praised the clarity of the research and the practical implications of List's findings for businesses, leaders, and policymakers looking to understand the complex mechanics behind successful economic and social interventions.
Every mention
Russ Roberts Uh the book's called The Voltage Effect, but in many ways, you know, I think of this book, which is a wonde… 5
Discussed
“Uh the book's called The Voltage Effect, but in many ways, you know, I think of this book, which is a wonderful mix of applied economics and behavioral economics and empirical work as uh illustrating what I think of as uh the truth is elusive.”
Discussed
“And the reason I love this is that it really ties in with the other example one of the other examples in the book which is the challenge of Jamie Oliver's restaurant chain.”
Discussed
“But, then of course as you would have pointed out in the if you'd written about this in the book, you want to look at the cost.”
Discussed
“I guess they were hoping they were going to get some tips. After a while they found out, well, actually most people don't tip and that ended up back being similar.”
Discussed
“My name you do mention in the book for marginal thinking.”
John List we wrote the y-axis in part to Showcase my early field experiments and why the world should use field exper… 1
Discussed
“we wrote the y-axis in part to Showcase my early field experiments and why the world should use field experiments and the voltage effect is really what I would call the back nine of my career”
Reginald Dwayne Betts I think one of your colleagues wrote voltage effect 1
Discussed
“I think one of your colleagues wrote voltage effect”
Steve Levitt the first book you wrote back in 2013 was called the y-axis with Y spelled w-h-y in your most recent book i… 1
Discussed
“the first book you wrote back in 2013 was called the y-axis with Y spelled w-h-y in your most recent book is the voltage effect the y-axis it's a great book”
Tim Ferriss so the new book is the voltage effect how to make good ideas great and great ideas scale 1
Discussed
“so the new book is the voltage effect how to make good ideas great and great ideas scale”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker4
Discussed
“In your book, John, you write, 'I don't believe Travis Kalanick is a bad person; he's a good person who made several bad calls at scale.'”
Discussed
“But in your book, you've introduced the phrase 'optimal quitting.'”
Discussed
“His new book is called The Voltage Effect.”
Recommended
“the experimental economist John list who's been on the show before has just published a book called the voltage effect how to make good ideas great and great ideas scale next week we'll hear from it and him in a special edition of the Freakonomics radio book club”
Also mentioned in the same episodes
Other mentions (10: passing, ad reads, own books)
Own book
“What my book is trying to claim about is that all of our failures to scale—and the world is replete with failure after failure after failure—I want that to be viewed as a failure of common sense.”
Own book
“the book that John list just published is called the voltage effect how to make good ideas great and great ideas scale”
Own book
“Here's another passage from the book: a pharmaceutical company develops a promising new sleep medication in its lab, but the drug doesn't live up to its promise in randomized trials.”
Passing
“Here's an example from The Voltage Effect.”
Own book
“His latest book is The Voltage Effect: How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale.”
Own book
“So, so in the book, I talk about five reasons why there's a voltage effect and I begin with the simple one of false positives.”
Own book
“And what I say in the book is from the very beginning, if we're about making change in the world we should understand what are the constraints or regulations or changes that we will be facing when we scale an idea and bring that back to the Petri dish and add that to our AB test.”
Own book
“You can relive some of it through my book. I talk about some of it through my book, right?”
Own book
“And and we learn as as you're going to find out in the book in chapter four, we learned a fair amount about scaling through those exercises as well.”
Own book
“people can certainly learn more about the latest book at thevoltageeffect.com that is effect with an e e f f e c t voltage effect subtitle how to make good ideas great and great ideas scale”