Black Friday 2026 is Nov 27 ยท See the list
INCONVENIENT MATH

Go Deeper

Twenty minutes is the start.

Each episode shows you where the money goes. Here is how to keep more of it: our own e-books, the courses we would take ourselves, and the books behind the series.

Our e-books

The reading list

How they get you

Pricing, persuasion and defaults: the psychology the sticker is built on.

Book

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman

Why a number planted in your head ("it will probably break") changes the math you do on top of it.

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Book

Predictably Irrational

Dan Ariely

How anchors, decoys and "free" bend decisions. It shows up at the checkout counter and on the price tag alike.

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Book

Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value

William Poundstone

Why the number you see first decides what a product feels worth, and who gets to put it there.

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Book

Influence

Robert Cialdini

Scarcity, social proof and the countdown clock. The toolkit behind every doorbuster.

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Book

Nudge

Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein

Why the default option wins so often, and who gets to choose the default you were given.

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Book

Misbehaving

Richard Thaler

How a Nobel economist caught people (and markets) ignoring the math, and who profits when they do.

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Think in numbers

Odds, averages and charts, so the next statistic you meet has to earn your trust.

Book

Freakonomics

Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner

One of the two books the channel is built on: ask who gets paid, and follow the money.

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Book

The Drunkard's Walk

Leonard Mlodinow

The other book the channel is built on: how randomness hides inside numbers we treat as skill or luck.

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Book

How to Lie with Statistics

Darrell Huff

Seventy years old and still the fastest way to spot a chart that was built to sell you something.

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Book

Naked Statistics

Charles Wheelan

Statistics without the dread: averages, odds and samples explained with real decisions, not formulas.

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Keep more of it

What to actually do with the math: spending, saving, investing, and negotiating.

Book

The Psychology of Money

Morgan Housel

Short stories about why smart people make odd money decisions. A good companion to the whole series.

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Book

Your Money or Your Life

Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez

A classic on counting what things really cost, in hours of your life. The same instinct as every episode.

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Book

I Will Teach You to Be Rich

Ramit Sethi

A practical take on automating the boring parts of money and on where the marketing ends and the math begins.

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Book

The Millionaire Next Door

Thomas Stanley & William Danko

Research on how ordinary people actually build wealth. A useful contrast with the lifestyle the points are sold with.

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Book

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing

John C. Bogle

The fee math, from the man who built Vanguard: small percentages, compounded, take most of the gain.

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Book

Never Split the Difference

Chris Voss

For the other side of the counter: a former FBI negotiator on how to stop accepting the first number.

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