President's Conference / 2

I suppose that the story begins about three weeks ago when the Occupational Psychologist (OP) asked me whether I wanted to go to a lecture by Dan Ariely. She had given me his book, "Predictably Irrational", about a year before and I had enjoyed reading it (even though she gave me the Hebrew translation), so I jumped at the chance at seeing the man.

About a week later, I received via email an invitation to the President's Conference; whilst I was flattered that I had received the invitation, I was bewildered as to why I had received it. Only a few days later in a conversation with the OP, I discovered that Dan Ariely would be giving his lecture within the framework of the conference. Even so, it was difficult at first to find where and when he was due to appear; it later transpires that he was a popular guest who was assigned several appearances.

After I wrote yesterday's blog about the opening evening, I considered my options. I realised that it might be better to turn up after Ariely had finished a lecture than before. As he was due to appear at 11:30am, I wouldn't have to leave work at 10am but could delay my departure until noon. Whilst I was mulling this over, I had a brainwave and sent him an email detailing my failure to meet him the previous evening and asking whether we could arrange a time and a place to meet. Whilst there was a good chance that the email would be ignored (because it was sent to his university address), there was also a good chance that I would receive a reply.

Two minutes after sending the email, I received a call on my cellphone from an unrecognised number. Could it be Dan himself on the phone? Not quite: it was the OP asking how I came home the previous evening and what my further plans were. We were intending to go today (Thursday) but it transpired that Dan was appearing in yet another panel yesterday afternoon at 4:30pm, a much more congenial time. We agreed to set off at 3:30pm.

After the phone call, I returned to my work environment and discovered that I had received a reply from Dan saying that he would be available after all his lectures; he also enclosed his mobile telephone number in case that we didn't meet!

Fast forward a few hours; the OP, her family and I are sitting in a much smaller hall, watching Israeli television journalist (and lawyer) Ilana Dayan. She will be interviewing five people, one of whom will be Dan Ariely. Her guests were (in order) Arieh Der'i (a meteor in Israeli politics who was convicted of receiving a bribe and who has just returned from a five year cooling off period), Lord David Trimble (Member of the British Parliament ; First Minister of Northern Ireland; Former Leader, Ulster Unionist Party; 1998 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate), Professor Larry Summers (Charles W. Eliot University Professor, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; President Emeritus, Harvard University; Former Director of the White House National Economic Council, Obama Administration), Jibril Rajoub (Palestinian Authority, Senior Fatah leader; Former head, Palestinian Security Force; Member, Fatah Central Committee; Head, Palestinian Football Federation and the Palestine Olympic Committee) and Dan the Man.

All of the first four interviews were very interesting, Lord Trimble especially. But as their contents were political and this is not a political blog, I won't go into what they said. Dan Ariely, on the other hand, seemed slightly out of place with his heavyweight confreres; he told a few more anecdotes from his book and went into more detail about his accident, his recovery and his interest in pain.

Once the session was over, I quickly walked the few yards which separated the speakers and dignified guests from the hoi polloi. Someone had got to Dan before me, also with a copy of his book, so I had to wait before I had a chance to speak. Then someone else entered the conversation, asking how long Dan would be in Israel and where else he would be speaking. Dan gave this person a few details and then said to send him an email; at this point I intervened and said that Dan answers his emails very promptly! I then gave him (Dan) my books and he began to sign. He commented that the books were in English, and I replied that I did have the first book in Hebrew but it took me so long to read that I preferred to read the English versions (I believe that the books were first written in English and then translated into Hebrew). 

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At this point, I asked why Dan had spoken in English all through the interview (simultaneous translation into Hebrew via headphones) whilst we were speaking in Hebrew now. I briefly considered that he might have been denying his Israeli roots, but this wasn't the reason. He asked Ilana Dayan (who was standing behind me) why indeed the interview was conducted in English, and she replied that she had been asked to do so. I note that about 75% of the interview with Jibril Rajoub was conducted in Hebrew, the rest being in English. Strange.

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As the session had overrun, the ushers were firmly ushering us out of the hall so they could set up for the next session, meaning that my brief meeting had concluded. As I turned away, I obviously made some strange body movement for suddenly a muscle in my chest contracted and stayed contracted, giving me severe pain for about fifteen minutes until the muscle relaxed. During this time, I was vigorously rubbing my chest and looking for a place where I could sit down without being mobbed.

Only when I got home did I find out what Dan had written in the books. As 70% of his body had been severely burned in his accident, he still has problems writing ("my hands don’t work very well, and typing causes a great amount of pain", his email) so I wasn't surprised that it was very hard to read what he had written. I think that in "Predictably Irrational", he had written "Irrationally yours", and his dedication in "The upside of Irrationality" appears below. I was slightly surprised to notice that my name appears in both dedications as he hadn't asked me my name; he obviously read it off my name tag.

Next time around: my thoughts on getting authors and musicians to sign books/records.