By the looks of his laptop, Robbert Van Els could be mistaken for a secret agent. His screen is an explosion of urgent files — a master control center for managing clandestine operatives. The man of mystery persona is typified by a side-sliding sports car winding through an onslaught of Word docs and Jpeg files. Just looking at his desktop can raise your blood pressure. But Van Els is not a secret agent. He’s a mess. In fact, Van Els’ LinkedIn profile says he is in the “custom made earplugs” bus...
Jan 08, 2018•8 min
Nir’s Note: This article on goal setting was originally published in early 2016 but got such a great reader response that I decided to expand and update it along with adding the video below. Let me know what you think in the comments. Over the past four years, I’ve discovered many incredible ways to hack my habits, set better goals, and improve my life. I have taught myself to love running, dramatically improved my diet and found the focus to write a bestselling book . Understanding how the mind...
Dec 26, 2017•9 min
“Don’t boil the ocean,” Terry said as he slapped a tall stack of papers on my desk. “Just tell us what we need to know.” I was staring at a serious problem. To help our firm win a multimillion-dollar consulting contract, I had five days to tell my new boss everything there was to know about airline bankruptcies. Problem was, I didn’t know the first thing about airline bankruptcies. I barely knew the first thing about anything. It was my first month of my first job out of college, and I had no id...
Dec 18, 2017•10 min
When my wife and I moved to New York City in 2001, recently graduated from college and newly wed, we were eager to find friends. We knew nearly no one but were sure we’d soon find a fun-loving group like the 20- and 30-something New Yorkers who spontaneously dropped in on one another on TV shows like Seinfeld and Friends . We hatched a plan. After moving into our Midtown Manhattan apartment, we invited all the neighbors over for drinks by placing Kinko’s-printed quarter-sheets into everyone’s ma...
Dec 11, 2017•10 min
Nir’s Note: This guest post is an excerpt from the new book Invisible Influence: The Hidden Factors that Shape Behavior , written by my friend and Wharton School professor, Jonah Berger. Being different, the notion goes, is the route to success. Think different was even Apple’s motto for a period. And Apple is often held up as a poster child of the benefits of this ethos. Conventional wisdom suggests that products like the iPhone and Macintosh succeeded because they were different from the rest....
Dec 04, 2017•11 min
In years to come, conversations will breathe new life into software—particularly the boring enterprise tools millions of knowledge workers begrudgingly use every day. Conversational user interfaces (CUIs) work because of our familiarity with messaging. Even the most technically complex interactions can look as simple as getting an SMS text when presented as a conversation. There are three benefits conversational user interfaces have over traditional software and we believe these lessons can info...
Nov 27, 2017•9 min
Around the election, in a desperate search for answers about our nation’s future, I found myself scrolling, reading, and watching everything I could. I was trapped in an endless pull-to-refresh cycle of consuming more news, tweets, posts, and videos than was good for me. I told myself that I was staying informed, that this was part of my civic duty—and that not staying up-to-date 24-7 would leave me politically ignorant and impotent. I’ve since changed my mind. In fact, I’ve decided to give up c...
Nov 20, 2017•7 min
Nir’s Note: This guest post is written and illustrated by Lakshmi Mani , a product designer working in San Francisco. Have you ever had a mounting pile of work you know you need to do but for some reason didn’t? There’s an important deadline looming, your boss is breathing down your neck, the pressure is on — all signs are pointing to you getting it done. Yet you put it off, turn on Netflix, and fantasize about how you’re going to crush it tomorrow. You can read the Nir and Far blog post on: Hyb...
Nov 13, 2017•6 min
Nir’s Note: This guest post is by Max Ogles, who writes at MaxOgles.com . On March 27, 1964, Kitty Genovese was brutally attacked and killed in the open streets of New York City. What makes Genovese’s story so tragic is that police later discovered numerous people were aware of Genovese’s distress but never came to her aid. Though the total number of witnesses is disputed, the story stands as an example of the bystander effect , the psychological phenomenon where people are less likely to assist...
Nov 06, 2017•9 min
In the new film Ex Machina , a reclusive billionaire invents a robotic artificial intelligence. To test whether his invention is indistinguishable from a human being, he helicopters-in a young engineer to see if he falls in love with the robot. Today, making machines and humans indistinguishable from each other is no longer science fiction, it’s good business. In fact, a wave of startups are part of a new trend that promises to radically simplify our lives by making it harder to determine whethe...
Oct 30, 2017•13 min
You walk into your first yoga class. You’re a little insecure about your weight and how your yoga clothes cling to your body revealing every flaw. You’re nervous about making a fool of yourself. Your eyes instantly zoom onto the fit model-esque people chatting in the corner. As you walk past them, your ears pick up the tinkle of laughter. My god, are they laughing at me? You pick a spot in the back of the classroom where no one can see you. The teacher asks everyone to get into crouching f...
Oct 23, 2017•8 min
Nir Eyal interviews author of Irresistible. Nir & Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/
Aug 21, 2017•30 min
To understand technology addiction (or any addiction for that matter) you need to understand the Q-tip. Perhaps you’ve never noticed there’s a scary warning on every box of cotton swabs that reads, “CAUTION: Do not enter ear canal…Entering the ear canal could cause injury.” How is it that the one thing most people do with Q-tips is the thing manufacturers explicitly warn them not to do? “A day doesn’t go by that I don’t see people come in with Q-tip-related injuries,” laments Jennifer ...
Aug 15, 2017•16 min
You can read the Nir and Far blog post on: Here's How Alexa Hooks You https://www.nirandfar.com/2017/06/how-amazons-alexa-hooks-you.html Nir & Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/...
Aug 07, 2017•11 min
Having a hard time focusing lately? You’re not alone. Research shows interruptions occur about every twelve minutes in the workplace , and every three minutes in university settings. In an age of constant digital interruptions, it is no wonder you’re having trouble ignoring distractions. In their new book, The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World , Dr. Adam Gazzaley, a neuroscientist, and Dr. Larry Rosen, a psychologist, explain how our ability to pay attention works and what we ...
Jul 31, 2017•10 min
Nir’s Note: This guest post is by Vanessa Van Edwards, lead investigator at the Science of People — a human behavior research lab. This exclusive book excerpt is from Vanessa’s new book, Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People , which was recently named as one of Apple’s Most Anticipated Books of 2017. We all want more conversions. More sign-ups, more sales, more clicks. And so we obsess over calls to action, user flow, and user-centric design. But there is one too...
Jul 24, 2017•13 min
Nir Eyal chats with author, Alexandra Watkins about her book, Hello, My Name is Awesome. Nir & Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/
Jul 17, 2017•13 min
Nir Eyal talks with Dan Olsen, author of The Lean Product Playbook. Nir & Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/
Jul 10, 2017•17 min
Monica is a Research Scientist at the Stanford University Center for Compassion and Altruism and a Faculty Affiliate at the University of Michigan’s Center for Positive Organizations. Their discussion touches on why empathetic teams make better business deals, details how more caring leaders can help prevent corporate scandals, and offers four steps for cultivating compassion. Nir & Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscrib...
Jul 03, 2017•16 min
Not so long ago, my after work routine looked like this: After a particularly grueling day, I’d sit on the couch and veg for hours, doing my solo version of “ Netflix and chill ,” which meant keeping company with a cold pint of ice cream. I knew the ice cream, and the sitting, were probably a bad idea, but I told myself this was my well-deserved “reward” for working so hard. Psychological researchers have a name for this phenomenon: it’s called “ego depletion.” The theory is that willpower is co...
Jun 26, 2017•13 min
Recently, I needed to book a lunch meeting. To help coordinate, I asked Amy to assist and cc’d her on the email. “Amy,” I wrote, “please help us find a time to meet. Let’s plan for sushi at Tokyo Express on Spear Street.” Amy looked at my calendar, found an open time suitable for everyone invited, and booked the meeting. Amy works just like a human assistant, except she’s not human. It’s an AI bot made by X.ai , a company specializing in scheduling assistants that respond to natural language. Am...
Jun 19, 2017•12 min
All products and services, everything we buy and use, have but one job—to modulate our mood. The fundamental reason we use technology of all sorts, from stone tools to the latest iPhone, is to make us feel better. To prove the point, consider how perception of relief is tantamount to actual relief. Consider the so-called placebo button. Take, for example, the lowly crosswalk button. When we find ourselves at an intersection, waiting for a light to change, we tap the button, sometimes more t...
Jun 12, 2017•7 min
Alison Levine, author of "On the Edge: Leadership Lessons from Mount Everest and Other Extreme Environments" talks with Nir Eyal Get Alison's book here: http://amzn.to/2hHe6o6 Subscribe to Nir's blog and receive a free workbook: http://nirandfar.com/subscribe ...
Jun 05, 2017•21 min
Around the election, in a desperate search for answers about our nation’s future, I found myself scrolling, reading, and watching everything I could. I was trapped in an endless pull-to-refresh cycle of consuming more news, tweets, posts, and videos than was good for me. I told myself that I was staying informed, that this was part of my civic duty—and that not staying up-to-date 24-7 would leave me politically ignorant and impotent. I’ve since changed my mind. In fact, I’ve decided to give up c...
May 29, 2017•8 min
DJ Khaled, the one-man internet meme, is known for warning his tens of millions of social media followers about a group of villains he calls “they.” “ They don’t want you motivated. They don’t want you inspired,” he blares on camera. “ They don’t want you to win,” he warns . On Ellen DeGeneres’s talk show, Khaled urged the host , “Please, Ellen, stay away from them !” You can read the Nir and Far blog post on How to Achieve Your Goals By Creating an...
May 22, 2017•15 min
The subject line read: “did you see this?” The message was from my editor Jen. “Nir, I saw the headline on this story and thought it might be written by you—but no!” she wrote. “Very weird.” I instantly clicked on the link she’d sent. It was uncanny! An article written by Christopher Mele at the New York Times , freakishly similar to a post I’d written but hadn’t yet published . You can read the Nir and Far blog post on: What Do You Do When Someone “Steals” Your Amazing Idea? https://www.nirandf...
May 15, 2017•7 min
If you’ve started a tech company to make a lot of money, chances are you’re bad at math—or simply delusional. Statistically speaking, your odds of a big-time payday are somewhere between zero and almost zero. Ninety-two percent of startups fail within three years . Only one percent of apps in the Apple App Store are financially successful. And even for the fortunate few companies that raise venture funding, seventy-five percent will fail to generate a return on investors’ capital. Yo...
May 08, 2017•10 min
There’s a saying that you should never trust a skinny chef. By that logic, you should never trust an out of shape behavioral designer . Over the past four years, I’ve discovered many incredible ways to hack my habits and improve my life. I have taught myself to love running, dramatically improved my diet and found the focus to write a bestselling book . Understanding how the mind works and using it to affect my daily behaviors has yielded tremendous dividends. Nir & Far, a podcas...
Apr 25, 2017•8 min
Larry Page, CEO of Alphabet (the company formerly known as Google), has a quirky way of deciding which companies he likes. It’s called “The Toothbrush Test.” According to the New York Times , when Page looks at a potential company to acquire, he wants to know if the product is, like a toothbrush, “something you will use once or twice a day.” Page clearly understands habits. As I wrote in my book, “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products ,” frequently used products form sticky customer habits...
Apr 17, 2017•13 min
My taxi pulled up to the hotel. I got out my credit card and prepared to pay for the ride. The journey was pleasant enough but little did I know I was about to encounter a bit of psychological trickery designed to get me to pay more for the lift. Chances are you’re paying more, too. Digital payment systems use subtle tactics to increase tips, and while it’s certainly good for hard-working service workers, it may not be so good for your How Technology Tricks You Into Tipping More https...
Apr 11, 2017•8 min
