Human Behaviour

<p>Here in India, we citizens as consumers don&#8217;t quite take customer feedback as seriously yet, as they do in some other countries. In my first job for a short stint at a BPO in Bangalore, I was puzzled to find out that random surveys went out to retail customers of our Hewlett Packard products in&#8230;</p>

<p>Over the years, I have asked quite a few people who have gotten used to e-readers (as opposed to loyalists who stick to physical books), if they prefer horizontally swiping to turn pages, or vertically scrolling to. The way I see e-readers or reader apps, there are 3 action choices: Horizontal or vertical scroll Firstly,&#8230;</p>

<p>What&#8217;s the similarity between trial biking and the one-inch punch? Is there any similarity? I believe so. I have always enjoyed watching trial bike events on TV (check the clip, not to be mistaken with trail biking). It is fascinating to watch riders mix slow and fast on their motorcycles with exceptional balance and control,&#8230;</p>

<p>Fictional and real-life legends seem to have a more straightforward approach to dealing with complex-seeming challenges and to getting better at something. They simply make it an optimization challenge. Clip: David G Morgan</p>

<p>As the late American inventor and engineer, Charles Kettering very wisely said, &#8220;A problem well-stated is half-solved.&#8221; The need is to re-frame every problem into a challenge. To get better ideas, to be able to solve it faster, and in a better way.</p>

<p>Another one on productivity. A lot of us have made lists and planned things out thing, be it an event, a shopping list, or life goals. However, here&#8217;s something I have faced whenever listing some work goals and breaking them down into tasks. There&#8217;s a tendency to list some big goals, and of course, you&#8230;</p>

<p>There is a beauty to how some products (and software) are designed. Think scissors. If we want to cut something fast, we use the forward section of the blades (speed multiplier). Want to cut something fatter or tougher, use the rear end of the blades (effort multiplier); and cut slower, or risk breaking the scissors&#8230;.</p>

<p>Sometime before lockdown, I was in another city, attending a wedding. The reception was in this beautiful open ground. I&#8217;m no fan of wedding ceremonies, so once I was done admiring the place, I was a little bored. After some time at the bar, I caught up with a few people, and was back to&#8230;</p>

<p>Image: source In the past few months, I happened to come across some books and a lot of articles around habits. What at least some of us who struggle to build a good habit (or get rid of a bad one) assume, is that habits are like finding a nice, quiet spot somewhere (at a&#8230;</p>

<p>Given my growing interest in behavioural science and behavioural economics, when there was quite some news about the replication crisis in the field, it got me wondering if there might be a better way to undertake studies so that they remain relevant, if not replicable. The thought was triggered by a random interaction in the&#8230;</p>

<p>Pic: source It took a nice bleeding cut, thanks to a tough staple pin that held some car mats together, for me to realize how hostile the world was for animals. Staple-less staplers exist, but are far from commonplace. Got to wonder why they are so expensive. A cursory look on Amazon showed the cheapest&#8230;</p>

<p>image: source Counterintuitiveness – Unhurried conversations Counterintuitiveness makes life more interesting. It also briefly reveals gaps or lags in our understanding or mindsets. Some weeks ago, I chanced upon a virtual session titled &#8220;Unhurried Conversations about Rule-breaking&#8221;, hosted by Johnnie Moore and Tim Pilbrow. Often, virtual sessions are mostly unidirectional. And interactions either lack many&#8230;</p>

<p>Counterintuitiveness makes life more interesting. It also briefly reveals gaps or lags in our understanding or mindsets. A recent article, and probably many before that, states how pre-rinsing dishes before putting them in the dishwasher actually reduces the cleansing quality. How? Modern dishwashers have sensors that gauge the degree of dirt and adjust the amount&#8230;</p>

<p>The gap between good intentions and impact of the resulting action (or choice) has been an area of interest to me. A decade ago, a Brad Pitt linked non-profit messed up an affordable homes project [2008-2015] in New Orleans. Meant to be green and sustainable, the homes had severe structural and mold problems. 6 of&#8230;</p>

<p>In my last post, I recommended reading the book, To-do List Formula. I also shared my own key takeaways from the book. The book highly recommended the Todoist app to create and track tasks. I started using it ever since, and compared to all the apps I have used so far, I have found it&#8230;</p>

<p>A lot of us struggle with staying productive. Especially so in these times of lockdown and uncertainties. And also when you are focusing on larger goals that don&#8217;t really offer much daily satisfaction of accomplishment. I have heard of some really brilliant people, especially from the behavioural science and behavioural economics communities, struggle with staying&#8230;</p>

<p>Do you feel the need for a more effective comments section on social media? What if the comments section had a Search feature? Making it easier to search for comments, and to continue conversations in sub-threads.</p>

<p>While looking up an old blogging account of mine, I stumbled upon a RattL &#8217;em idea from many years ago. I had made a suggestion to Google, sometime in Feb., 2013 regarding composing of emails. People sometimes want to, or even unintentionally tend to write lengthy mails. And people’s attention spans have become shorter [or&#8230;</p>

<p>This post explores an alternative to fix the replication crisis (particularly in the behavioural science and economics fields, and if relevant, in other fields too). This post is in continuation to an earlier post titled Sample Size of One: The Rose Negotiations. It would help to read that one first before coming to this one&#8230;.</p>

<p>A humorous take on the paradox that exists between the views of us common humans, versus that of psychologists, who take a slightly more empathetic view, and those behavioural science practitioners who try to leverage knowledge of human biases and drivers to grow business without it always being beneficial to customers themselves.</p>