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Search Results for: friction

How to Run Your Brain

April 24, 2023February 1, 2023 MIKELeave a comment

Sports psychologist Josephine Perry was on the Bad Boys of Running podcast to talk about the mental aspects of the sport and how to design your life to work with your brain. Want to use your phone less?, asked Atomic Habits author James Clear, put it out of reach. The need to “check things” is… Continue reading How to Run Your Brain →

2022 Books

December 26, 2022December 14, 2022 MIKE2 Comments

These are the books I finished. Each is an Amazon Affiliate link. Reading is slightly underrated. Get the most out of reading by starting more books, quitting more books, and diving into themes. Personal maintenance. Familiar subjects and books to “remind me”. Atomic Habits I was late to this because it’s not too new. The… Continue reading 2022 Books →

Hello Fresh Copy

October 17, 2022October 17, 2022 MIKELeave a comment

We were HelloFresh customers. The food is good enough. The recipes are simple enough. The logistics are easy enough. Is the copywriting convincing enough? (Received August, 2022) The good. This card has two goals: get our attention and convey ease. The ‘$155 OFF’ attracts attention and interest. The ‘3 surprise gifts’ is good too. Gifts… Continue reading Hello Fresh Copy →

Designer grocers

July 6, 2022March 24, 2022 MIKELeave a comment

Like what is this place optimized for, places are designed to increase or reduce action frictions. Grocery stores for the end consumer are designed for comfort – stores for middlemen are designed for speed. The end consumer grocery store has wide aisle to avoid the butt brush effect, produce in the front (colors have a… Continue reading Designer grocers →

Energy for change

February 18, 2022February 15, 2022 MIKELeave a comment

This post is part of our thinking about ease and its counterpart design. John List begins his book, The Voltage Effect, with the example of Nancy Reagan’s D.A.R.E. program. That program, failed, List notes because it was based on a false positive. “It was a pretty large scale study in Honolulu,” List said, “the problem… Continue reading Energy for change →

Going bananas for WW

January 24, 2022January 28, 2022 MIKE6 Comments

If this blog has a core, at the moment, it’s about decision making. One way to change decision making is to change the initial conditions. One way to do that is to dial ease up or down. Losing weight is about introducing new habits and breaking old habits. WW, formerly Weight Watchers, uses ease a… Continue reading Going bananas for WW →

Where are the notifications?

December 9, 2021October 26, 2021 MIKELeave a comment

One difference between the human brain and the laptop computer is that location matters. A human thinks differently, a computer compiles the same. This makes alchemy possible. This also makes academia tough. In behavioral science information presentation is everything. Order your tickets in the next 14:59. Put another way, what we see is all there… Continue reading Where are the notifications? →

Vegetarian Update 1

July 12, 2021March 27, 2021 MIKE5 Comments

Recapping, it seemed like there was potential that a vegetarian diet was healthy.  Without knowing where to start, my plan was to keep it simple, stupid.  Simple substitutes work really well because we like easy decisions. If a dish called for rice, I used cauliflower. Spaghetti squash (roasted) became a friend. We also made a  big… Continue reading Vegetarian Update 1 →

Summer 2020 definitions

June 19, 2021June 15, 2021 MIKE7 Comments

These are the additions to the full list below. Advice (verb). A suggestion based on unstated conditionals. Breath mint (noun). Candy with branding. See also: muffin/cupcake and flower/weed. Groupthink (verb). Interpersonal incentives plus culture. Reality index (noun). Via Dana Gioia. About his best teachers Gioia said, “They were older men who had served in the… Continue reading Summer 2020 definitions →

Spring 2020 definitions

April 26, 2021April 26, 2021 MIKELeave a comment

These definitions are a series. “If you really study it”. (expression) a signal someone hasn’t changed their mind but is willing to capitalize on the current trend. Assumption (noun): To make a theory into a law. This is not an issue because of Moore’s Law. Middleman (noun). (1) the person who facilitates a transaction (2)… Continue reading Spring 2020 definitions →

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