Average Is Over: Why The Skills Required For Great Jobs Are Changing
[quote]”Knowing one’s limits is more important than it used to be.”[/quote] “Welcome to the Hyper-Meritocracy,” Cowen writes in his latest book Average Is Over. This is an …
Scarcity
Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much
“The biggest mistake we make about scarcity is we view it as a physical phenomenon. It’s not.” We’re busier than ever. The typical inbox is perpetually swelling with messages awaiting attention. …
Secrets from the Science of Persuasion
A great animation describing the fundamental principles of persuasion based on the research of Dr. Robert Cialdini, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University. Dr. …
Why We Overpay at Auctions
Tom Stafford discusses a lot of the psychological principles that make rational bidding hard. Auctions also hit on many psychological persuasion techniques: First, auctions use the principle of …
How Infomercials Persuade
In response to But Wait … There’s More, a kind reader passed along a link to a wonderful interview between Andrew Warner and Tim Hawthorne (a producer of infomercials). On how to …
An Incredible Offer — But Wait…There’s More
You’ll never look at infomercials the same after reading this post. Robert Cialdini calls But Wait…There’s More “A wholly fascinating account of a wholly fascinating …
We’re in the (bad) Habit of Associating Value with Scarcity
James Gleick, author of The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood, says: We’re in the habit of associating value with scarcity, but the digital world unlinks them. You can be the sole owner of a …
Just for you: How Scarcity Factors Into Decisions
Rather than invest the time and effort necessary to ponder the pluses and minuses of most decisions, we tend to rely on quick heuristics to make most decisions. These rules of thumb help us save …
Evidence-based tips for Valentine’s
Need to woo a partner in time for Valentine’s? Follow these simple, evidence-based instructions for boosting your irresistibility. When asking a lady for a dance or for her number, your chances …