5 Lessons Learned from Hooked by Nir Eyal

Hello and welcome to episode number 6 of the brand new video series 5 Lessons Learned brought to you by BookThinkers, where each and every week the team and I will bring to you the top 5 lessons learned from a book that we've read and loved. This week we're going to talk about Hooked by Nir Eyal. This book is all about how to build habit-forming products and drive excellent customer engagement. So without further ado, let's jump into lesson number 1. Lesson number one would be to understand that your technology-related habits are actually engineered by somebody else. A habit can be defined as a behavior that requires little to no conscious thought, such as waking up in the morning and checking your phone notifications. Now, interestingly enough, 79% of smartphone owners check their device within the first 15 minutes of waking up. That means 4 out of 5 of us, our first action every single day has been engineered by somebody else. Whether you're checking email or Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, text messages, those applications have literally been engineered so that you would form a habit around using it, and it's pretty crazy to think that up to 50% of our daily actions habits. They require little to no conscious thought, and whenever it involves technology such as picking up your phone, that action has actually been engineered by somebody else. So that's lesson number 1. A few of the remaining lessons that we're actually going to cover in this video will help you to understand how your habits are being engineered by other people. So lesson number 2 is the importance of investment. Investment implies an action that improves the service for your next go-round. So let's take Facebook for example. When you state preferences and build up a profile, when you build virtual assets such as inviting friends and posting pictures and interacting with people, you're actually forming an attachment to that platform that then is harder to retract from. Once you understand how to use the layout and you've put time and effort into building up this virtual profile, it becomes harder and harder and harder for you to spend less and less time on that platform. The more you invest, the more often and more frequent you're going to end up using that platform. So just understand that each and every time you download an application and you invest your time into building up that application's relevance in your life, Subconsciously, it's going to be more difficult to pry yourself away from using that application in the future. So that's lesson number 2, understanding the importance of investment. Lesson number 3 is understanding the importance of variable reward in the formation and creation of habits. Variable reward means that each and every single time you use an application or a piece of technology and you receive a reward from it, that means you feel good psychologically. When it's changing each and every time, you basically have infinite opportunities to receive dopamine. But variability also multiplies dopamine release. So when you log into Facebook, you understand how the content is structured, but each and every time the content is different. That means when you're hit with that piece of content, you're receiving more dopamine than if you had known what's going to be there. Makes sense, obvious, right? But so many people are taking advantage of this. Now the crazy thing is that user-generated content, meaning an application like Facebook where Facebook's not creating the content but your friends are, that leads to infinite variability. That means that for as long as you have a Facebook, the content's going to be different each and every time you sign on, which means each and every time you're going to receive a multiplied dopamine hit. You're always going to find enjoyment. That's how habits are formed. So that's lesson number 3, understanding the importance of variable reward. Lesson number 4 is that frequent usage drives viral growth. Now what do we mean by that? Frequency can be defined as how often you use a platform, and viral growth can be defined as How long does it take for a new user to invite at least one friend to join the platform? And then how long does it take that new friend who joined the platform to invite one of their friends? That is called a viral cycle time. So more frequent usage drives more viral growth. When you're using Facebook and you invite more friends, that's an investment, right? And when you receive variable reward from more content, that's a dopamine hit. When you're investing and receiving dopamine, you're going to use the platform more often. And when you use the platform more often, that's more opportunities to tell your friends about the site. When you're telling your friends about the site and they join up, and then they tell their friends about the site and they join up, and that cycle continues, that platform is going to become infinitely more and more powerful, and that habit is going to be strengthened to the point that you will want to continue using it. Day after day after day after day, which is going to dive right into lesson number 5. Lesson number 5 is understanding the difference between vitamins and painkillers. Vitamins can be defined as products or services that provide you an incremental improvement or benefit to your overall life, but they're not quantifiable. When you take vitamins in the morning, legitimate vitamins, you don't get to walk around saying, hey, I'm 22.5% healthier than I was 6 months ago when I wasn't taking vitamins. It doesn't work like that. Painkillers, on the other hand, alleviate an immediate problem or need that you have in your life, and typically they are quantifiable. Let's say that as a business owner, I'm flushed with email and I receive hundreds of emails every day. It takes me about 4 hours to sift through everything. Now, I've identified a legitimate problem in my life that's inefficient. So if I hire a virtual assistant overseas and that virtual assistant comes into my mailbox every day and they delete unwanted emails, they catch categorize things that need my follow-up, and maybe they even answer redundant emails. That has alleviated a pain. I now know that instead of 4 hours, I'm only working 1 hour a day on email. It's quantifiable and it solves a legitimate problem. Social platforms, what most of us are addicted to, follow this same pattern. They actually start as vitamins, things that provide incremental improvements to your life, such as, hey, Facebook is awesome, but I can't necessarily say I'm 25% more social than I was 2 months ago when I didn't have Facebook. But they turn into painkillers. The more you invest, the more you're rewarded from using them, and the more frequent you go through that cycle, you actually develop a need to be on that platform. You develop a fear of missing out. If you don't have your Facebook application, you have a legitimate anxiety or need to go onto that application. It solves a problem in your life, and that's so scary. So understand the difference between vitamins And painkillers. And when you form a habit that becomes a painkiller, you need to understand that. So if you want to make the conscious decision to jump out before it's too late, you have the tools available to you in order to do so. Lesson number 5 is understanding the difference between the two, and we hope you've enjoyed our video today. If you've made it this far, thank you so much, and we hope you've enjoyed the top 5 lessons from Hooked by Nir Eyal. There's a lot of additional content. If you just do a quick Google search on Nir, he's a fascinating human being and we highly recommend his additional work. If you'd like to pick up a copy of this book, we have dropped a link in the comment section below. Number 2, if there's a book that you'd like us to read or a potential video that you'd like us to create, also just drop a comment. We'd be happy to read any book recommendation that you make, whether it's an unknown author that we've never heard of or an absolute classic. Nothing will go unread, and if we love what we read, we will create a 5 Lessons Learned video about that exact book. And then last but not least, if you'd like to connect with us even further, check out bookthinkers.com. It's currently a web-based application that allows readers to connect, set goals, develop a personal library, etc., etc. There's a lot of cool stuff going on, and we also have a mobile application coming out early next year. With that, go out there, read, retain, share, grow, and we hope to see you next time. Thank you.