Real Life SuperpowersNir Eyal: "If you don't master your internal triggers, they will master you."
Real Life Superpowers
Nir Eyal: "If you don't master your internal triggers, they will master you."
In a conversation with Noa Eshed and Ronen Menipaz on the podcast Real Life Superpowers, American-Israeli author Nir Eyal discusses behavioral design and his best-selling books.
"If you sit down with your family, and I saw this in Israel, it was crazy - every table, there was a family, and everybody at the table was on their stupid phones while sitting at the table and have dinner, it drives me crazy," said Nir Eyal on the Real Life Superpowers podcast. "If you sit down to the table, and you can't have a conversation with your family. I would love to tell you, it's the phone…it's not the phone."
He continued: "It’s that you can't handle that discomfort of being bored for five minutes. That's the problem. And if you don't learn how to deal with that discomfort, it's going to be something else, it's going to be the TV, it's going to be the radio, it's going to be something unless you learn to live with that discomfort and know what to do with it."
In this episode Ronen and Noa speak with Nir Eyal, an expert in behavioral design and author of the bestselling books: “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products" and "Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life".
He’s known as the habits guy, the one who can help understand how to get app users to come back again and again.
Bloomberg business week named him “The Prophet of Habit-Forming Technology”
He’s a former lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
He’s also founded and sold two tech companies, and he actively invests in habit-forming products such as Eventbrite, Kahoot, Canva, Product Hunt, and more.
In this interview, we explore Nir's insights on how to design products that create user habits, the ethical considerations of persuasive design, and his strategies for overcoming distraction and staying focused in today's always-connected world.
Topics discussed:
- The difference between persuasive technology and cohesive technology
- The hypocrisy of the media
- The abuse of the concept of addiction, as an excuse to not take control of one's life
- How to take control of our attention
- Phubbing (phone snubbing)
- Where pain plays in
- The power of planning your day
- Reactive work vs reflective work
- How labeling feelings helps
And much more!
Enjoy this deep dive into Nir’s mind and expertise!
Noa Eshed: recognized as a thought leader by the Daily Telegraph. Her book "The Smart Marketer's Guide to Google Adwords” was an Amazon no.1 bestseller. Her digital marketing agency Bold Digital Architects has acclaimed several industry awards. She previously co-founded and distributed Israel’s only national magazine for students, and is a certified lawyer (Hebrew U grad) and journalist.
Ronen Menipaz: an Israeli investor, entrepreneur, tech advisor, and founder of numerous business ventures in the entertainment, adtech, and fintech space. During his 25 years of entrepreneurial experience, Ronen has been involved with over 100 startups in Israel, 30 of which he founded or co-founded. Two of those startups went public, while five were sold and four more are currently privately profitable companies.
