The Billion Dollar Mind Trick: An Intro To Triggers

This article skims the surface of habit formation. For a great read on the topic, checkout the current bestseller: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Habit-What-Business/dp/1400069289" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Habit-What-Business/dp/14000...</a><p>The jist of it is that we all have habit loops that we respond to without realizing it. They flow through the cycle of CUE-&#62;ROUTINE-&#62;REWARD-&#62;CRAVE. Everything starts with a CUE, which triggers the habit. It could be something as simple as the little red indicator on your iphone app. This is followed by ROUTINE - or the series of actions that we normally think of as a habit. Next is the REWARD which can be surprising at times - you might think you get that cookie after lunch to enjoy the sugar rush, but in reality you might just enjoy talking to coworkers in the cafeteria. Lastly, for any habit to stick, you must CRAVE the reward at the end.<p>The book goes in more depth about how to use this cycle to structure habits in your own life (I have FINALLY started to workout and wake up early since reading the book). It also has great case studies about how advertisers, product managers, people managers, and more are structure these habits to influence consumers, employees, etc

I still remember learning about this at Doublerecall HQ in Palo Alto. It was an interesting evening of random charts on a drawing board. The idea was so profounding everyone had to know, immediately. If I remember correctly Nir and one of the founders were at a seminar together where the power of triggers was explained.<p>That evening I looked at the two websites who have become my daily destinations almost instantly: Buffer and 750words.<p>Both send you an email every day. It's not spam. It's a useful and interesting email. Something you do want to receive.<p>It changed the way I think of new project ideas forever.

Meh. In this sense one could become "addicted" to writing in a journal. "Addict" is quite the pejorative term to use for someone who likes taking and posting pictures of things.<p>That said, triggering is a fascinating phenomenon and can be used consciously on yourself for fun or profit.

I think these triggers are an important insight into human behavior, not just because of the profit that can be had by activating them, but because of the great potential for abuse/utility. On one hand, we see potentially dangerous abuse of these triggers, such setting people up to waste time on Farmville style apps or making repetitive comments on Facebook. On the other hand, there is a potential to train ourselves so that our triggers lead us to more productive situations. Instead of reading a newsfeed generated by people we could ultimately care less about, what if our go-to for boredom is performing some 30 second crowd-sourced task? Or maybe we look at something relevantly educational, like an elegant programming trick of the day.<p>For the most part, when I get an internal trigger like boredom or anxiety or exhaustion, I go to something non-productive, like /r/wtf. But recently I've been replacing /r/wtf with HN, and while most of the browsing is still mindless, it's a lot more relevant to my career path and often leads me to other useful things like 750words.com<p>Right now, the most successful companies that make use of triggers are mostly parasitic to our everyday lives, but I'm wondering if that can't change to become something that we benefit from.

Does anyone have good information on "beating" these triggers? Knowing they exist is a good start, but I'd love to be able to stop checking FB / Twitter / HN (gasp) when I'm feeling bored.

Part 2:<p>The Multi Billion Dollar Mind Trick: Manipulate People by Simulating Success<p>Computer games are based on psychology, they try to make people think they accomplished something with as little effort as possible. Millions of people are addicted to it.

The article isn't half-bad, but must we always refer to things based on "Billion Dollar" money-centric thinking. What happening to "world changing", "breakthrough", etc. hyperbole?<p>Maybe it's less measurable, but it'd be nice for us to at least frame what we do as trying to accomplish more than deal digital heroin to make GigaBucks.

"The minimalist interface all but removes the need to think. With a click, a photo is taken and all kinds of sensory and social rewards ensue."<p>This is drivel. Half of the content is even linkbaited away.

This feels nauseating, considering:<p>- <a href="http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2011/01/06/the-gollum-effect/" rel="nofollow">http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2011/01/06/the-gollum-effect/</a><p>- <a href="http://dopamineproject.org/2011/12/the-dopamine-matrix-where-truth-is-stranger-than-fiction/" rel="nofollow">http://dopamineproject.org/2011/12/the-dopamine-matrix-where...</a><p>No wonder we have a recent resurgence in Zombie Apocalypse myths in pop culture.<p>I suppose, this too shall pass.

These desire engine articles make me wonder if similar ideas were circulating around the tobacco industry in the 60's.

Makes me think of "there are no atheists in foxholes". Does religion have a trigger on despair?

I thought this was going to be about database triggers. =\