Literary Insights

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Here is a summary of the key ideas in Evolutionary Ideas:

The book argues for an “evolutionary” approach to innovation and problem-solving, rather than seeking revolutionary or completely new solutions. It advocates looking at what already exists both in nature and society, and evolving/improving upon existing solutions rather than inventing entirely new ones from scratch.
It uses examples from biology and evolution to illustrate how incremental, iterative improvements through natural selection can achieve major changes and adaptations over time. This is presented as a model for innovation.
Psychological and behavioral science concepts are introduced to provide tools for analyzing problems and designing evolutionary solutions. This includes ideas like psychological contradictions, evolutionary problem-solving techniques (TRIZ), and nudging/choice architecture.
The book then works through several specific “contradictions” - problems that involve two conflicting goals or trade-offs - and provides case studies and examples of evolutionary innovations that have resolved each contradiction.
Overall it promotes an approach of building on what already exists, incremental improvements, learning from failures, and gaining new perspectives, rather than assuming revolutionary inventions are needed or that the best solutions will be obvious from the start. The goal is to apply evolutionary/adaptation thinking to generate innovative solutions.
The passage discusses how narratives around human progress often emphasize deliberate intention and planning, but in reality progress involves much more experimentation and failure than is acknowledged retrospectively.
There is a tendency to see past pathways to success as obvious in hindsight, forgetting about alternative routes that were tried but failed. The people who took failed routes are often lost to history.
Successes may arise from random processes like variation and selection rather than deliberate intention. The outcome of progress could have been different due to small quirks or chance events.
Understanding that progress involves unpredictable elements and failure is important so we do not misdirect our efforts trying to deliberately create more progress through planning alone.
Evolutionary processes like variation and selection play a greater role in innovation than is recognized. These stochastic processes can produce outcomes that planning could not.
There is also a tendency to underestimate the role of marketing, persuasion and sales in encouraging adoption of new technologies. These psychological aspects are as important as the technological aspects but their influence is forgotten retrospectively.
Taking an evolutionary approach to experimenting with psychological and behavioral factors, as the book advocates, may prove as important to human progress as technology is today. This provides a framework for more efficient experimentation and a “faster, more human kind of progress.”
In the second half of the book, the author will explore how psychological solutions from evolutionary science can be applied to solve five fundamental business and innovation challenges: reinforcing trust, aiding decision-making, triggering action, boosting loyalty, and improving experiences.
The focus will be on the general process and “raw ingredients” of innovation that can be adapted elsewhere, rather than specific executions or outcomes.
While much has been written on behavioral science, this book aims to provide new ways of thinking about applying it systematically to solve old and new problems in innovative ways.
The book shares the foundations of a model for “psychological innovation” but is more of a philosophy than a rulebook, intended to spark creative solutions.
The introduction uses the example of Google Glass to illustrate how even major companies can fail to address fundamental human challenges when pursuing revolutionary innovations.
While revolutionary ideas attract excitement, the high failure rate of new products, startups, and organizational transformations suggests businesses may actually be taking too many risks in pursuing radical innovations rather than more incremental improvements.
Culturally, there is a bias toward celebrating lone geniuses and revolutionary breakthroughs over more gradual, collective processes of adaptation and innovation. The book will propose an alternative approach.

The passage suggests that y outcomes, or results, that are unlocked through individual mastery and intention are then expected of organizational leadership. However, the passage argues that leadership focusing only on big, bold moves may miss opportunities to improve the organization through more incremental changes. True innovations are actually quite rare, and many solutions evolve by adapting and combining existing ideas, not via radical new “eureka” moments. Leaders should not underestimate the potential impact of small changes or adaptations to problems. Focusing too much on seeking wholly unprecedented solutions risks missing solutions that have already evolved. Evolutionary processes shape not just biology but also cultural and technological progress, though this role of evolution is often underappreciated.

Innovation and ideas have evolved over time through a process similar to biological evolution. Bad ideas fail and good ideas that increase chances of survival are passed on.
Revolutionary “big problem, big solution” thinking is risky and expensive. Most new products/ideas fail.
Small, incremental changes can have significant impacts, especially related to behavioral/psychological solutions.
Many of our most effective solutions already exist - behaviors have remained stable. With advances in neuroscience/behavioral science, we can classify and apply existing psychological solutions.
Problems tend to be seen as unique but they share underlying psychological challenges. Solutions often appear similar across domains if viewed systematically.
An evolutionary/adaptive approach concentrates on creatively adapting existing solutions rather than starting from scratch. It is more efficient, systematic and human-centric.
Creativity comes from bringing together ideas that would otherwise never meet by identifying patterns across disparate areas. Existing classifications provide the connective tissue.
The goal is finding the right things to change differently, rather than always trying to solve problems in entirely new ways. Leverage what’s worked before.
The passage discusses how biological solutions in nature can provide insights to solve human problems. It uses examples from evolution to show how organisms adapt to environmental constraints.
It explains concepts like microevolution, macroevolution, adaptive radiation, and convergent evolution. Adaptive radiation shows how different species in the same ancestral line evolve for different ecological niches. Convergent evolution is when different species independently evolve similar traits to deal with the same environmental pressures.
The example is given of the evolutionary biologist Eiji Nakatsu facing the challenge of reducing noise on Japan’s Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train. Analyzing birds helped provide solutions - the owl’s feather serrations reduced turbulence noise, the penguin’s V-shaped wing minimized shockwaves, and the kingfisher’s beak shape controlled airflow.
By studying biological adaptations to constraints like flight, swimming or tunnel travel, engineers were able to “convergently evolve” train designs and solve the noise problems, allowing the bullet train to increase speed while meeting noise regulations.
The passage argues that understanding evolutionary patterns in nature can provide solutions that humans can adapt when facing similar constraints in engineering or other domains.
Engineers from a local zoo in Japan studied how owl adaptations could help reduce noise and turbulence on the Shinkansen 500-Series bullet train. Based on their findings, they made changes to the train’s pantograph (structure that collects electricity from overhead wires). Micro-serrations on the pantograph broke up big vortexes of air into smaller ones, reducing turbulence and noise.
They then studied the spindle-shaped body of the Adélie penguin and how it moves efficiently through water. Applying this to the pantograph’s shape yielded a rounded “spindle” design that further cut wind resistance and noise.
Finally, they looked at the kingfisher bird’s pointed beak and how it dives into water with minimal splash. Experiments showed shaping the bullet train like the kingfisher’s beak almost eliminated the loud “boom” noise in tunnels.
These biomimicry insights directly inspired by nature led to the 500-Series train having record speeds of 300kph while being quieter and using 15% less electricity. The local zoo team’s cross-disciplinary approach, taking cues from biology to solve an engineering problem, was deemed successful.

Here is a summary of the key points about Genrich Altshuller and TRIZ:

Genrich Altshuller was a Soviet engineer and inventor who developed the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ).
He was imprisoned in the Soviet gulag system in the 1940s and faced constant interrogation. During this time, he developed techniques to sleep while appearing awake.
Through studying thousands of patents, he discovered that problems were often solved repeatedly across different fields using the same fundamental solutions.
TRIZ formalized this insight by identifying 40 “inventive principles” - common patterns of innovative solutions that have been applied repeatedly in different contexts.
TRIZ also analyzes common “technical contradictions” - such as strength vs. weight. Solving these contradictions through the inventive principles often leads to breakthrough innovations.
TRIZ provides a systematic framework for problem solving based on analyzing what solutions have worked before and targeting contradictions. This helps overcome fixations and accelerate innovation.
Altshuller’s methodology challenged the idea that invention is random, demonstrating there is a “science of creativity.” TRIZ has since been widely applied for innovation.
TRIZ is a methodology for solving engineering problems and developing innovative solutions through the identification and resolution of contradictions. It involves mapping problems to a matrix of inventor principles.
Inventive principle #27 is “cheap, short-living objects.” This principle led to the development of bioresorbable stents, which dissolve in the body over time instead of remaining permanently. This improves arterial recovery while reducing clotting risks.
TRIZ helps shortcut costly reinvention processes by systematically applying inventor principles and borrowing from existing solutions. It has been used successfully by companies like Ford and Boeing to develop new technologies.
The human brain takes shortcuts like biases and heuristics to make quick judgments that helped ensure survival, even if not perfectly rational. Perception is influenced by context through effects like simultaneous contrast and lightness constancy.
The brain can process millions of bits of information but only consciously a few dozen. It works through two systems - fast, intuitive System 1 and slower, deliberate System 2 reasoning. Understanding these psychological processes can provide insights for innovation.
Behavioral science has identified and classified consistent patterns in human decision-making and behavior that are products of evolutionary processes. This includes concepts like loss aversion, temporal discounting, and herd bias.
Classifying these behavioral concepts has helped develop a shared language to discuss patterns in human psychology. It has also helped organize our intuitive understanding of human behavior.
This classification is now allowing researchers to predict and address some of humanity’s most significant challenges by understanding how behavioral tendencies evolved and applying that knowledge. Areas like climate change, public health, and financial decision-making are being influenced by behavioral insights.
Many solutions identified by behavioral science were long known through religion, folklore and intuition. Science has systematized this knowledge, making the patterns more visible and usable. This organized understanding of human psychology is proving useful.
Language allows humans to efficiently transmit information, develop tools, shelter, and clothes to survive in different environments. It also allows sharing of ideas.
The words and classifications we use influence how we perceive and understand the world. For example, our enhanced understanding of psychology through language now allows connecting ideas we previously couldn’t.
Languages classify things like colors differently. Speakers of languages with more color distinctions perceive and identify shades of colors more accurately.
Similarly, how languages encode time impacts behaviors like financial planning and health habits.
Richer classifications through language open up new cognitive realms and opportunities for understanding and innovation. The language of behavior science has enriched our vocabulary and ability to solve problems.
Classifying psychological concepts through behavior science principles can help identify new solutions, just as concepts in other fields spur innovation. However, over-reliance on classifications risks oversimplifying human behavior. Context and individual differences are also important.
In summary, language informs our perceptions and potentially behaviors. A richer language through concepts like in behavior science can reveal new opportunities for understanding and innovation.

I do not have enough context to summarize information from the sources cited. The passage discusses using psychological principles and checklists to help generate creative ideas, but it does not provide a clear summary of any source material.

Powerful questions can generate more creative answers to challenges. We should look to ask better, more oblique questions that approach problems from new angles.
The story of Abraham Wald analyzing bullet hole patterns on returned planes during WWII illustrates how looking in unexpected places, like where bullets were not hitting, can reveal important insights. We need to look laterally and search for the “missing bullet holes”.
There are convergent psychological solutions that have evolved across species and domains through adaptation. Spotting these solutions in different contexts can provide inspiration for creative applications in other fields.
Examples like owl butterfly markings and eye spots painted on cattle illustrate common defense mechanisms that evolved independently but provide analogous functions.
Branding techniques like those used by Domino’s and BMW to build transparency can be analyzed for nuanced differences to generate innovative questions for other contexts.
Observing adapted uses of psychological principles “in the wild”, like the anchoring effect at Katz’s deli or social proof at a cafe loyalty wall, can spark more lateral checklist questions when converted to a more abstract level. This helps find less obvious but more creative solutions.
The goal is to develop powerful innovation checklists by identifying convergent psychological solutions across different domains and analyzing their nuanced adaptations, in order to ask better questions and solve challenges in new ways.
The passage discusses 5 common psychological contradictions that arise in business, innovation, and behavior change: reinforcing trust without altering the truth, aiding decisions without limiting choice, triggering action without forcing a response, boosting loyalty without increasing rewards, and improving experience without changing duration.
It proposes using principles of psychology and behavioral science to systematically resolve these contradictions by generating questions, translating existing solutions from other contexts, and breeding better ideas on purpose.
The rest of the book will explore each contradiction in more detail, interrogating underlying psychological factors and patterns of solutions that have evolved across industries to address these challenges.
The goal is to help readers solve problems by applying principles rather than starting from scratch, as the necessary solutions have likely evolved somewhere already. Understanding human psychology provides expanded opportunities for innovation compared to traditional economic or technical approaches.

So in summary, the passage introduces 5 common psychological contradictions as a framework for innovating through the lens of behavioral science and by applying existing evolutionary solutions rather than reinventing solutions. Upcoming chapters will analyze each contradiction in more depth.

Industries and society rely on trust to function properly. When trust is lost, it severely damages relationships and cooperation.
Many animal species exhibit reciprocal altruism and cooperation, indicating the importance of trust in the natural world. For example, vampire bats will regurgitate food for other bats that did not find a meal.
Trust signals have evolved both biologically and psychologically. Subtle cues like physical touch can unconsciously promote trust between people. Rhyme and prosodic qualities also influence how truthful messages seem.
In today’s information-rich world with untrustworthy sources spreading fast, understanding how to effectively signal honesty and reinforce trust is more important than ever.
Natural selection favors signals that honestly indicate unobservable traits because they are costly or risky to fake. Expensive displays like peacock tails or stotting springboks reliably signal fitness.
Knowing how evolved psychological and biological trust signals work allows engineering stronger signals of integrity without altering factual information. This helps promote truth and build trust in communication.
Brightly colored poison dart frogs signal their toxicity through their coloration, warning off predators. This is an honest signal of an innate characteristic.
Springbok stotting behavior signals they are young and fit, therefore not worth chasing. Again this signals an innate characteristic.
Peacock tails are an extravagant and resource-expensive trait that signals the male’s reproductive fitness and ability to secure resources.
The article discusses how costly signals can build trust by signaling unobservable quality or intentions. Small but meticulous details like horse testicle physics in Red Dead Redemption 2 signaled the game’s quality and attention to detail, building hype.
Sacrifices that help others at a cost to oneself, like an honest waiter advising against the expensive fish or an energy company telling customers not to switch, build trust by showing the interest is in more than just short-term gain.
Signals are discussed that helped provide safety cues to miners and concert bands - canaries detecting gas and Van Halen’s “no brown M&M’s” clause signaling whether production details were properly followed. Referee-signed boxing gloves also signaled hands were not illegally tampered with. In situations of uncertainty, such signals provided important information.

The passage discusses how signaling trustworthiness through transparency and operational visibility can help reinforce trust. It notes that while alternative signals have evolved across industries to convey otherwise unobservable information about trustworthiness, simply witnessing the work or processes involved can help validate claims and build confidence.

It introduces the concept of “labor illusion” - where the effort or work required to produce something impacts our perception of its value, even if the actual labor time was minimal. The anecdote about Picasso capturing this idea is mentioned, with Picasso replying that while the napkin sketch only took a minute, it was the result of 40 years of skill and experience.

The passage then outlines some principles and strategies for signaling transparency and building trust through operational visibility, such as showing details that would be hard to fake, focusing on specific observable features to boost confidence in the overall offering, and ensuring signals have broad viewership and reputational stakes to disincentivize dishonesty. Overall it discusses how allowing people to “see the work” can help affirm trustworthiness where assurances may otherwise be hard to validate.

This passage discusses the concept of operational transparency in social psychology and business. It argues that when customers cannot directly observe a company’s efforts and operations, their satisfaction, trust and willingness to pay can decrease.

Some key points:

Companies try to increase efficiencies by hiding their operations from customers, but this can backfire by limiting customers’ ability to see effort and quality.
Psychology research shows that making operations and effort more visible can increase perceived quality, expertise and trust. Principles like “observed effort” and the “labor illusion” are discussed.
Examples are given of companies that incorporate cues about their operations and production processes to boost transparency and trust. This includes Monteith’s cider putting twigs in bottles and Intermarche labeling orange juice with precise squeezing times.
Other businesses store raw ingredients near entrances or include farmer/cow names to showcase farm-to-table processes. This helps customers “see the work” and reinforces quality claims.
The concept of operational transparency is proposed as an evolved solution that companies have adopted across various industries and product categories.

The passage discusses how products and behaviors utilize social proof to reinforce trust. It gives examples of how the bright red colors of Finish dishwashing tablets and Anticol throat lozenges highlight the “active” ingredients at work. Striped toothpaste signals it performs multiple functions like strong teeth, fresh breath, and healthy gums. This formatting reinforces trust in product claims over just messaging alone.

It also touches on how humans seek safety in numbers and conform to social norms as an evolutionary survival tactic. Cues in the environment like busy restaurants signal food quality and demand. Indigenous Americans similarly used “marker trees” - oaks bent at odd angles - to signal safe routes, resources, and burial sites to travelers. Modern examples of social proof include cigarette piles showing where smoking is accepted and donation boxes influencing donation amounts based on prior contents. Digital platforms enormously scale social proof through likes, reviews, and ratings. Overall, unconsciously following social cues helps ensure behaviors are safe and trustworthy. Providing these cues shapes perceptions and decisions.

Social proof and signaling help reinforce trust without changing the underlying truth. They provide information about what others have done to guide our own perceptions and decisions.
Leaving things behind, like marker trees, star ratings, reviews, etc. shows others that a behavior is normal or safe. It illustrates that others have conducted that behavior before.
Taking things away can also be a powerful signal, like seeing only vegetarian pastries left in a display case. The absence of other options can reinforce the attractiveness and trustworthiness of what remains.
Limited quantities, scarcity cues like “sold out” tags, and empty shelves all tap into psychological responses like conformity and scarcity biases to further encourage trust and action. They make people think they need to act before missing out.
Subtle environmental cues can help engineer trust by providing windows into otherwise unobservable information about what others have done and the experiences they have had. This guides our own perceptions and decisions.
While having more choices is commonly believed to be better, research shows it can actually make people less satisfied with decisions and more likely to regret or defer choosing.
People are faced with thousands of decisions every day, so too many options can lead to decision fatigue. This influences both trivial and important life choices.
Counterintuitively, adding a third inferior option (a decoy) can help influence decisions by providing an additional frame of reference. This has been shown in studies with monkeys, birds, and product choices.
By recognizing psychological solutions that evolved to help simplify choice, like using decoys, architects can shape decisions without limiting options. This concept of “choice architecture” acknowledges subtle influences on how we make choices.
Applying solutions like decoys could help encourage things like retirement savings or health screening participation by making the decision easier without reducing choices. Evolved mechanisms for efficient decision making can now be used to benefit choice.
The human brain is uniquely large compared to other primates, but the reason for its rapid growth is still debated. Hypotheses include adapting to new environments, requiring more social cooperation/competition, and reproductive benefits of knowledge accumulation.
Our brains are highly energy-intensive organs, consuming 20% of our energy despite being only 2% of body weight. As a result, sections believed to have evolved more recently are inherently lazy and prefer low-effort decisions.
Defaults, or pre-selected options, are very effective at shaping decisions and behaviors because they encourage the status quo and avoid cognitive work. Studies show defaults significantly impact outcomes across many domains from organ donation to retirement savings.
Some ways defaults work include implicit endorsement, signaling expectations, and framing decisions in a way that assumes a desired action. Examples of defaulting beneficial behaviors are given, like making hand sanitation easier through design.
A campaign encouraged water conservation by defaulting the existing behavior of “peeing in the shower,” avoiding giving people extra work. Products like “Healthy Hands Chalk” made handwashing easier and more automatic for children in India.
The passage discusses how salient cues can guide decisions through directing attention. Things that are more noticeable, like larger text or high contrast colors, attract our eyes and minds.
It gives examples of how ballot design may influence voting. In 1938 Austria, the “Ja” or yes option for annexing Austria into Germany was about 3 times larger than the “Nein” option, likely swaying people towards that choice without forcing it.
In 2019 UK, some argued the Brexit Party logo, a right-pointing arrow, subliminally prompted voters to mark their ballot on the right side where that party was located, giving them an unfair advantage. Salient cues can subtly influence choices.
Features that stand out or pop are more likely to be noticed and followed through on. Guiding attention is an effective way to influence decision-making, whether intended or not. The passage suggests using color, contrast, size or other salient prompts to reinforce a desired outcome or choice.
Ravidat was exploring with some friends when his dog discovered a deep hole. A few days later, Ravidat returned with rope and lanterns to explore further.
Upon entering headfirst, Ravidat discovered ancient cave paintings on the walls. This was the discovery of the Lascaux Caves in France, dating back over 17,000 years.
The passage discusses how humans have an innate ability to process visual information quickly. Our ancestors drew pictures, not writings, and the visuals helped with communication and decision-making.
Other examples are given of how providing concrete visual aids can help decision-making for those unfamiliar with language or context, such as wax replicas used in Japanese restaurants or shaped recycling bins in airports.
The passage advocates considering how to present choices and information visually and concretely to make decision-making easier, especially in situations where language or context is limited like in airports or when grieving. Greeting card companies help by providing options for difficult situations.
The passage discusses how providing prompts and pre-filling information can help guide decisions and reduce cognitive load.
It gives examples like a florist website providing pre-written condolence messages to choose from, children’s puzzles having the image of the piece embossed on the board, and social platforms suggesting reply phrases.
Pre-filling tax forms, financial aid applications, and other complex procedures removes mental effort and makes the processes easier to complete.
Predictive technologies now pre-fill and suggest responses across many domains, from messaging to translations.
Chunking information like postal codes into meaningful groups makes them easier to remember compared to things like credit card pins or anniversaries.
The UK postal code system was designed with psychology in mind to help guidesorting and delivery while still being comprehensible to humans. Providing prompts and structure can effectively guide decisions and reduce cognitive load.
Alan Baddeley developed the concept of chunking information to aid short-term memory and easy recall. Research showed the capacity of short-term memory is 5-7 pieces of information.
They realized UK postcodes could combine letters and numbers into chunks separated by a space (e.g. NW6 6AG) to both aid memory and maximize possible combinations.
Digits were put in the middle for easier recall, with harder consonants at the ends. Alternating letters and digits, as Canada did, was found to be the worst solution.
Today, UK postcodes generally consist of 6-7 letters/numbers chunked with a space, making the postal system more intuitive.
Chunking involves grouping information into larger or smaller units to process it more easily. It’s commonly used across industries like menus and IKEA instructions to break down complex tasks.
Chunking can also add friction by reinforcing consideration of decisions that seem simple. Things like burden of proof charts divide legal judgments into careful stages.
In summary, chunking information adaptively aids both memory and decision making by making complex problems feel more manageable.

Here are the main points made in the chapter:

Many processes occur unconsciously beneath our conscious awareness. Unconscious processes like our visual system’s reaction to stimuli can surprise us because we tend to overestimate conscious thought.
Our conscious intentions are often misaligned with our actual actions, known as the “intention-action gap”. Even if we consciously care about something, we may not act on it.
Triggering action is important to realize investments and achieve impacts. Simply creating strategies or developing products is not enough if they are not adopted or used.
Understanding psychology can help trigger action without forcing responses. The chapter discusses examples of evolved, psychological solutions that can trigger action.
Small, individual actions can have large cumulative impacts if enough people participate. Triggering widespread, small actions is important for issues like reducing waste or fuel consumption.

In summary, the chapter emphasizes that consciously intending to act is not enough - we must find ways to actually trigger actions using principles of psychology, in order to drive real impacts and outcomes. Understanding human psychology is key to solving the “last mile” problem of adoption.

Here is a summary of the key points from the journal article “The onset and offset of motion signals outside the spatial focus of attention” published in Journal of Vision, 12(12), 10:

The study investigated how motion signals are processed outside the spatial region of focus of attention. Specifically, it looked at how quickly motion signals can be detected before and after they enter the focus of attention.
Participants performed a task where they had to detect direction of motion while maintaining fixation on a central point. Motion stimuli was presented in peripheral vision at varying distances from fixation point.
Results showed that motion signals could be detected around 100ms before they entered the focus of attention. Motion signals could also still be detected for around 100ms after they exited the focus of attention.
This indicates that pre-attentive motion processing occurs for about 100ms prior to and following the motion stimulus entering/exiting the spatial focus of attention. The onset and offset of motion signals can be detected outside of explicit attention.
The study provides evidence that there is a window of about 100ms where motion processing occurs independently of spatial attention, both before motion stimuli reaches attention and after it leaves attention. This allows for some degree of motion perception even when a stimulus is outside the narrow spatial focus of attention.

Here is a summary of the key points from the article:

The article studies the impact of rounded vs. precise price numbers (e.g. $9.99 vs. $10.00) on product evaluations. It examines how subjective perceptions of prices can influence consumer decision-making.
It finds that rounded price numbers (e.g. $10.00) lead to more positive evaluations of products than prices with extraneous digits (e.g. $9.99). Participants perceived prices ending in 00/50 as being lower and representing better value than prices ending in 99 cents.
This effect occurs because prices like $9.99 are mentally unrounded and seem higher/more expensive than an equivalent rounded price of $10. Even though the cents difference is negligible, it impacts perceptions.
Numerous studies have shown that people do not naturally process prices in a rational/mathematical way. Minor contextual factors like the number of digits can significantly sway judgments without logical justification.
The findings suggest that retailers should consider using rounded price points instead of prices ending in 99 cents whenever possible, as it can enhance how customers perceive the value of products. Precise prices may trigger psychological mechanisms that make options seem more expensive.
In summary, the article examines how the format or presentation of prices alone can influence consumer evaluations, through subjective mental processes rather than objective mathematical reasoning. Minor contextual factors in prices can have unintended but meaningful effects on decision-making.
Barbra Streisand sued the creators of the California Coastal Records Project for $50 million over an aerial photo of her Malibu mansion that was included in the publicly accessible online archive.
Before her lawsuit, the photo had only been downloaded 6 times. However, after news of her attempt to suppress the information spread, the photo received over 1 million views as more people became curious to see it due to the Streisand Effect phenomenon.
The Streisand Effect refers to when an attempt to suppress or censor information actually makes that information more widely known and spread. It stems from people’s psychological need for freedom and reactance against perceived restrictions.
Reactance is a phenomenon where people will resist or react negatively when they feel their independence or freedom is being threatened. Marketers and communicators have found ways to leverage this effect to spread information or get people to take desired actions.

Here is a summary of the key points from the NNOVATION CHECKLIST:

Reinforce individual control, particularly when close to acting. This encourages people to think they are making choices freely rather than being persuaded.
Endorse an unexpected competing behaviour to reinforce a desired one. Draw attention to alternative choices to help shape preferences towards the desired option.
Illustrate that the choice is theirs. Communicate options in a way that emphasizes free will and personal agency over external influence.

The checklist focuses on techniques grounded in psychology to encourage behaviors while maintaining a sense of individual autonomy and volition. It suggests validating alternative choices, proximity to action, and framing options as self-determined as effective strategies compared to more coercive or incentivized approaches. The overall aim seems to be guiding behaviors in an empowering rather than manipulative manner.

Here is a summary of the sources and further reading section:

The section cites two sources used in the chapter:

Gabbatiss, J. (2016, February 13). Why pairing up for life is hardly ever a good idea. BBC Earth. Retrieved (via Web Archive) from web.archive.org/web/20200201044713/http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160213-why-pairing-up-for-life-is-hardly-ever-a-good-idea.
Macdonald, D. W., et al. (2019). Monogamy: Cause, consequence, or corollary of success in wild canids? Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 7. doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2019.00341.

It also briefly mentions that 200 female digger wasps have been found to behave similarly to the animals discussed in defending/investing in shared nests in proportion to their own investment rather than total nest value.

No other sources or recommendations for further reading are provided.

Here is a summary of the key points about Ibrahim Yücel’s cigarette smoking contract:

After his father died of lung cancer, Ibrahim Yücel from Turkey wanted to quit his 26-year smoking habit.
He devised a radical solution of building a cage out of copper wire that he would lock his head inside every morning before work. This made it physically impossible for him to put a cigarette in his mouth.
He left the keys with his wife and kids to hold him accountable and prevent himself from smoking at work when cravings struck.
Psychologically, his self-imposed head cage contract is similar to a “Ulysses contract” from Greek mythology where people commit in advance to limiting their future choices to resist temptation.
Yücel’s unconventional approach helped him stay true to his intention to quit smoking through a self-imposed constraint during vulnerable moments when cravings hit. It’s an example of using voluntary commitments to influence future behavior and boost self-control.

Here is a summary of the key points from the article:

The article discusses psychological principles of goal gradient and endowed progress. It explains how being closer to a goal or reward can increase motivation and effort.
It describes a classic experiment by Clark Hull where rats ran faster through a maze the closer they got to the reward, supporting the goal gradient hypothesis. Similar patterns are seen in humans.
Studies show people work harder and purchases increase as rewards like loyalty points near completion. Merely feeling closer to a goal can boost motivation even if actual progress is the same.
The concept of endowed progress is introduced, where giving the illusion of partial progress, like pre-stamping loyalty cards, can increase motivation to complete a task.
Examples are given of how airports, package tracking services, and cafes use subtle cues to signal progress and maintain loyalty through psychological principles of goal gradient and endowed progress.
An checklist is provided for boosting loyalty by helping people see progress, making invisible steps more evident, and providing artificial boosts to encourage follow-through.

So in summary, the article discusses how proximity to goals and the feeling of progress, even if artificial, can motivate behavior and loyalty according to psychological principles of goal gradient and endowed progress.

The passage discusses the concept of variable reinforcement and how it relates to improving experiences without changing their duration. It provides some examples of how variable reinforcement has been applied in products and services to boost engagement and loyalty.

Specifically, it describes Doritos Roulette chips that had some spicy chips mixed in, creating uncertainty and anticipation with each bite. It also discusses Kinder Surprise eggs which contain a surprise toy inside, fostering anticipation. Another example is Pret a Manger’s reward program, which encourages staff to occasionally give out free food or drinks to surprise customers.

The key point is that introducing an element of variability, unpredictability or novelty - such as the possibility of a reward or unexpected experience - can enhance enjoyment and memories of an experience even if the overall duration stays the same. This taps into human psychology and our natural tendency to seek rewards and patterns. Variable reinforcement is a principle that companies have leveraged in their products, services and policies to boost loyalty and engagement.

The experience of time is subjective and can vary between species based on evolutionary needs. Faster perception is helpful for some animals but costly energy-wise for others.
Within humans, our perception of clock time vs brain time (time felt) can differ based on psychological factors. Familiarity, novelty, stress can compress or stretch perceived duration.
The brain likely has an internal clock mechanism that produces subjective time units. Increased attention/arousal can increase the number of time pulses felt, stretching duration.
Experiments show novel or emotional stimuli are perceived as lasting longer, due to increased brain activity recording details. Familiarity means less details need recording, speeding up time.
Our memory, not momentary experience, is what remains. Significant moments and endings define memories more than absolute duration. Optimizing experiences requires considering memory impact, not just in-moment duration.
Waiting times feel longer than usage times. Perceived rather than actual wait times drive customer satisfaction. Non-temporal factors like uncertainty, idleness affect brain time more than clock optimizations.

So in summary, the experience of time is subjective and driven more by psychological and memory factors than objective duration alone. Optimizing experiences requires considering these non-temporal impacts on perception and memory.

Here are summaries of the sources:

Lawton (2016) discusses the “oddball effect”, a psychological phenomenon where perceiving yourself as different or unique from others can distort your perception of time.

Livni (2019) explains that physics research has found that time seems to pass faster as people age, due to changes in the brain and increased ability to predict events as people get older.

Norman (2008) discusses research on the psychology of waiting in lines, and how factors like uncertainty and lack of distractions can make waits feel longer.

Press Association (2013) reports on a study that found fruit flies perceive time differently than humans - seconds seem longer to flies due to their faster metabolism and perception of events.

Reas (2014) discusses this same fruit fly study and other research finding that smaller animals tend to live in a kind of slow motion relative to humans, due to their faster sensory processing and metabolism.

TED (2010) is a video of a talk by psychologist Daniel Kahneman on his research into the difference between experience in the moment and our memories of experience.

The University of Edinburgh (2016) provides a summary of the fruit fly time perception study finding flies experience time differently than humans.

The passage discusses different techniques companies use to manage customer expectations around wait times, such as transportation services like airlines and Uber.
Setting accurate but slightly inflated estimates of wait times helps reduce uncertainty and improves customer satisfaction. Theme parks and mechanics shops also do this.
Providing detailed updates and transparency into the wait process, like what stage a pizza or Uber ride is at, helps customers feel in control and like progress is being made even if the duration doesn’t change.
Observational research has found that when people can see work being done for them, they tend to tolerate waiting longer. Showing customers the steps and effort involved improves the experience.
Historical anthropological research showed that tribes engaged in more ritualistic magic for uncertain activities like deep sea fishing vs predictable tasks. This suggests people seek a sense of control over uncertain outcomes. Many modern day practices and superstitions serve a similar psychological need for control during waits.
Houston airport was receiving complaints about delays at the luggage carousel from passengers. To address this, they increased the number of baggage handlers to speed up the process and reduce waiting time by 8 minutes. However, complaints continued.
They realized reducing clock time was not solving the problem. They had to look deeper at what was making passengers tetchy at the carousel.
Even when we feel slug: gish when bored, we are actually in a state of high arousal/stress physiologically. Boredom indicates our current situation provides no stimulation or opportunity, and it’s an evolutionarily valuable adaptation.
Research showed that occupied time feels faster than unoccupied time, even if the activities are not very interesting. At Houston airport, they installed TVs showing airport/local information to occupy passengers during the wait. This significantly reduced complaints.
Providing some stimulation or occupation, even minor, can make waiting time feel faster and less frustrating for people. Various examples are discussed of how giving a sense of control or occupation can improve experiences of duration and reduce stress.
When we’re bored or waiting, we experience stress and arousal which slows down our perception of time. We tend to overestimate how long we’ve been waiting.
Disney found that most of their passengers’ arrival time at the airport was spent idly waiting for luggage. Instead of reducing this time, they had passengers walk further to retrieve bags, reducing idle time and complaints.
At Disney theme parks, queues are designed to be entertaining experiences in themselves rather than just lines. Employees are called “cast members” to see the park as a stage. Clever distractions make waiting periods less noticeable.
Eurostar launched a virtual reality experience called “Eurostar Odyssey” that allows passengers to see an underwater world during their train journey, occupying them during the transit.
Other solutions to reduce idle time include puzzles in elevator displays, short story dispensers at transit hubs, and encouraging distractions like singing during queues at stores to occupy waiting customers.
Companies can look for ways to embed activities during unavoidable waiting periods to improve experiences without changing actual durations. The key is distracting the bored mind.

Here is a summary of the key points from the passages:

The peak-end effect describes how people rate experiences based on the most intense or peak moment, and how they ended, rather than averaging enjoyment over the whole duration. This helps guide avoiding negative experiences in the future.
An experiment had students hold their hand in cold water for different durations, with one condition ending warmer. Most preferred the longer condition despite more discomfort overall, showing the influence of peak-end memories.
Positive peak moments can be intentionally designed, like unexpected treats, to improve memory of an experience beyond just average enjoyment. Hotels use magic phone lines for popsicles or champagne to create distinctively positive memories.
Creating emotional efficiency with unexpected positive peaks spreads enjoyment ratings beyond just incremental improvements to average service quality. Memorable distinct experiences stick in the mind more than consistently good but predictable ones.
The passages discuss psychological theories around how experiences are remembered and evaluated, using examples from marketing and hospitality to intentionally design peak moments that shape longer-term positive memories according to these psychological effects.
Experiences and memories are defined more by peaks (high points) and endings rather than everything that happened on average. Small memorable positive elements at the end can improve the overall experience.
Changi Airport in Singapore optimized the customer experience at every stage, including giving out free sweets at immigration counters to leave passengers with a sweet taste rather than recalling hassles.
Product experiences can also be engineered to have peak moments, like the chocolate lump at the bottom of a Cornetto ice cream cone. Strategically placing more desirable elements like sugar and fat at the beginning and end can encourage consumption of healthier middle ingredients without realizing.
When things go wrong, it’s important to turn problems into positive memorable experiences to salvage the situation, like what Amazon did by extending Prime Day after website crashes to make up for the initial frustration. Experiences can be designed and optimized holistically considering peaks, endings and how people encode memories.
Amazon experienced significant outages and technical glitches on Prime Day 2018, which threatened their sales goals of $4.6 billion and risked losing Prime customers.
When customers couldn’t log in due to errors, they were greeted by pictures and bios of Amazon’s office dogs. The company allows thousands of employee-owned dogs at their Seattle headquarters.
Presenting these cute dogs helped soften the blow of the disruptions and create a more positive experience and memory, despite the issues. Many customers commented positively about the dog error messages on Twitter.
While the outages cost Amazon an estimated $90 million, the increased media coverage may have actually boosted overall sales. Amazon claimed sales records were still broken despite the technical problems.
The lesson is that when inevitable issues occur, focusing on ending the experience on a positive note, such as with cute dog pictures, can help improve customer sentiment and memory of the event overall through the peak-end rule of experience evaluation. Turning technical lemons into PR lemonade proved an effective strategy.
The passage discusses transferring behavioral science insights and innovations across different contexts. It warns against directly transferring off-the-shelf solutions and instead advocates distributing the raw ingredients/underlying principles.
It uses the analogy of distributing fridge components rather than whole fridges to be assembled locally. For behavioral insights, the “components” are powerful questions derived from psychological principles.
Context is very important and solutions may fail or backfire if the context is not considered. Even robust psychological phenomena like defaults can be undermined by cultural norms.
Behavioral science findings represent broad tendencies, not immutable laws, so cultural and individual differences must be accounted for. It is a lens, not an alternative or silver bullet.
Creativity benefits from both structure/constraints and free exploration. Categorizing psychological principles and their applications across industries provides focus through powerful questions.
Failure and adaptation are part of the evolutionary process. Hypotheses should be tested and refined iteratively based on results in the target context.
Both revolutionary and incremental innovation are important. The goal is to increase the success rate of “planned happy accidents” through a better understanding of human psychology.
Revolutionary innovations are rare, while incremental improvements through evolutionary processes are more common. The article proposes an “evolutionary ideas” approach to innovation.
Behavioral science has identified universal psychological principles that evolved to solve common human problems. These principles can be adapted to new contexts and industries to systematically generate innovative solutions.
By studying examples of psychological principles in different domains, important questions are generated that can spark new ideas. This amounts to “cross-pollinating” existing solutions rather than starting from scratch.
The methodology allows leveraging thousands of problem-solvers before rather than relying only on one’s own ideas. It makes the innovation process more systematic and less prone to assumptions.
Four common innovation challenges are outlined that the psychological principles can help address: reinforcing trust, aiding decision-making, triggering action, and boosting loyalty.
For each challenge, example questions are provided that trigger ideas by reframing solutions from other contexts or industries. This evolutionary approach aims to accelerate innovation through adapting existing evolutionary solutions.

Here are the key points summarized from the provided sections:

Sections 16-18 discuss ways to increase unpredictability and remove unnecessary consistency or predictability in systems, such as by empowering individual discretion and creating variable experiences.
Sections 1-12 discuss ways to improve experiences without changing duration, such as setting clear expectations, exposing the process, providing a sense of control and progress, embedding activities/distractions, and making waits opportunities for alternative experiences.
Sections 13-15 discuss ways to disrupt expectations to create memorable experiences, such as breaking norms with fun gestures or considering product consumption over time.
Sections 16-21 discuss designing experiences over time, including ensuring the most positive elements are at the end, including less attractive components in the middle to benefit from duration neglect, and turning unexpected negatives into positives.

The overall theme is exploring ways to design and deliver experiences, systems, products and communications in a more human-centered and unpredictable manner while still meeting core objectives or improving the experience for users. The sections discuss creating a better balance of predictability and surprise.

The book provides techniques and ideas for generating innovative solutions to organizational and business problems using the concepts of psychological TRIZ (a method for stimulating innovative ideas).
It is divided into three parts - getting the tools (learning about psychological TRIZ), applying the tools (using contradictions as problem statements), and a conclusion summarizing evolutionary ideas.
Specific chapters provide case studies and examples of how to use techniques like applying evolutionary principles, exploiting system resources, examining problems from new perspectives to resolve contradictions in innovative ways.
The book aims to help readers aid decisions without limiting choice, trigger action without forcing responses, boost loyalty without increasing rewards, and other challenges by thinking outside the box using psychological TRIZ frameworks.
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Evolutionary Ideas (Sam Tatam) - Zamzar