Nir And Far: Business, Behaviour and the Brain – Details, episodes & analysis

I’ll never forget the day I learned about Facebook’s $19 billion WhatsApp acquisition. Instead of celebrating my own recent success as an author, I found myself spiraling into a pit of self-doubt. “Why hadn’t I created a simple messaging app?” I wondered, mentally berating myself for missing out on what seemed like an obvious opportunity.

Sound familiar?

We’ve all been told that comparing ourselves to others is toxic. It’s the ultimate happiness killer, the thief of joy, the fast track to misery—or so conventional wisdom tells us. But here’s the thing: If comparison is so destructive, why do our minds keep returning to it? What if there’s more to this story than meets the eye?

You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: https://www.nirandfar.com/social-comparison/

The iatrogenic effects of psychiatry.

Something is deeply wrong with the mental health system. Instead of leading to recovery, it often perpetuates cycles of dependency on therapy, medication, and diagnoses.

Psychiatric diagnoses, which are unreliable to begin with, have become our identities rather than tools for recovery. While more people are going to therapy than ever before, our collective mental health isn’t improving. For some disorders, such as ADHD and PTSD, medication is prioritized over education or therapy that teaches people how to cope; thus, we see medication as a cure-all and don’t learn tools that can help us heal.

As mental health awareness and interventions become increasingly common, we have to be aware of the iatrogenic effects—unintended, harmful consequences—of psychiatric diagnosis and treatment.

Is psychiatry keeping us sick?

You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: Is Psychiatry Keeping Us Sick? https://www.nirandfar.com/psychiatry-keeping-us-sick/

Nir And Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/

As a clinically obese teen, my parents were desperate to get me to a healthy weight. My mom coaxed me on a walk through our boring, middle-class Central Florida suburb every Sunday.

The road we walked was paved with good intentions, but for me, it was hell: the heat and humidity, the painful chafing between my thighs, the inevitable embarrassment of applying Vaseline to said chafing. … If I was going to suffer, I would need a reward, and it had better be a good one!

You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: Can You Think Yourself Thinner? https://www.nirandfar.com/think-yourself-thin/

Nir And Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/

How I Stopped Letting Tech Ruin My Love Life

Every night, my wife and I engaged in the same routine: She put our daughter to bed, brushed her teeth, and freshened up. We both slipped under the covers, exchanged knowing glances, and started doing what comes naturally to a couple in bed: we began to lovingly caress our gadgets—she fondled her cell phone, while I tenderly stroked the screen of my iPad. Ooh, it felt so good!We were having a love affair—with our gadgets instead of each other.

You can read the NirAndFar blog post on: Would You Rather Give Up Sex or Your Phone? https://www.nirandfar.com/give-up-sex-or-phone/

Nir & Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/

There’s nothing wrong with some device time. Just use these tips to make sure your kids don’t overdo it.

It’s that time of year when kids have a long break from school and parents and guardians likely have some time off work.

What will we do with all that free time?

You can read the NirAndFar blog post on: Here’s How to Ensure Your Kids Don’t Spend the Entire Break Staring at Screens https://www.nirandfar.com/kids-on-screens-during-break/

Nir & Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/

By Annie Graham

Many people strive to improve themselves in one way or another. Whether it’s getting more sleep and exercise, or spending more time doing the things we love, our ideal selves drive us to be better. They symbolize our belief in our own potential to live in alignment with our values.

The drive to improve is also why strategies and tools that enable us to track our behaviors are so potentially gratifying. It feels good to see ourselves moving closer to our goals.

You can read the NirAndFar blog post on: Free Habit Tracker Template — Use this Sleek Google Doc (and download your FREE Habit Tracker there) https://www.nirandfar.com/habit-tracker/

Nir & Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/

In fifth grade, I was the only Jewish kid in my elementary school class. This was the 1980’s in Central Florida and even though it was a public school, unaffiliated with any church and funded with taxpayer dollars, my teacher taped a poster to the wall in her classroom that read, “Jesus Is The Reason For The Season.”

I wasn’t offended per se. I’m pretty sure at ten, I didn’t know what that word meant. But I could tell the teacher was sending a message to anyone in her class who might have different beliefs—such as, say, that the tilt of the earth on its axis is the reason for the seasons.

You can read the NirAndFar blog post on: I Changed My Mind About Saying “Merry Christmas,” and You Should Too https://www.nirandfar.com/saying-merry-christmas

Nir & Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/

Distractions seem ubiquitous today, but they’ve always been a part of human life. Here’s how to resist them.

Distractions impede us from making progress toward the life we want for ourselves.

To visualize this, imagine a line that represents the value of everything you do throughout your day. To the right, the actions are positive; to the left, they are negative.

The positive actions represent traction: they draw or pull us toward what we want in life. The word “traction,” in fact, comes from the Latin trahere, meaning to draw or pull.

You can read the NirAndFar blog post on: How the Ancient Greeks Beat Distraction https://www.nirandfar.com/tantalizing-distractions/

Nir & Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/

Trying to build a habit can backfire if you fall for this trap  

These days, when someone says they want to form a “habit,” what they often mean is that they want to make drudgery effortless. That is, they don’t want to actually do the work, rather they want to have done it—past tense.

You can read the NirAndFar blog post on: Habits Are Overrated https://www.nirandfar.com/habit-trap/

Nir & Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/

This highly effective technique harnesses the power of “loss aversion” to help you reach your goals

Probably the only research paper I’ll ever call “delicious” is one called, “A Tale of Two Pizzas.”

In the study, researchers offered one group of people plain pizzas, plus the option to add ingredients for an additional charge. To a second group, they offered topping-loaded pizzas, with the chance to remove ingredients and pay less. Same thing, right?

You can read the NirAndFar blog post on: Need Motivation? Make a Price Pact https://www.nirandfar.com/price-pact/

Nir & Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/