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For new behaviors to really take hold, they must occur often.

Investments increase the likelihood of users returning by improving the service the more it is used. They enable the accrual of stored value in the form of content, data, followers, reputation, or skill.

“Take a human desire, preferably one that has been around for a really long time . . . Identify that desire and use modern technology to take out steps.”

Therefore, the job of companies operating in conditions of inherent variability is to give users what they desperately crave in conditions of low control—a sense of agency.

Neuroscientists believe habits give us the ability to focus our attention on other things by storing automatic responses in the basal ganglia, an area of the brain associated with involuntary actions.

The Morality of Manipulation

Every annotation, bookmark, and highlight stores data (and value) in the app, further committing users.

Fitbod’s action phase quickly solves the user’s psychological discomfort by providing very specific instructions with a single tap of the app.