psychology

The messages themselves are basic.5 In the brain, electrical signals have only one meaning: do more of what you’re doing. If enough electricity pours

This pining for the banished is known as the Romeo and Juliet effect , so named because parents who erect barriers to hinder the romantic relationships of their children often only manage to deepen the lovers’ attraction. One study of Colorado couples found that when the parents tried to interfere with their relationship, feelings of love and

“Your actions actually don’t matter that much in the grand scheme of things” and “The vast majority of your life will be boring and not noteworthy, and that’s okay.”

A third sample of visitors was greeted warmly and given a small cup of yogurt. Even though the retail value of the yogurt equaled that of the key ring, it increased food purchased much more, to 24 percent. Why? Because visitors entered with a need for food, and matching the gift to the need made the difference.

So when does scarcity become a powerful influence on our decision-making?

Two conditions need to be fulfilled:

First, we tend to want something more if its availability has decreased recently than if it has remained steady over time. This is why revolutions tend to happen when living conditions deteriorate sharply rather than when they are

Honest self-questioning is difficult. It requires asking yourself simple questions that are uncomfortable to answer. In fact, in my experience, the more uncomfortable the answer, the more likely it is to be true.

He avoids auto-scheduling tools , believing that manually coordinating meetings preserves his intentionality and responsibility over his time.

So what drives us? One way to think about this question is from an evolutionary perspective. We know that scarcity drives evolution. Any problem regularly encountered on a quest to gather resources is a problem that evolution already spent millions of years driving us to solve.

it induces an availability cascade.