Biog
Nir Eyal writes, consults, and teaches about the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. Nir previously taught as a Lecturer in Marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford.
Nir co-founded and sold two tech companies since 2003 and was dubbed by The M.I.T. Technology Review as, “The Prophet of Habit-Forming Technology.”
He is the author of two bestselling books, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life.
Indistractable received critical acclaim, winning the Outstanding Works of Literature (OWL) Award as well as being named one of the Best Business and Leadership Books of the Year by Amazon and one of the Best Personal Development Books of the Year by Audible. The Globe and Mail called Indistractable, “the best business book of 2019.”
In addition to blogging at NirAndFar.com, Nir’s writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Harvard Business Review, Time Magazine, and Psychology Today.
Nir is also an active investor in habit-forming technologies. Some of his past investments include Eventbrite (NYSE:EB), Anchor.fm (acquired by Spotify), Kahoot! (KAHOOT-ME.OL), Refresh.io (acquired by LinkedIn), Product Hunt, Marco Polo, Presence Learning, 7 Cups, Pana, Byte Foods, FocusMate, and Shadow.
Nir attended The Stanford Graduate School of Business and Emory University.
Shownotes
Intro) Nir Explains how Hooked was about democratizing the addictive methods used by Facebook et al to get people to use healthy habit forming tech instead
3.00 mins) N talks about the only case study in Hooked being the Bible app to illustrate that its not the tech but the way we use it that dictates if it is good or bad
5.06 mins) N says we should be cautious about new technology. Need to understand tech if we are to use tech wisely
7.41 mins) Nir talks about how he came to write Indistractable.
9.19 mins) ‘I became really fascinated with the question: ‘why it is we know what to do but don’t do it?’ ‘We don’t know how to stop getting distracted’
11.24 mins) Nir outlines the principles he lays out in Indistractable to help us get focused and ‘become the person you want to become’
13.52 mins) The dangerous kind of distraction is the kind ‘that we don’t even realize is distracting us’
15.20 mins) ‘Any pastime is fine as long as you do it with forethought’
16.11 mins) ‘I want to free people from the guilt of thinking that using online technology is somehow frivolous’
18.10 mins) ‘distraction begins from within’
21.20 mins) On self-compassion and blamers, shamers and claimers
22.24 ins) ‘Behaviour change is identity change’
30.30 mins) N talks about his own journey to becoming indistractable. ‘I wrote this book for me’
30.58 mins) ‘I’ve always struggled with self-control’ ‘I used to be clinically obese’
35.00 mins) Have to be strategic to stop being distracted
36.50 mins) ‘People are looking for a way to get the best out of these tools without letting them get the best out of us’
41.16 mins) What advice would you give to yourself aged 19?
41.50 mins) How do you deal with failure?
43.17 mins) How to get hold of Nir and find out more about his work
Monk on a Motorbike 