On Friday I had a very entertaining day at a nightclub. Thankfully, it wasn’t an all-dayer (those days, my friends, are well and truly over). It was, however, the self-proclaimed “Biggest Festival of Behavioural Science”, Nudgestock. Here are 10 things I learned over the day…
Most process optimisation biases towards faster
Rory Sutherland kicked off the day with one of his hugely engaging keynotes, themed (as was the whole event) around time. Rory’s overall observation was that when we optimise or automate processes, we do so almost always on the basis that faster = better.
That leads to some weird things. It’s why email and messaging platforms become anxiety-inducing (messages are delivered as quickly as possible, rather than when you might be able to actually do something about them). The removal of friction is seen as paramount, something I’ve argued is problematic for years.
What starts as an option becomes an obligation
Another of Rory’s observations is that when new technologies are introduced, they are seen as a new option. If they become successful, they quickly become something that you must use (and often burdensome as a result).
The opposite of a good idea can also be a good idea
Something I’ve heard Rory talk about in the past; his temporal example this week was comparing Supermarkets to Farmer’s Markets. One optimises around the speed of use, and the other is almost wilfully slow. We can enjoy, or at least see positive benefits, from both.
What might slow AI look like?
ChatGPT and other tools give near-immediate responses. But what if you were to ask something like, “Over the next few months, can you give me some holiday ideas?” This would allow us to interact with information over an extended period of time.
Helping people to see what the future looks like helps them get there
Professor Nava Ashraf talked about how helping people like refugees who have experienced significant trauma in their lives to visualise what their positive future might look like can have a huge impact for the good on their economic future.
We’ve got about 4,000 weeks
Oliver Burkeman talked about what he has learned from writing his book, 4,000 Weeks, which is roughly how many weeks of life each of us have.
He argued that we will always have too much to do, the common reaction to many on having too much to do is to try to do even more. Instead, see patience as a superpower. He talked about the experience of spending three hours looking at a single painting (the first hour was excruciating, but then the insights started to come…)
Be in tune with your body’s rythmns
Professor Satchidananda Panda talked about his research into circadian rhythms and the impact that when you eat, sleep and exercise has is maybe as significant as what and how you do those things.
Particularly striking was the research in Mexico he cited that showed that premature babies in intensive care improve their health much more quickly if cycles of light and dark are used in the ICU (most usually just have the lights on 24 hours a day). Babies with 12 hour cycles of light and dark were on average released from intensive care 13 days earlier than those who spent all their time under bright lights.
Some basic circadian rules
From Professor Panda’s research:
- try to get to bed at the same time each evening
- aim for 8 hours in bed which will give you 6.5-7 hours of quality sleep
- don’t eat for the first hour after waking
- after breakfast, all your eating should be within the next 8 hours (12 at very most)
- for the last 3 hours before bed, avoid bright light
- aim for 30 minutes of physical activity and 30 minutes outdoors in daylight at least each day
I worry about a world that tries to anthropomorphise cream cheese
Enough said.
Gen Z is dangerously anxious
Jonathan Haidt presented on his findings looking at the increase in reported anxiety, self-harm and attempted suicide amongst teenagers who have been brought up since the advent of smartphones and social networks. The findings are extremely worrying.
His book The Anxious Generation sounds like it’s worth a read, but suffice to say I feel vindicated in our decision to be quite draconian with screen time with our two teenagers.
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