Monday, May 12, 2014

Behavior Design

Just read this pdf that David Ngo came out with called learn behavior design. Here are some notes/thoughts:
  • fog behavior model
    • to do anything (eg: pick up phone), you need all three of (1) trigger, (2) ability, (3) motivation
    • hot triggers- something u can do right now- vs billboards
    • ability vs motivation tradeoff-
      ​ doing something hard requires high motivation; if your motivation ever drops, then you break your habit​
  • ​​tiny habits + celebrations
    • ​LT behavior chg can come from chging environment​
    • ​LT behavior chg cannot come from just motivation​ (because it is too unstable and so you will break habit)
    • ​u want to ​
      get to the "blue path"
      ​ from the behavior grid​
      ​ at behaviorgrid.org​. ie. how to start doing familiar behavior, and then slowly increase/build from there
    • ​ design many many beneficial behaviors that get to ​​good outcomes (eg: a bunch of behaviors that make you healthy)​ and then wait for the tiny habits to take hold and grow naturally
      • ​easy to do in beginning and end of day​
    • http://www.behaviorwizard.org
  • ​motivation wave
    • natural to have ​peaks where you can temporarily do hard things and troughs/normal periods
    • ​​
      ​help people succeed on the most desirable behavior that matches their current motivation
    • ​should somehow measure how motivated u r and then do the hardest work possible (any higher == not enough motivation and give up)
    • when you are at peak motivation, do hard things that will 
      1. ​​
        structure future behavior
      2. ​reduce barriers to behavior
      3. increase skill/capability so it's easier to do activity in the future
    • these all move future activities further down the motivation/ability curve towards easier to do --> less motivation required later​
    • ​do your tiny habits, prestructured behavior, and easy one time behaviors, baby steps during trough
    • ​you cannot "motivate" behavior change; artificially boosting motivation doesn't work​