Idea 01: How Social Media Is a Casino

The scarcity loop

Casinos constituted a modest industry earlier.

  • An entrepreneur named Si Redd revolutionized slot design.

  • Addictive loop

    • Opportunity
      • The person must feel as if there is a chance to win something. Statistically, it is impossible; yet the brain must feel like it has a fighting chance.
    • Unpredictability
      • The reward or “win” must be given unpredictably. This keeps the player engaged.
    • Repeatability
      • Should be painless, frictionless, and quick to repeat.

Earlier slot machines had mechanical bars to turn the slots and there were only 3 slots…

This led to the following:

  • Lack of opportunity felt by the players (odds are low that all 3 symbols match). (BAD)

Not much unpredictability as most of the time the user lost. (BAD)

  • Hard, painful, and conscious repetition. (BAD)

Now:

  • Lots of opportunity as the number of scrolling bars have increased.
  • High unpredictability, as if any out of the 5 matches, a small reward is given.
    • Invest $1, win $0.50 but feel like you’ve won $2.
  • EXTREMELY easy to repeat (digital screens). Just press a button. The colorful screen will show a new one!

💡 Current social media platforms do the same thing.

Your Google Feed, YouTube feed, and chess.com feed use those 3 hacks to keep you scrolling and boost their revenue.

Idea 02: Less is More

  • An Ivy league educated engineer was building a Lego bridge with his son.
  • The son removed a brick and this made the bridge more stable.
  • Taught the engineer a lesson, less is more. He, with all of his education never thought that removing a brick could lead to a safer and more stable bridge.
  • Multiple experiments have been conducted, people just cannot think that removing something leads to a better result as it’s counterintuitive in the brain-washed population of the 21st century.
  • We always think: MORE, MORE, MORE…. ADD, ADD, ADD
    • Bigger House!
    • Better car!
    • An extra 2 mil in the bank wouldn’t hurt.
    • CEO isn’t enough; I need to chair the Board!

Idea 03: How we become obese

McDonald’s is addictive.

Don’t become obese.

That’s all I had time for today!

Thanks for reading.