Persuasion Articles of the Week

Photo "001597" by Alexey Gaponov, Flickr, CC-By-2.0
Photo “001597” by Alexey Gaponov, Flickr, CC-By-2.0

#stupid #questions #everythingisrelative #comparisons #convenience #information #scarcity #time #socialproof

I Smell a Rat! The Prisoner’s Dilemma

Incomplete information can cause less-than-ideal outcomes. Here are a few ways to improve your Free Trade outcomes.

 

How to tell if you’re asking a stupid question

Questions with answers that don’t exist or don’t really matter waste everyone’s time. They’re frequently judgemental and the source of arguments. Avoid these questions and formulate better ones using the tips outlined here.

 

We Forget That Everything Is Relative

“And it was on sale!” Or was it? The Full Price of an item puts an anchor in our heads. The Sale Price makes it easy to compare and we feel like we’re getting a deal, which drives people to buy. Scarcity of a sale product, Time Sensitivity of that price disappearing, and Social Proof that you’re “smart enough to game the system” all play into this.

 

The Tyranny of Convenience

Life in 2018 is easy, man. Conveniences that ease our tasks and give us extra time, unfortunately, are hard to undo. Our extra time is suddenly filled with smaller tasks. Are we better off for it?