5 psychological principles from The Undoing Project

Last month, I wrote about the phenomenon of Decision weighting after reading the book Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman. Some friends then recommended another book featuring the work of Kahneman and Amos Tversky: The Undoing Project. The Undoing Project covers much of the same material as Thinking, Fast and Slow, but in an…

Decision weighting according to Kahneman

Let's play a game called "Would you Rather?" Would you rather have... A) a 90% chance at winning $1000; orB) $900 guaranteed? Most people choose option B with little hesitation. It has the same expected value (= probability × prize) as option A, but more certainty. There's no FOMO (fear of missing out); there's no…

Design ethics books

Ruined by Design by Mike Monteiro and The Ethical Design Handbook by Trine Falbe, Kim Andersen, and Martin Michael Frederiksen TL;DR: If you want passionate, angry inspiration and high-level advice, read Ruined by Design. If you want good case studies and scattered tactical tips, read the Ethical Design Handbook. If you, like me, are practicing…

My top 5 pearls of wisdom from Elon Musk’s biography

I just finished Elon Musk's biography and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'd highly recommend it- it's both entertaining and informative. Here's some of what I got out of it. 1) Doing everything fast One of the funniest quotes in the book came from Kevin Brogan, who's now named Brogan BamBrogan (seriously.) Everything he does is fast.…

Seeking ‘click moments’ in a random world

I recently read an article about the Flâneur Approach to UX. Essentially, it said that great designers find time to wander while observing their surroundings. That article really resonated with me, because I love exploring. For example, over the last six months, I've never taken the same route twice on my London cycling commute. The…