Dec 14, 2022
For most of his career, Nir Eyal has worked in the
video gaming and advertising industries, where he learned and
applied (and sometimes rejected) the techniques used to motivate
and manipulate users. He helps companies
create behaviors that benefit their users while educating people on
how to build healthful habits in their own lives. Nir
is the author of two bestselling books, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming
Products and Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose
Your Life, which was named one of the Best Business and
Leadership Books of the Year by Amazon.
As a child, Nir was clinically obese. Growing up in Florida, where
kids spent lots of time at swimming pools, he was often the object
of bullying. Nir managed to transcend those early years in his
teens by reading nutrition books and changing his food choices,
although he blamed the fast food industry for creating the problems
he struggled with. Then he turned the blame into fascination, a
critical factor in his ability to transcend the challenges inherent
in his obesity. Eventually, Nir became interested in
how companies like General Mills could grab customers’ attention
and change behaviors.
Today, Nir writes,
consults, and teaches about the intersection of psychology,
technology, and business. Previously he was a
Lecturer in Marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of Business
and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. Since 2003,
Nir co-founded and sold two tech companies. The M.I.T.
Technology Review called him “The Prophet of
Habit-Forming Technology.”
As an active investor, Nir puts his money where his
mouth is by backing habit-forming products he believes improve
lives. Some of his past investments include
Eventbrite, Anchor.fm (acquired by Spotify), Kahoot!, Canva,
Homelight, Product Hunt, and Byte Foods.
In this week’s Work From The Inside Out podcast, learn more about
Nir’s journey:
- Bloomberg Businessweek wrote, “Nir Eyal is the habits guy. Want to understand how to get app users to come back again and again? Then Eyal is your man.”
- In addition to blogging at NirAndFar.com, Nir’s writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Harvard Business Review, Time Magazine, and Psychology Today.
Learn more and connect with Nir here: