Motivation: Why It’s Dumb To Pay Your Contractors Late
This article was co-written by Yu-kai Chou and Erik van Mechelen. Table of Contents About Yu-kai Chou Paying…
Work with Yu-kai
The Blog
Ideas on motivation, behavior & design.
Deep dives on the psychology behind why people do what they do — from Yu-kai Chou, creator of the Octalysis Framework. Pick the topic that matters to you.
50 Persuasion Techniques from Cialdini’s “Yes!” — Mapped to Octalysis Core Drives
Editor’s note: This essay is the companion piece to the pillar guide Cialdini’s 6 Principles of Persuasion: S-Tier…
Yu-kai Chou comments on 1st Trump-Clinton Presidential Debate (Abridged)
Author Credibility: Yu-kai Chou Yu-kai Chou created the Octalysis Framework after studying gamification since 2003 — years before…
Creating Habit-Forming and Habit-Defeating Products: Pavlok and Moti
This article was written by Erik van Mechelen with input from Yu-kai Chou and Jun Loayza. Attention and…
Why Social Podcast Players Are Next: True Discovery in Overcast and Tung
How do you actually discover your next favorite podcast? Not through an algorithm — through people you trust.…
Persuasive Tactics in the 2016 Clinton-Trump Debate (A Behavioral-Design Lens)
The first 2016 US presidential debate pulled an audience of roughly 84 million live viewers, the largest in…
One-Two Punch and the Uppercut: The Art of Cold-Emailing
Cold emailing is not a numbers game — it is a persistence game. Most people give up after…
Gamification Analysis of Slack (Octalysis Level I)
I first used Slack with friends in a mastermind. Later, I created my own group to give and…
Anti Core Drives: The Hidden Forces Killing Your User Engagement
Here’s something most gamification designers never think about: when users aren’t doing what you want, it’s not because…