10,000 Hours of Play by OP Hero: Rafael Nadal
How Rafael Nadal built 22 Grand Slams through relentless fight, live problem-solving, and an outlier tolerance for pain.
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.
Goal-Gradient Hypothesis: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
A coffee shop hands you a loyalty card. Buy ten coffees, the eleventh is free. Researchers tracked 948…
Default Effect: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
Here is a fact that should bother every designer, every policymaker, and every product manager who believes people…
Affordances: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
There is a door near you right now that you have pushed when you should have pulled. Maybe…
Fresh Start Effect: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
Short answer: The Fresh Start Effect is our tendency to chase goals with more energy right after a…
Recognition Heuristic: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
Ask a room of American students which city has more people, San Diego or San Antonio, and a…
We Don’t Need Ozempic. We Need Play-Based Weight Loss.
Ozempic is pay-to-win: stop paying and the weight comes back. Play-based weight loss uses gamification and VR fitness…
The Affect Heuristic: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
Ask people how risky nuclear power is and how beneficial it is, and you get a strange result.…
10,000 Hours of Play by OP Hero: Buckminster Fuller
Bankrupt and grieving at a Chicago lakeside in 1927, Buckminster Fuller turned his own life into a 56-year…