Manipulating Human Psychology To Turn Users Into Addicts
If you can name a successful product which does not manipulate users to continue using that product, then it&#x27;s not a product:<p>* I&#x27;ve been manipulated to bring an umbrella because I don&#x27;t like to get rained on.<p>* I&#x27;ve been manipulated into liking broadband because it provides the internet faster than dialup.<p>* I&#x27;ve been manipulated into owning a car because it&#x27;s a fast convenient mode of transportation.<p>This is the basics of products and services that provide value, this isn&#x27;t magical or new, and this book is probably being more honest than most industries are.<p>The point the book was making is that if you don&#x27;t want a product to be flash in the pan garbage, follow some simple guidelines which ensure that your service is actually providing some sort of value to end users, or your end users will eventually leave and find better things to do with their time and resources (Unless you&#x27;re selling heroin I guess).<p>I don&#x27;t consider Facebook sending me an email when I get a personal message to be exploitative, but I find no value at all when they send me something every time one of my friends fart. I specifically avoid interacting with those &quot;hey someone did something&quot; emails because they are annoying and make me want to stop being on facebook altogether. That&#x27;s the result of abusing the hook model, users go away because it&#x27;s annoying and unproductive.