Psychology

A perfect storm of behavioral factors gives TurboTax enormous pricing power. Each year as I do my taxes I am surprised at how eager I am to pay TurboTax anywhere from $59 to $199 to help me file my taxes. A combination of the U.S. tax process in general and TurboTax’s design in particular makes […]

I believe that getting good at habit formation is one of the most effective, high-leverage skills you can build. Almost any other skill or behavior follows from habits and so if you can understand how you build and fail to build and break and fail to break habits you can multiply your efforts in every […]

I was thinking about buying a beer on a flight the other day. While I was pondering buying it or sticking to ginger ale, I noticed that I felt guilty about spending the money. It felt like a superfluous expense. I started to wonder why that was, especially when I often will have a drink […]

I’m looking for an apartment and while it has been fun, it’s frustrating how irrational it makes me feel. Some of the irrationality has come from tactics used by the realtors; some of it has come purely from my brain. Here are some of the tactics I’ve noticed realtors using. Reciprocity effect: At each complex I’ve […]