I am sharing data on my email open rates because 1) I always appreciate seeing data from other blogs and websites; the desire to benchmark oneself is hard to suppress and 2) if you are reading this, there is a decent chance you contributed to the data! I have been reading a book about copywriting, […]
Psychology
The Behavioral Advantages behind TurboTax
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 […]
The Data Behind my Habit Formation
Edit: If you are spending more time at home due to the pandemic, it is a good time to build new habits. You can control your environment and the triggers that help establish habits much easier now than you can when your routine is more varied. I believe that getting good at habit formation is […]
Why Won’t I Buy a Beer on an Airplane?
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 […]
Cognitive Biases in Apartment Hunting
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 […]