SuperBolter

superbolter

Startups of The Year 2023 Winners: North America 

HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your  background. I'm an and brand builder who has led organizations to develop and launch over $1 billion of new products and businesses. I spent nearly 20 years in the food industry growing brand portfolios, managing P&Ls, leading innovation teams and directing new venture development for top companies including Kellogg, Keebler and Nabisco. I am now the general manager leading the global expansion of as a scalable evidence-based digital platform to tackle the . Our mission is to unlock the heroic potential of 50 million youth in the next 5 years. innovator SuperBetter youth mental health crisis What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do? SuperBetter is a digital mental health & wellbeing company. Our unique methodology empowers people to overcome obstacles and achieve success by bringing the mindset and to real life. Over 1 million people have played SuperBetter. psychology of game play What is the origin story? SuperBetter was invented by our Chief Science Officer Jane is a researcher and world-renowned game designer. One day Jane hit her head and got a concussion. Although under medical care, the concussion did not heal properly. Over time she experienced anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation. Her damaged brain was telling her she had no reason to live. Jane created a game to help herself heal and it helped her recover. She shared the game on her blog and it became a grass-roots phenomenon. The rest is history. Jane’s with her story that led to creating SuperBetter has now been watched by a global audience of over 7 million viewers. Jane McGonigal. TED Talk What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem? My Co-Founder Jane McGonigal is the global thought leader for using the science of games to improve real lives and solve real problems. She’s brilliant and caring. Jane’s expertise in game science complements my extensive experience growing businesses and scaling innovation. I love that our team culture is focused on intersection of purpose, science and smart business practices. The combination is the winning formula for an impact venture that scales and generates investor returns. If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing? I love championing science-based innovations that solve big thorny problems in the world. If I wasn’t building the SuperBetter business I would be building something else. At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics? During this company phase our focus is building the foundation for scaling a global business. The foundation includes a compelling brand, a passionate community, a competitively differentiated product, strong science and a world-class team. Our core metrics fall into these areas. Over 1 million people have played SuperBetter. It's found on of best apps for mental health & wellbeing alongside industry unicorns Calm and Headspace. SuperBetter receives great reviews on the (4.7/5.0 stars) and is recommended by teachers, K-12 schools, colleges & universities, counselors and psychologists. media lists App Store Media loves SuperBetter. The of our website includes over 75 stories featuring SuperBetter so far in 2021. press page The is New York Times best-seller. book SuperBetter, The Power of Living Gamefully SuperBetter is . In randomized controlled & clinical trials SuperBetter players improved resilience, mental health and social-emotional skills. Published meta-analyses show it is among the most effective mobile apps validated in randomized controlled trials for reducing anxiety & depression. backed by science What’s most exciting about your traction to date? SuperBetter has attracted over 1 million players and lots of media attention. What’s most exciting about this traction is that it is achieved without any paid advertising or PR outreach. Our community grows organically because people love SuperBetter, how well it works and the way it makes them feel. They find our app through word of mouth referrals, media stories, the TED Talk, the SuperBetter book and recommendations from schools, colleges, therapists and other allies. We are also excited to find researchers feature SuperBetter in articles published in respected journals including the and the . Journal of Pediatric Psychology British Journal of Guidance & Counseling What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why? We’re super excited about the possibilities of AI and augmented reality. Applied ethically, AI has incredible potential to personalize experiences to make them more intuitive, engaging and effective. Augmented reality is a fitting technology for the way SuperBetter spans the virtual and real worlds. We’re most concerned about algorithms. When when combined with advertising models, algorithms optimized to maximize only revenue can lead to people consuming online media in ways that negatively impact mental health & wellbeing. The risk is especially high among youth. What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform? We really appreciate the local focus of HackerNoon and that the platform recognizes the best startups by city. We love all the resources available on the platform. What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself? Let me be vulnerable and share something personal. When I was young I believed that my value as a person was defined only by my achievements. Today I would tell the 21-year old version of myself that he is 100% loved and valuable just for being. My advice would be that achieving success is great but that success (or failure) is not what defines your identity or your worth. What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing? Published in 2012 the book predicted the extreme polarization and tribalism that we see in America today. Through their research the authors discovered a historical pattern of 40-year swings between a ‘we’-oriented and a ‘me’-oriented society. Historically the 10 years before and after the peak of the ‘we’ cycle is noted for extreme polarization and a posture of “my tribe is ok, your tribe is not ok.’ The peak of the ‘we’ cycle will occur in 2023. The bad news - if the Pendulum model holds - is that we’re in for another decade or so of hyper polarization in America. Pendulum Thanks for reading! VOTE FOR SuperBetter on the Page. Chicago Startups of the Year

SuperBetter Improves Mental Health Using the Psychology of Gameplay

240 Stories To Learn About Startups Of The Year

141 Stories To Learn About Games

209 Stories To Learn About Mental Health

Let's learn about via these 78 free stories. They are ordered by most time reading created on HackerNoon. Visit the to find the most read stories about any technology. Edtech /Learn Repo 1. Paying Attention to Every Detail: How to Work With the Metrics to Increase Your Revenue Every significant business result consists of micro-level metrics that one can and should manage daily. Learn how to increase your revenue with small steps. 2. Curriculum Designer’s Handbook: Top 5 Curriculum Design Models Curriculum design focuses on the production of the entire course blueprint, including how to develop a course outline and build the course, as well as how to 3. 4 Companies Providing Education in The Metaverse The metaverse can be a place where students connect with each other and the teacher, and study in an enjoyable way. 4. [Announcement] XinFin Network EdTech Platform Waiting for Accredited by SSG. After being recognised by the US Education Blockchain Action Network, Blockdegree—an edTech platform powered by XinFin Fintech PTE Ltd—has received in-principle accreditation from SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), a statutory body under Singapore's Ministry of Education. 5. "Walk Down the Road of Life Without Fearing Anything" Max Azarov, CEO and Co-Founder, Novakid Max Azarov, the CEO and Co-Founder of Novakid, a language learning platform, shares the origin story of the company and the value of their community. 6. Understanding Conditions of Learning: Gagne’s 9 Events of Instruction Gagne`s 9 theory is an instructional design model that uses cognitive information processing to develop learning objectives. 7. How EdTech Will Transform 2020's University Experience While the educational sector is typically viewed as being slow to change, advances in edtech (or educational technology) are starting to make themselves felt. 8. SuperBetter Improves Mental Health Using the Psychology of Gameplay SuperBetter is tackling the youth mental health crisis. Its scalable science-backed platform promotes resilience, mental health & social emotional learning. 9. Netflix Teams up with Edtech Company Stage 32 to Make a Global Statement The film industry was good about responding to consumers’ desires for better tech, but it has lagged behind when it comes to representation and diverse voices. 10. 6 Cool Ways in Which AR/VR Can Change Chemistry Lessons When Watson and Crick were figuring out the double helix shape of our DNA, they actually used a set of molecular models, similar to toys used in preschool. Being  able to feel and see them in 3D definitely has  its advantages. And, when it comes to how microscopic entities interact, why leave it all to the imagination? We’ve seen generations of students struggling to understand and remember concepts in chemistry through the written word, most of which is literally Greek. The use of Augmented and Virtual Reality can actually turn chemistry from a dreaded subject to a really cool one. 11. Python is a Must-have 21st-Century Skill for Kids Learning Python for Kids Is an Essential 21st Century Skill. Look at programming courses that teach Python and see how coding can transform children's futures. 12. "The 4-Day Work Week" and other Insights on Bootstrapped Business with GooseChase CEO Andrew Cross Inspired by scavenger hunts, GooseChase is an online platform that enables you to create exceptional experiences for your communities. Meet CEO Andrew Cross. 13. Coding - The Universal Language You Must Learn Coding is a universal language, a 21st-century survival skill everyone can learn. Today more than ever, coding is a base requirement in numerous careers. 14. Education Technology and Smart Classrooms Education Technology (Ed Tech) and Smart Classrooms have been changing the traditional method of education, teaching and learning methods. Education technology refers to the integration and application of software, hardware and educational theories for facilitating learning in an interesting manner and enhancing the performances through creation, usage and management of suitable technical resources and processes. 15. “Pay Want You Want” Model Got Us $1M Donations for Online Courses Join HYLS, donation-based online course platform where you boost your self-development at any price you want. 16. Mistakes I Made While Building an EdTech Startup With 400K Active Users Back in 2017, I became a CEO of an EdTech startup. With no prior experience, I made mistakes almost from the very beginning. 17. How To Create a Useful Educational Product for Adults using Motivational Design The main metric for educational product is it's completition rate. To improve it, one can use the principles of motivational design. 18. Activity-Centered Instructional Design Model: An Analysis of Action Mapping by Cathy Moore Action Mapping by Cathy Moore is an activity-centred model of instructional design, which focuses on what people need to be able to do rather than what people 19. Softer, Faster, Stronger: EdTech Startup Building Kids’ Soft Skills EdTech Startup Building Kids’ Soft Skills | Interview with KIDDIO founder on challenges, perspectives and techniques of online soft skills development 20. A Peek into the Future of Higher Education - Can Artificial Intelligence Drive Remote Learning? Artificial Intelligence is already having a profound effect on the world around us. As cloud-based computing and Big Data analytics bring unprecedented convenience to our daily lives and countless industries, it’s worth taking a moment to consider how machines can help in the field of education in years to come, considering that revenues from the AI software market is projected to reach almost $120 billion by 2025. 21. How We Recreate the Idea of Educational Content [Part #1] Physical textbooks are reprinted once a year at best according to the waterfall process. Their content becomes outdated way before it’s published. And if a textbook is not commercially successful, it means financial losses for the company. One of the solutions is to create digital content right from the start, not just digitalize published content. This would allow for updates on the spot and the creation of customized materials that can be then published. 22. #FoundersConnect: Eyitayo Ogunmola, Founder of Utiva, an African Ed-tech Startup I speak with Eyitayo Ogunmola, the CEO of Utiva, an education service for Africans and people of colour entering the tech industry. 23. The role of blockchain in classrooms of the future Blockchain technology is seeping into every aspect of various industries all over the world and there are no plans to leave education untouched. 24. Hiring Shouldn’t Take So Long. Technology Can Help. An industry ripe for disruption - with the increasing globalization of the workforce, background check solutions are needed that can provide results at scale. 25. Future of Virtual Reality in Education: The Hottest EdTech Trend Look into the potential of virtual reality in the field of education. The education industry is about to undergo a dramatic change. Read what's big is coming. 26. What UX Designers Can Learn From Microlearning Microlearning helps inject knowledge into workflows, what's there to learn here for UX design? 27. Holberton's OS of Education Concept There's plenty of free content, what education needs is an OS 28. The Best EdTech for College Students Edtech has transformed the field of education with unparalleled access to knowledge and useful digital tools. 29. Revolutionizing EdTech: How ChatGPT's AI Advancements Are Shaping the Future of Education How ChtaGPT is paving the way for the future of Edtech and transforming the educational system 30. How Web3 is Reshaping Education in the Metaverse The upcoming Web3 education platform is ready to transform the education system with its unique model. Education in Metaverse is the new norm in the industry. 31. How To Choose One Thing and Master It with Julie Smith, The Techie Teacher Interview with 2021 Noonies Nominee, blogger, and Instructional Technology Consultant Julie Smith, aka The Techie Teacher, on edtech and loving your work. 32. Hacking College During COVID-19 In the last few months everything about our lives has either disappeared or gone online. Instead of going out to restaurants we order meals through apps. Instead of going to the grocery store we order groceries through apps. And instead of going into an office or school, many of us are working and going to school online. Online school has some implications for the long term, particularly when it comes to college. College is an important time to network and meet people who will be in your field throughout your lifetime, so what happens to college when everything moves online? 33. The Flipped Classroom Model Offers an Alternative to Educators Worried About ChatGPT Not even a couple of months have passed since the ChatGPT launched, yet teachers all over the world are now terrified of ChatGPT. 34. The Future Of EdTech May Very Well Be in Emerging Markets I believe that edtech will continue to develop and grow in the future. Numbers say so, too. 35. AI's Role in Language Learning: Stuart Barrass, Kaizen Languages CEO We spoke with Stuart Barrass, CEO and Co-founder of Kaizen Languages, a startup that helps people with language aquisition through AI-Driven conversations. 36. From Education to Edutainment: The Evolution of Sharing Knowledge Edutainment is not a new term, but this term has gained more prominence since the computer and the Internet have become increasingly popular. 37. Why is the Education Industry Opting for Conversational AI? As we all know that education is very much important in ones life. Conversational AI can help to improve the  teacher and student interaction. 38. The Challenges of Building an EdTech Company in the Post-COVID World Remote technologies and opportunities were already sweepingly popular before the nasty COVID-19 outbreak. 2020’s global pandemic and the resulting massive lockdown reinforced the industry-wide reach of online education and underlying technologies, boosting the growth of the EdTech industry by an annual 17-25%. The shift of both formal (school and university) and corporate education toward online is now stronger than ever, spawning new tech and business trends and dramatically popularizing the existing market tendencies. 39. The Future of EdTech Funding in India While the K-12 and higher education segments have witnessed significant growth in recent years, investing in the upskilling and reskilling segment can be a bett 40. The Markup Needs Your Help Investigating the Ed Tech Industry The Markup needs your help investigating educational technology companies. 41. This Security Regulation Is Blindsiding the Education Sector While CMMC deadlines are growing tighter, universities and other educational institutions have only recently discovered that they must comply with them. 42. What I Learned In My First Year As a Digital Student Exactly one year ago I have decided to heavily invest in myself starting with education, sport and healthy eating. While calculating the approximate cost of my new life plan I have realized that certain adjustments will have to be made. That’s when I remembered that we live in a world of free digital possibilities. So I made a pact with myself to learn as much as possible with 0 financial investments. Here’s what I got out of it. 43. Is the Rise of Preschoolers' App Usage a Pandemic Boom or a Paradigm Shift? In mid-2020, remote jobs, contactless delivery, and social distancing became the new normal. COVID-19 forced even the conservative education industry to change its rules. Children are not the face of this pandemic, but their academic growth, mental health, and social skills were affected, too. This is an overview of how COVID-19 pandemic affected kids' education, what is predicted for the global online education market, and how EdTech apps for children perform now. 44. Make Your EdTech Life-Changing by Applying These 5 UX Insights It's impossible to buid a well-converting edtech product without investing in the LX. Use these 5 insights to make your project life-changing. 45. How to Build a Language Learning App with Compose – Part 1 This is the first article, in a new series where I’ll be sharing my journey of building an app for learning a language with Jetpack Compose. 46. The Potential for AI in Personalized Learning AI already plays an important role in the development of personalized learning tools, and as time passes, its role is only going to increase. 47. EdTech: How Dutch Secondary Schools Are Transforming With Tech It's been 2 years since I joined a Dutch EdTech company as Lead Dev and in this article I'll explain how we are transforming communication for Dutch schools. 48. K-12 EdTech: AR Apps Are Changing the Way Kids Learn Augmented reality apps today are paving the way for widespread AR use in future classrooms globally. They can improve learning and provide other benefits. 49. Fintech: How COVID Affected Payments and the Underbanked The COVID-19 pandemic was a disruptor in the purest startup sense. The immediate shift to remote work, school, and socially distanced ways of life accelerated innovation by an estimated five years. 50. Approach Your B2B Sales Launch Like Another Startup: 5 Tips to Accelerate Growth The first and foremost rule to succeed is to treat the creation of a B2B department like a startup, even if you aren’t introducing a new product. 51. Trends in EdTech in that Take Remote Education to the Next Level EdTech is in high demand – Education must use the latest technologies in order to survive and develop. 52. How EdTech Increases Student Retention Students are dropping out of school more than ever. Recent advancements in edtech, provide students with tools they need to succeed despite challenges. 53. Edtech Learning Curves: Could Sliding Stock Prices Suggest Pandemic Boom was a Flash in the Pan? Edtech stocks across Wall Street have been heavily underperforming - especially those that opted to go public in 2021. So what's next? 54. Why Online Plagiarism Checkers are an Integral Part of E-Learning During the pandemic, e-learning technologies have been placed under the spotlight. The reason is that the EdTech industry became the key enabler of remote and distance learning. Thanks to applying technology in e-learning, thousands of students around the globe successfully completed the last semester. Chances are, they will continue studying remotely in autumn as well. 55. Notes on Duolingo's IPO and the Rise of EdTech Unicorns In this article we will talk about the rise of EdTech unicorns and the Duolingo IPO. 56. Online Learning Hits All-Time High, Software Engineer Anton Novikau Brings His Expertise to Talaera The demand for and interest in the e-learning industry has hit an all-time high. 57. #MyStartInTech: An Interview With Jon Gottfried, Co-Founder or Major League Hacking The tech workforce in the US is not growing at an optimal pace. The number of schools offering computer science is not enough which is impacting the access of computer science to young women and students from marginalized communities. 58. How Coding Education Prepares Kids for Life – Not Just Careers It's increasingly important for children to learn how to use technology and understand how it works – for everyday life and better careers. 59. Understanding 4 Levels of Evaluation: A study on Kirkpatrick's Instructional Design Model Kirkpatrick`s 4 Levels of Evaluation begins measuring the effectiveness of training from Reaction to Learning to Behaviour and finally learning, identifyi the 60. Your Kids Should Start Coding Early and Here's Why There are good reasons to believe that children that explore code early can develop more complex thinking processes. 61. How We Recreate the Idea of Educational Content [Part #2] The story "How We Recreate the Idea of Educational Content [Part #1]" you can read here. 62. Top EdTech Trends in 2022 and Beyond: Things You Can’t Miss EdTech has been quickly growing thanks to the many advances in technology in the last decade. These are the trends that will affect the field for the next year. 63. EdTech: 7 Ways to Be Better at Stock Photography in Online Education Stop using bad stock photos in edtech with these 7 tips on how to get the most out of your imagery choices. 64. Why and How We Expanded into the Chinese EdTech Market This is the nuts and bolts of the early results and returns of our startup's expansion into China's EdTech Industry. 65. How Education Can Happen in The Metaverse Companies are making a push for education within the metaverse, allowing both children and adults to learn in virtual spaces built on the blockchain. 66. How We Created a Mobile Tool For Learning Code In this article, we are going to talk about how we created the mobile version of CodeGym and where it led us. 67. Build vs. Buy: The AI Martech Conundrum Lomit Patel, Chief Growth Officer at Tynker, provides an overview of the pros and cons when building or buying an AI martech solution to capitlise on growth. 68. How to Design a Powerful LMS Platform: Real Example They were looking for a custom LMS platform that would be used by teachers, students, and parents. 69. Four Tips For The Newly Minted Remote Student As the classroom of the future changes, the students also need to adapt. As educational institutes are looking at long Coronavirus closures with millions of kids out of school worldwide, they are scrambling to reimagine how they can educate their students. 70. Benefits of AR in Education: A Brief Introduction for the Uninitiated How can teachers to ensure high quality of conducted classes and help students understand subjects properly? AR is the answer. 71. Interview: BrainCo CEO on The Future of Brain Machine Interface Tech BrainCo is a tech company that is dedicated to developing Brain Machine Interface technology, and it is the first Chinese team chosen by Harvard Innovation Lab. Located in Somerville, MA, the company is adjacent to Harvard University and MIT. 72. How COVID-19 May Forever Change the Way Professors Teach Few institutions were prepared for the sudden shift to remote teaching prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the response has been a real mixed bag. We have seen many institutions embrace this new reality, meeting the challenge head-on by training and supporting educators. But we’re also seeing scrambled and knee-jerk attempts at replicating the traditional classroom experience, which will no doubt affect attitudes towards remote learning. 73. 5 Innovations In Tech That Are Transforming Higher Education Many educational institutions are already using technology in education— whether to make the learning process more accessible and fun or drive cost savings. 74. How to Create a Converting Website for EdTech; An Analysis of 30 Landing Pages I analysed the TOP30 fastest growing EdTech landings to understand their conversion techniques. Result – 42 CRO techniques you could leverage for your product. 75. 4 Ways AI Can Improve Online Education Explore the top 4 online education trends that are shaping the future of online learning and discover how to enhance your eLearning technology systems with AI. 76. How Not to Give up Studying, and How to Make Any Training Effective The first question you should ask yourself when buying a course or signing up for a webinar is "Why do I need it?" 77. Monetizing the Curation Economy, Social Communities and Online Learning 3 big startup opportunities for your next venture. 78. How to Build a Successful eLearning Platform Like Coursera or Udemy If you are interested in investing in the eLearning sector, you will find helpful information in this blog about building an eLearning platform. Thank you for checking out the 78 most read stories about Edtech on HackerNoon. to find the most read stories about any technology. Visit the /Learn Repo

78 Stories To Learn About Edtech

Protecting Billion Dollar Crypto-Assets: Interview with Aaron Lint of Anchorage Digital Bank

Nir’s Note: Jane McGonigal is a game designer at The Institute for the Future and bestselling author of Reality is Broken and SuperBetter . In this interview with Max Ogles , McGonigal discusses impact of future technologies on behavior, habits, and the way we design products. Q: You recently worked on a project designed to visualize the future of technology. The idea was that using some future, not-yet-existent product, nicknamed people could actually share emotions with each other. (Here’s a FeelThat, link to the video. ) What was the thinking behind it? This is a project with Institute for the Future to look at some of the emerging technologies that are being prototyped, tested, and innovated right now. We try to imagine where technologies might take us in a decade or more if they became widespread and popular. We use a process to collect signals, or “clues,” about the future that suggest things that might have the potential to change our lives down the road. Then we try to extrapolate where these signals will lead if they’re amplified. The video is the result of gathering around 50 different signals, such as technologies that are sensing or collecting data on our emotions, sharing them with others, or technologies that stimulate us neurologically so we change our feelings in real time. Jane McGonigal: All of that combined was in the story that you saw. But shortly after we shared the scenario and did the research, Mark Zuckerberg leaked that he started a and development group specifically to do what we showed in the video. So this may just be what we’re all doing in the future. new internal research Q: In your work with the SuperBetter platform and book, you’ve thought about different ways to amplify human capacity for good or positive behavior change. How does futuristic technology like inform the way we think about behavior change? FeelThat One of the things I learned in my research and development of is that depression and anxiety underlie many people’s inability to change habits of behavior. And that doesn’t just mean clinical depression, but also a sort of mild depression that many people have when they think about behavior change. They lack confidence or ability and that’s reflected in the way they respond to setting goals or changing habits. was designed to let people hack their brains. So instead of like having low self-efficacy response when you are depressed or anxious about your your goals, you have a high self-efficacy response. Games are really good at building that response. JM: SuperBetter SuperBetter To relate that back to this vision of future emotionally-driven technologies, it seems to be really helpful to have this kind of data about our feelings, anxiety, or depression. Or even to have that information about the feelings of others. This type of technology could be an added layer of knowledge that you would have regarding people’s’ emotional state. Now you know when they might be most receptive to new information or when they might be most optimistic enough to do something difficult and not be discouraged by failure. Q: We often see apps or online platforms for behavior change that struggle to convert in-app actions to real-life behaviors. Do you think this technology–the additional layer of data–could be helpful to that end? JM: Yes. I think anytime you have more data about context, then you are better able to drive general behavior. In fact, you can imagine it getting complicated very fast in exciting ways. Not only do I know how you’re feeling, maybe I also know how your partner is feeling, or how your co-workers are feeling and whether this will be a high-stress day for you. The emotional information builds that context, similar to the way that mobile already gives us location information. So in this future, not only do we know where you are and who you’re with, but we also know how you and the people around you are feeling. Learning to process that data in meaningful ways would be a really fun challenge for data scientists and designers and psychologists to figure out how to use that knowledge to support people. Q: What do you think some of the obstacles or design implications that would exist in this possible future? Right now, we look around and say, “This future is definitely possible. People are making things that make this possible.” Do we want it to happen? That is an open question. I think a lot of startups and social media companies are needing to think ahead of the game; they’re thinking a decade out about what they’re building. And it’s important to push things in a direction so that we don’t wake up 10 years from now and realize, “Wow, our really cool social media app just led to the downfall of democracy.” So that’s the framework of why we think about this. JM: We had 10,000 high school students talk about this fictional technology, and we learned some interesting things. One is that you can never overestimate people’s willingness to share data. We people are going to be talking about privacy, but the drive for social engagement, particularly before you hit the age of 30, is the most important evolutionary drive. They will just share, share, share. I don’t think that will be an obstacle. think And a lot of the teenagers who played our game were concerned about not wanting to feel other people’s negative feelings. They don’t want to be exposed to it, they don’t want to share it, they don’t want to receive it. It makes you wonder about the way we curate our social media feeds today, to try to project images of a perfect life. You know, what would it be like to try to project the images of the perfect mind? And how would we our thoughts and feelings if we knew we were sharing them even with just friends and family? Q: There are obviously negative consequences that might arise from a technology like what we have been discussing. What is your approach to answering the question, “Should we build it?”? How do you think about that? Kevin Kelly, one of the founders of Wired Magazine and a long-time future forecaster himself, has a recent book that talks about the technological forces that are inevitably shaping our future. One of the inevitable forces he identifies are biometrics — knowing more about ourselves and how that would feed into products and services that are created for us. JM: On one hand, like Kevin Kelly, I think that there are certain technical trajectories that once they start, don’t get stuck because they feed certain human desires. For example, the desire to know ourselves is very fundamental and deep, right? So I don’t know whether we’ll get to make a choice about this future of deep biometric and neurological data being collected and shared in some way. The question is how do we want to share it, who do we want to share it with, do we want this data integrated in all of our apps and products? What are the most sort of benevolent and empowering ways to embed this? What are the really gross and exploitative ways to use them? I think it’s not “Do we want this future?” but “What are we going to start doing right now to affect all of the dimensions of this future?” Q: In what ways could a product manager or designer, for example, prepare to be really influential with future technology? One of the practical skills that we do at the Institute for the Future is have people practice both positive and shadow imagination about any signal they encounter. Whenever you hear about something different that you haven’t heard about before, you force your brain to interact with it from both a positive, hopeful, optimistic side and also from the critical, pessimistic side. Most people have a bias about the future or about new technology, they default to either optimistic or pessimistic. If you don’t exercise both types of imagination, you tend to be really surprised. For example, they get surprised when something takes off and it’s really popular, or they can’t imagine that people would ever use this type of service. JM: That’s why I’m constantly running games. I ask thousands of people what they are excited about when they hear this, or what makes them anxious about when they hear this? The more people you kind of collect their point of view from, you can overcome your own biases. Whatever your bias is, you can help correct it by doing both kinds of reactions to every new thing that you encounter in technology. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Originally published at www.nirandfar.com on March 20, 2017. _Nir's Note: Q: You recently worked on a project designed to visualize the future of technology. The idea was that using…_www.nirandfar.com The Unbelievable Future of Habit-Forming Technology If you found this post interesting, it would mean a lot to me if you could click on the “claps” icon below to let me know. That would really make my day — thanks! Nir Eyal is the author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and blogs at . For more insights on using psychology to change behavior, join his newsletter and receive Nir’s . NirAndFar.com free list of research-backed tips and tricks to increase your personal productivity

A Future Forecaster on Habit-Forming Technology

Is distraction a curse or a blessing? Not giving full attention to what we should be doing makes us miss deadlines, fail classes, and crash into other drivers. Distraction certainly has a price. Nonetheless, we love our distractions! Social media, spectator sports, movies, books, TV shows, the news, video games — what would we do without them? Clearly, there are benefits to distractions as evidenced by the fact that nearly everyone on earth seeks them out. But why? Although they seem to pull us away from more important things, what purpose do they serve? And, when at times we seem to give in to distractions, how do we ensure they serve us well? Distractions Can Ease Pain Our brains have a . We can’t pay attention to everything around us all at once so we must choose what to focus on. For example, we may choose to focus on work while struggling to resist more interesting distractions. limited ability to focus However, in some situations, we can leverage this biological limitation to our advantage. In her book, , Dr. Jane McGonigal, describes how distractions can be a powerful tool for reducing the impact of painful or negative experiences. SuperBetter: The Power of Living Gamefully For example, children are notoriously anxious before surgery. Their levels of preoperative anxiety are known to reduce the effectiveness of anesthesia and increase recovery times. Physicians need alternatives to sedative medications to keep them calm. A study, cited by McGonigal, used distractions to effectively reduce their stress. , one group of children was given anti-anxiety medication before surgery, another group played handheld video games, while a third control group was given no medication and no video games before surgery. The kids in the video game group were the only ones to show a decrease in anxiety before surgery. They also required less anesthesia during the procedure and suffered from fewer medication side effects after surgery than children in the other two groups. In the study The video games proved effective, researchers believe, because they distracted the children from the pain and uncertainty of the surgery. The engaging nature of the video game helped children direct their attention away from their fear and towards the challenge of the game. This study isn’t alone in demonstrating the power of distractions to lessen negative experiences. Burn patients are typically given large doses of medications to help them through the excruciating pain of cleaning their wounds. A new virtual reality game designed by scientists at the University of Washington Seattle demonstrated the extraordinary power of distractions in fighting pain. The researchers found that patients who played the game during wound cleaning . In fact, playing the virtual reality game was more effective at reducing pain than using medication. The researchers concluded that the more immersive and engaging the game was, the more it helped direct attention away from the pain of the procedure. felt up to 50 percent less pain Distractions Can Make Us Better The ability to shift our attention away from negative experiences is also helpful outside of a hospital setting. Distractions can help us cope with the pains of everyday life. Research on how distractions can be used to control our urges and impulses show that certain games, like Tetris for example, can help reduce cravings for and even addictive . Researchers suspect the cognitive demands of these games redirect our attention away from craving triggers, reducing the painful urge to indulge. Playing matching puzzle games like Candy Crush, Puzzle Blocks, or Interlocked might actually help us distract ourselves away from digging into that pint of ice cream in the fridge. fatty foods drugs Distractions can also help us stay fit. Research taking our minds off the pain of physical exercise, with music or television, can improve performance and endurance. suggests Digital distractions and personal technology can help us be stronger in the moment, but McGonigal thinks they can also help us develop our ability to take on challenges in the future. Certain personal technologies can help us build up our courage, McGonigal says, and games are a particularly good way to boost our self-efficacy — our confidence in our ability to overcome problems. Evidence to back McGonigal’s claim comes from a notable about how a video game helped adolescent cancer patients fight their disease, literally. The study tested whether playing a cancer-themed video game called “ ” would help patients stick to their treatment plan and take their medication regularly. In this example, the game didn’t fight pain directly, but built up patients’ capabilities. Patients who played the game were more likely to take their medications, increase their sense of self-efficacy, and show more knowledge regarding how to fight their cancer. experiment Re-mission From McGonigal’s standpoint, digital games are powerful tools to build strength and confidence because “…Constantly escalating challenge requires a willingness from [patients] to keep trying, even when they fail. It instills a belief that if they keep practicing and learning, if they put in the hard work, they will eventually be able to achieve more difficult goals.” By attempting and overcoming challenges within a game, the cancer patients strengthened their perseverance to keep fighting. Other digital games have been used to help patients with , , , and ; all showing increases in self-efficacy and self-care behavior after playing. More evidence that games can heal is emerging from new digital health platforms which use game-based elements to increase patient participation. asthma diabetes anxiety ADHD For example, taking prescribed medications and adopting a healthy lifestyle can greatly improve patient outcomes but only if people actually change their behavior. The helps patients manage their chronic diseases through playful design elements traditionally used in games, like levels, point systems, unlocking content, variable rewards, and competition. Combining the engaging nature of games with the accessibility of personal technology creates a healthy distraction that can build patient confidence to combat disease. Empower digital health platform Empower Digital Health When are Distractions Destructive? Clearly, distractions can help us deal with pain and build our courage to tackle future challenges. However, don’t distractions pull us away from our priorities? What about the many products and services, like video games and social media sites, designed to be so good we want to use them all the time? Sometimes we have trouble limiting their use and find ourselves sucked into distractions. Whether personal technology distractions are a force for good, McGonigal explains, depends on we use them. “Do you play to escape your real life, or do you play to make your real life better?” why and how McGonigal describes two modes for how we engage with distracting activities: self-suppression and self-expansion. Self-suppression is using distractions to avoid negative experiences; while self-expansion is using distractions to promote positive ones. Sounds simple enough, but McGonigal warns that at times, it is hard to tell the difference between the two. The same activity could be expansive for one person and suppressive for another. It all depends on the person is engaging in the distraction and for how long. why How can you tell if a distraction is good or bad for you? McGonigal suggests first asking yourself, “Why am I doing this?” If your response is to avoid a negative feeling such as “Because work is boring,” or “I don’t want to deal with anything right now,” the distraction may be self-suppressive. Of course in some instances, such as burn victims or children about to go into surgery, distractions can be an effective coping strategy. However, these are justified in that the distractions are used as a temporary solution. Once the patient is healed physically, they no longer require the escape from pain. However, problems can arise when distractions become a permanent escape from an uncomfortable reality. McGonigal warns of solutions that don’t build our ability to deal with pain in the future. Temporary distractions used for too long may backfire because, “Over time self-suppression actually diminishes our sense of self-efficacy … We no longer see ourselves as people who can effectively solve our own problems.” When we rely on pain-relieving distractions, be it personal technology, drugs, or other escapes, we may never build our capacity to deal with a painful situation, either physical or psychological. In contrast, self-expansive distractions involve achieving goals, building skills, or attaining new knowledge that can be used over the long-term. These distractions help us improve ourselves and can build self-efficacy. For example, answers to the question “Why am I doing this?” that sound like, “I want to learn a new language,” “I want to build a bigger career network,” “I want to know more about my health,” or “I want to improve my well-being,” are the kind of answers that a self-expansive technology can help with. Using distractions with an expansive mindset builds strength, while using them with a suppressive one simply shields us from the pain we are avoiding. Identifying you engage with personal technology may be the difference between healthy and destructive behavior. Take a look at your favorite digital distractions — social media, video games, puzzles, television shows, podcasts, news, and spectator sports — and ask yourself whether you are using them as tools to build strength, skills, knowledge, and self-efficacy for the future or for temporary escape from an uncomfortable reality. If it’s the latter, you may want to reconsider the role these distractions play in your life. If the pain you’re escaping is permanent, no distraction will ever heal it. You must either learn new coping strategies or fundamentally fix what is broken. why and how When we think about personal technology distractions, we must ensure they continue to serve us. Whether it is helping us get through a difficult time in our lives, or helping us build strength and perseverance for the long-term, continually asking “why am I doing this?” can help make sure we’re getting the most out of our distractions. Here’s the Gist: → Distractions aren’t always bad, sometimes they are useful tools. → Personal technology distractions like video games and puzzles can give us strength to endure negative experiences. → Some distractions can strengthen our ability to tackle new challenges. → Personal technology is a healthy distraction for most people, but it can go bad when it becomes an escape from an uncomfortable reality. It all depends on we use it. why and how long → Using distractions for self-expansion builds strength, while using them for self-suppression simply shields us from the pain we’re avoiding. → To determine if a distraction is self-expansive or self-suppressing, get to the bottom of why you are really using it. → Self-suppression is acceptable for coping with negative experiences in the short term, but can backfire when used as a long-term solution. Nir’s Note: This post is co-authored by Nir Eyal and Chelsea Robertson, PhD Originally published at www.nirandfar.com on June 1, 2017. Can Distraction Redirect Triggers and Addictive Cravings? | NirandFar If you found this post interesting, it would mean a lot to me if you could click on the “claps” icon below to let me know. That would really make my day — thanks! Nir Eyal is the author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and blogs at . For more insights on using psychology to change behavior, join his newsletter and receive Nir’s . NirAndFar.com free list of research-backed tips and tricks to increase your personal productivity <a href="https://medium.com/media/3aadb6022015a5c2e59a4edc1e7d42e7/href">https://medium.com/media/3aadb6022015a5c2e59a4edc1e7d42e7/href</a>

When Distraction is a Good Thing

DJ Khaled, the one-man internet meme, is known for warning his tens of millions of social media followers about a group of villains he calls “they.” “ don’t want you motivated. don’t want you inspired,” he on camera. “ don’t want you to win,” he . On Ellen DeGeneres’s talk show, Khaled , “Please, Ellen, stay away from !” They They blares They warns urged the host them The “they” Khaled invokes are clearly a sinister force. But who are they? Khaled offered clues when he told DeGeneres, “ are the people who don’t believe in you.… is the person that told you you would never have an Ellen show.” They They Although Khaled’s claims may seem outlandish, he is in fact leveraging a powerful psychological hack: scapegoating. The practice of imagining a villain that’s conspiring against us, scapegoating can be an effective way to motivate ourselves and change our behaviors. Of course, as history has shown, terrible things can happen when people act on baseless conspiracy theories. But sometimes the antidote is in the venom. Khaled isn’t the first to use the technique. In , Steven Pressfield uses an entity he calls “Resistance” to describe the force conspiring against creative output. “Most of us have two lives,” Pressfield writes. “The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.” Throughout his book Pressfield reminds readers, “Resistance is always plotting against you.” The War of Art The author and game designer Jane McGonigal described a similar conspiracy of bad guys in her book . McGonigal blames villains like “Mrs. Volcano” and “Snuff the Tragic Dragon” when she loses her temper with her kids or feels self-pity. SuperBetter Khaled, Pressfield, and McGonigal know that “they,” “Resistance,” and the “bad guys” don’t actually exist. For Khaled, that’s the joke that powers the meme. If Khaled were to point a finger at a real group of people intent on sabotaging him, such as an ethnic group or a particular corporate entity, his scapegoating wouldn’t be funny — it would be malicious. Correct Causes In order for productive scapegoating to work, it’s important not to assign blame to something or someone too specific; if we do so, we’ll shirk our responsibilities to change our actions. own Instead, we need to find the underlying causes of our bad behaviors, which requires asking difficult questions — especially since our intuition is frequently wrong. Maybe we don’t binge on junk food or YouTube videos because of the pleasure in what we’re consuming, but because of deeper problems consuming us. Perhaps the true reason we allow our phones to interrupt dinner is not that we’re addicted to our phones, but that we’re addicted to work. Once we’ve identified our own self-defeating behaviors, the next challenge is to implement a change, which can be difficult if we think what’s happening to us is beyond our control. In these situations it’s easy to feel powerless and to give up. It’s here that scapegoating can be used to our advantage. By directing our anger and anxieties at an invisible , the forces working against us seem more tangible, so we feel like we have more power to fight them. they Powerless if You Think You Are Several recent studies have observed a strong connection between the way we think about our ability to act and our follow-through. For example, to determine how in control people feel regarding their cravings for cigarettes, drugs, or alcohol, researchers administer a standard survey called the . The assessment is modified for the participant’s drug of choice and presents statements like “Once the craving starts…I have no control over my behavior” and the cravings “are stronger than my willpower.” How people rate these statements tells researchers how powerful or powerless they feel in the face of temptation. Lower scores reveal that subjects believe they are more in control, while higher scores correlate with people who believe the drugs control them. Craving Beliefs Questionnaire (CBQ) A that appeared in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment in 2010 concluded that people with low CBQ scores were more likely to stay sober and that participants whose scores decreased over time — indicating that they felt more powerful as time passed — had increased odds of abstinence. A published in 2014 found similar results: The smokers most likely to fall off the wagon after quitting were the ones who believed they were powerless to resist. study of methamphetamine users study of cigarette smokers Though the logic isn’t surprising — if we believe we’re powerless, we don’t even try not to fail — the extent of the effect is remarkable. A 2015 study published in the found that individuals who believed they were powerless to fight their cravings were much more likely to drink again. In fact, beliefs of powerlessness determined whether someone would relapse after treatment did. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs as much as the level of physical dependency itself Embracing the Enemy Besides making us feel more powerful, scapegoating can harness our instincts to resist threats to our freedom and autonomy, a phenomenon that psychologists call For example, when your boss micromanages you and tells you what to do in a patronizing way, you may feel crummy and decide to do the opposite, to “stick it to the man.” Scapegoating uses the power of reactance toward productive ends. If we feel that someone or something is conspiring against us, we’re more likely to work harder to prove them wrong. “reactance.” Eliciting reactance has been used successfully in public health efforts, such as the antismoking , which tried to appeal to rebellious high schoolers (who feel reactance toward just about everyone). Instead of showcasing far-off consequences like emphysema and black lungs, the Truth campaign did away with the gore and instead painted the tobacco industry as a bunch of scheming jerks. In one ad activists attempt to deliver a case marked to the headquarters of a tobacco company and are promptly kicked out. In another spot, cartoon characters interrupt smokers at a party by shouting Truth campaign “lie detector” “It’s a trap!” We can apply the same methods to use careful scapegoating to increase our own motivation. If we imagine a force working against us, we’re more likely to get fired up, resist our temptations, and work harder to achieve our goals. Of course, it’s actually just us against ourselves. But for the times when we don’t want to admit that, providing a clear enemy to rebel against — a “they” who doesn’t want you to leave that extra cookie on the plate or get back to writing that blog post — can help us summon the tenacity we need to succeed. Even if, in reality, that “they” resides in each of us. Here’s the gist: If used correctly, scapegoating can be a powerful tool for resisting temptation and sticking to hard goals. It can also be dangerous and backfire if used incorrectly. Assigning blame is a kind of psychological defense mechanism that frees us from uncomfortable feelings when bad things happen out of our control, or when we don’t want to accept that we are responsible for our own problems. Nothing can be done when bad things happen as a result of circumstances truly beyond our control. But we’re often more powerful than we think we are when it comes to our own behavior. Studies have found that people who believe that temptations control them are much more likely to give in. As long as we target the behavior at the root of the problem, creating an imaginary enemy — projecting our struggle onto the scapegoat — can make us feel more powerful and help us resist temptation or achieve our goals. What do you think? Have you used scapegoating to tackle hard goals? Do you have any techniques for overcoming adversity? Tell me about it in the comments below. Originally published at www.nirandfar.com on February 6, 2017. How to Achieve Your Goals By Creating an Enemy If you found this post interesting, it would mean a lot to me if you could click on the “claps” icon below to let me know. That would really make my day — thanks! Nir Eyal is the author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and blogs at . For more insights on using psychology to change behavior, join his newsletter and receive Nir’s . NirAndFar.com free list of research-backed tips and tricks to increase your personal productivity

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