Economy Mind

So I was a little bored so I started watching this Authors at Google talk by Tim Harford. He is not a good speaker but he does a good job talking about some really interesting results of using economic thinking and economic analysis to understand human behaviour. One point I particularly liked was the conclusion that people in addictive and similar circumstances are naturally inclined to do things that help them deal with their habits. The findings suggest that if a system is put in-place to help people deal with such problems they are likely to use them with the hope they will be affected. 

Also in the talk he mentions a service that offers related solutions called Stickk. Their model is to provide a way to document progress with a stake, made up of personal value, at hand. If the progress falls below a user set amount the stake is contributed to a charitable cause. This company has found that such a method can successfully motivate people to manage their own habits. 

On another note, I had to watch parts of a few other Google talks to find to one that was truly interesting. I wonder if the quality of google talks is going down. I also still wish they created a good summarisation service.