Nir is a behavioral product designer and the author of two bestselling books, ⁠Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life⁠ and Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. He previously co-founded and sold two tech companies and taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. Follow Nir on X @nireyal.

[0:16] - How Nir’s interest in habit formation led him to work in behavioral design

[5:15] - Behavioral factors at the route of America's obesity epidemic

[12:56] - Distractions, the negative externalities of abundance

[18:09] - Combining scientific research with practical advice in writing

[22:03] - Writing as a means for thinking and a tool for iteration

[26:15] - The psychology of human motivation and distraction

[33:31] - Nir’s fundamental principles for preventing distraction

[38:16] - Why identifying and controlling internal triggers is more important than limiting external triggers in conquering distraction

[42:38] - Using timeboxing to turn distractions into periods of productivity

[52:10] - Balancing inspiration and spontaneity with timeboxing

For more episodes, go to ⁠podofjake.com⁠.

Previous guests include ⁠Mark Cuban⁠, ⁠Vitalik Buterin⁠, ⁠Brian Armstrong⁠, ⁠Balaji Srinivasan⁠, ⁠Keith⁠ ⁠Rabois⁠, ⁠Ali Spagnola⁠, ⁠Anthony Pompliano⁠, ⁠Raoul Pal⁠, ⁠Julia Galef⁠, ⁠Jack Butcher⁠, ⁠Tim Draper⁠, and over 100 others alike. Learn from founders and CEOs of companies like ⁠OpenAI⁠, ⁠Coinbase⁠, ⁠Solana⁠, ⁠Polygon⁠, ⁠AngelList⁠⁠, ⁠Oura⁠⁠, and ⁠Replit⁠, and investors from ⁠Founders⁠ ⁠Fund⁠, ⁠a16z⁠, ⁠Union Square Ventures⁠, and many more. I appreciate your support and hope you enjoy.

Thanks to ⁠⁠Chase Devens⁠⁠ for the show notes and ⁠⁠Yiction⁠⁠ for the music.

Lastly, I love hearing from fans of the pod. Feel free to email me any time at ⁠[email protected]⁠. Thank you!