ArticlesBook Review - Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
I.
So, here’s my review of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal, alternatively titled by myself as, Hooked: So, Your Product Doesn’t Have Nicotine. What Do? Yeah, this isn’t going to be fun for anyone who wrote this book, so strap in.
I read somewhere that when reviewing a book, you shouldn’t talk about what the book could have been, but what it was, so I won’t, even though this book could have been, but it wasn’t.
The book we did end up with is mainly a collection of anecdotes, pop-psy references and post-hoc-ergo-user-base conclusions about the success of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. It is full of really terrible, yet undeniably effective examples of what some refer to as the “dark arts” of user experience design. If you’re into growth hacking, making successful products that people love to hate or hate to love, or look forward to a future full of even more seductive Facebooks, Farmvilles, reddits, and religions, then this book will make you smile like gramma Jean pullin’ three cherries. (“I knew this one was hot!”). Conversely, if you’re the poor bastard who feels a responsibility for your users’ well-being; if you’re the sucker who aspires to make products that actually improve people’s lives; or if you’re dumb enough not to trade user experience for more email addresses, then pay attention - because this is what you’re up against:
“It is the fear of losing a special moment that instigates a pang of stress. The negative emotion is the internal trigger that brings Instagram users back to the app to alleviate this pain by capturing a photo. As users continue to use the service, new internal triggers form.
Yet Instagram is more than a camera replacement; it is a social network. The app helps users dispel boredom by connecting them with others, sharing photos, and swapping lighthearted banter.
Like many social networking sites, Instagram also alleviates the increasingly recognizable pain point known as fear of missing out, or FOMO. For Instagram, associations with internal triggers provide a foundation to form new habits.
It is now time to understand the mechanic of connecting the user’s problem with your solution by utilizing the next step in the Hook model. In the next chapter we’ll find out how moving people from triggers to actions is critical in establishing new routines.”
To summarize, Instagram alleviates the pain that occurs when you’re not using Instagram. I guess I can’t argue with that. Though, I’ve see this tactic before somewhere…
Here’s another doozy:
“The study demonstrated that people suffering from symptoms of depression used the internet more. Why is that? One hypothesis is that those with depression experience negative emotions more frequently than the general population and seek relief by turning to technology to lift their mood.”
I’m reminded of that quote by Alberto Brandolini: “The amount of energy necessary to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.” Let’s see if I can’t prove Brandolini wrong: “I’d have much stronger feelings about your dismal understanding of depression if I wasn’t so depressed. And I probably wouldn’t be so depressed if I accomplished something other than turning all the reddit links purple yesterday.” Hey, do you like apples? I beat you by sixty-one characters. How you like them apples?
And this, just one paragraph later:
“When bored, many people seek excitement and turn to dramatic news headlines. When we feel overly stressed, we seek serenity, perhaps finding relief in sites like Pinterest. When we feel lonely, destinations like Facebook and Twitter provide instant social connections.”
Which I read as: “I went on Facebook and saw nobody I care about and got bored so I went to CNN and saw that the world is on fire and I got stressed so I went to Pinterest and realized that I will never find lasting happiness through material things and I got lonely so I went back to Facebook and now I can’t stop because if I do then I’ll be confronted with the stark reality of how little I actually value my time/work/friends/marriage/life.” Ouch. Sorry there, champ. Too much?
At this point, the authors start talking about Skinner boxes, Olds and Milner mice traversing electrified floors to click levers, the human stimoceiver experiments (oh God, the horror), and what we can learn from them when designing our amazing new products. Schedule time for a shower after chapter four. “But, my book isn’t waterproof.” It totes is, trust me.
Ethics aside, it’s still not a very good book. The authors did little heavy lifting in the form of synthesizing new ideas or insights, and as you can see above, made assumptions so painful that I often put the book down to make sure I could still smile on both sides of my face. The only positive thing I have to say about these first five chapters is that they are mostly barren of any practical advice on how to implement these tactics. Hopefully this minimizes any potential damage that impressionable young PM’s reading this might inflict on the public. “Hey mister, does ‘PM’ stand for ‘Psychopathic Maker’?” It sure does, Billy. Have a few Godus coins, on me.
II
Once the first five chapters have stripped the reader of their humanity, they are deposited - naked and septic - into chapter six for a discussion on the morality of all this. Unfortunately, the only tool provided to the reader to navigate their way through the stench and reach the Goblin City is an Eisenhower decision matrix so flaccid that I’m certain, when encountered, even avid supporters of the book went :/ and called a cab.
For me though, the worst part of this chapter was the not the content of the content, but the length. After finishing its economical sixteen pages I was O.M.G. salivating at the thought that the “chapter on ethics" was by far the shortest chapter in the book and what a perfect little zinger that was gonna make. But at fourteen pages, the following chapter case-studying a bible app undercut it by two, robbing me of that sweet-sweet irony and continuing the disregard for human well-being. “At least he’s consistent.” Yeah, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one counting pages.
By the way, if you need a primary case study for your book about building addictive products, then choosing a wildly successful bible app is either the best idea ever or the worst idea ever. A user walks into a strip club and gets a notification from God. No, it’s not a joke, it’s one of the anecdotes - and I’m dead serious. I’m not sure how you feel about it, but tell me what you thought of chapters one through five and I’ll bet you all my series A that I’m a mind-reader. “What’s a thinkfluenceprenuer like me got to do to get a user base like that?!” I don’t know but I’ll mix up some dark room chemicals with starter fluid and we can afterwork this on someone else’s yacht. Go ahead and get started without me, I’ll be right back. Pinkyswear.
I only skimmed the last chapter as the nausea was becoming quite loud (must have been some bad scotch). It had something to do with how to pronounce “klaatu varata nictoo” (or something like that) followed by a typical blue-sky, “live in the future” tie-up about a guy who was burdened by tweeting, a bunch of people in the past making terrible predictions to show you that you're smart and the time is now, and how Facebook was small but then it was big so go out there and get ‘em tiger because future we success generation peacock hallway grandmother…
I kinda dozed off towards the end.
Look, I haven’t written a book report since I was nine (maybe it shows), and hats off to the fellas for putting in the work to write a book, but boy-howdy I felt compelled to rebut after reading Hooked. I beg you, unless it’s to better understand what people who give a damn about what they’re building have to face, then don’t buy this book (available through my Amazon affiliate link here
(You should totally buy Lea Verou’s book
