Hooked, SoftBank and asking better questions
Three essays/books that I found interesting from recent reading:
Nir Eyal’s Hooked had been on my reading list for the longest time and I just managed to finish it. It’s a book that encapsulates a template (called ‘The Hooked Model’) that product companies can follow to build ‘habit-forming products’. While the principles behind habits are well-captured in other well-written books such as Tiny Habits, Atomic Habits and so forth, Hooked applies those principles to the world of product creation and that’s what makes it an important, if not essential read. The case-studies make for an interesting read by themselves. For me the key takeaway from the book is what Eyal calls as “elements of simplicity”. To me these elements make for friction points that a product designer must aim to reduce, in order to enhance adoption. These elements are: time, money, physical effort, mental effort, social deviance and disruption to existing routines. Though Eyal has put these elements in the context of product design, I believe reducing or eliminating them is equally relevant to anyone struggling to form any habit.
The Economist came out with this long form story on SoftBank (a perennial favourite of the magazine). SoftBank has had its share of bad publicity, especially after the debacle of rocket high, unsubstantiated valuation of WeWork. However, it has managed a comeback and reported an annual profit of $46bn, “the highest ever by a Japanese company”. A major part of the success is attributed to complex financial engineering that SoftBank excels at. “Complexity is their best friend – if they want to go from A to B, they will go through all the letters of the alphabet to get there,” so says an unnamed source who knows SoftBank well in the story. SoftBank is running Vision Fund 2 now, which has no external investors anymore. This very detailed analysis by The Economist is worth spending time to read to understand the evolution of this interesting player.
Finally, this short piece on how to ask good questions made for a useful read. For me of all the advice the one that stood out was, “It is often better to preface a question with a confession of some sort, or with information from yourself. That sets a standard for the respondent. Set that standard high!” Also, by asking yourself in advance: “can the person being asked the question respond too easily in a vague and not very useful way?”
A quote that I recently read:
“We need to define hard work to include “hard thinking””
— James Clear
