#nudging

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[bobauthorman]

"So, what's it liked being constantly shipped with someone? Not so fun when it's happening to you, is it?"

"I'll have you know that my bickering with Tiger is purely antagonistic, and is in no way meant to be seen in a romantic manner."

"Suuuuure."

[gregor-samsung]

“ La rivoluzione digitale ha radicalmente trasformato il potere del marketing e reso possibile il suo upgrading a forma politica, grazie al fatto che abbiamo oceani di dati personali, che miliardi di persone sono ora collegate e vivono onlife nell’infosfera, che gli algoritmi sono sempre più sofisticati, che il costo della potenza di elaborazione sta diventando trascurabile, che gli effetti di rete dominano la concorrenza e che le interazioni sociali sono sempre più mediate dalle tecnologie digitali. Tuttavia, concentrarsi esclusivamente su questi fattori tecnologici e sociali è insufficiente perché spiega solo alcune condizioni necessarie per comprendere la marketizzazione della politica e quindi la comunicazione politica come tecnica di marketing. Manca ancora un elemento essenziale, che è rappresentato dalla trasformazione più profonda nella nostra antropologia filosofica (la risposta che diamo oggi alla domanda ontologica sulla nostra natura). Abbiamo visto che la rivoluzione digitale ha cambiato la nostra auto-concezione, culturalmente e socialmente. Ha trasformato tutti noi, ontologicamente, in inforgs [=organismi informativi], e quindi, funzionalmente, in interfacce. Ciò è accaduto sia a livello concettuale (come vediamo noi stessi) sia a livello fattuale (come trattiamo noi stessi e interagiamo tra noi). È necessario capire questa trasformazione per spiegare l’upgrading fondamentale del marketing in politica, e la profonda influenza che le strategie di marketing hanno sul discorso politico attuale. Pertanto, è troppo semplicistico parlare di comunicazione post-verità. Dovremmo piuttosto parlare di successo e insuccesso della comunicazione: l’obiettivo è quello di digitare risposte sulle interfacce umane riuscendo a far sì che esse si comportino come desiderato e in questo modo ottenere la risorsa dall’altra parte dell’interfaccia. Il marketing è una forma di nudging (spintarella), e “premere il pulsante giusto” (push the right button) è sempre meno una metafora e sempre più una tecnica per descrivere le interazioni con gli individui ridotti a interfacce umane. La marketizzazione della politica significa che i messaggi politici sono come password: brevi, semplici da ricordare, sempre uguali e ripetuti ogni volta che si ha a che fare con le stesse interfacce umane ma, soprattutto, né veri né falsi, bensì funzionanti o no. “

Luciano Floridi, Il verde e il blu. Idee ingenue per migliorare la politica, Raffaello Cortina Editore, 2020. [Libro elettronico; corsivi dell’autore]

[pinballforever]

How a Pinball Machine works in Slow Motion - The Slow Mo Guys

Tilt bob: If you nudge the machine too hard it will cause a weight on a rod to move in the cabinet. If it moves too much it will make contact with the outer ring and give you a warning, or you’ll lose the ball entirely.

[afotw]

[polimi-designseminar2020]

Pay me 1€ for every time I find the light on - The case of a roommate who's never turned off the lights in her life

Sometimes living with others is difficult – The problem

Living with roommates can sometimes be difficult because of different ways of seeing things, misunderstood characters. But when you live with your best friend... This is just worse! You start by not telling each other the things that bother you because you don't want to fight or offend your friend, ignoring the fact that this could only complicate things for the future. But if there's one thing I've always said to my roommate it's, "please, at least turn off the light when you leave the house!" If there's one thing I can't stand is seeing all the lights on in the house...Or even worse: coming home, finding the house empty, but with the lights on! In the 9 months that we live together, she never managed to get used to turning off the lights, although I must admit that sometimes she tried...But probably not enough! So, the "nudging experiment" gave me the cue to try this time in a more direct way to try to change her attitude.

Thinking how to nudge my flatmate

So, I started brainstorming about possible solutions I could use to get her to change her behavior. I started to think of something that could really make her want to keep the lights on, something that could make her pay more attention and that could immediately have an effect on her. At the same time, I wanted my experiment to be perceived as something playful, ironic, but also serious. So, after a while I got the solution..

The nudging experiment

On Tuesday I decided to make a jar to leave at the entrance of the house with "Paula extra contribution to the electricity bill" written on it. When she came home and saw the jar, I explained to her what would happen until next weekend.

I explained to her that I had decided that every time I found the lights on in the house again, I would not turn them off but would leave a post-it on the switch with "I saw you! Put the money in the jar and turn off the light :)" written on.

For every time I found the lights on in the house, she'd have to put 1 euro in the jar. My goal was to see if within three days, the amount of money accumulated in the jar daily would decrease. If not, it would mean that my experiment hadn't worked and that my roommate was really incorrigible! I have to say that this experiment worked really well for me, not only as a designer and because I experimented how really sometimes small things can have a strong impact on people, but also because in just 24 hours I earned 25 euros. Yes, my roommate despite everything managed to make the same mistake 25 times in 24 hours. I was really fascinated!

I thought she was hopeless, but the second day, unexpectedly I saw some behavioral changes. I'm not saying that she had totally stopped forgetting the light on, but the fact that she had seen that my game continued and was getting more and more serious, obviously pushed her to pay a little more attention.

Indeed, on the second day I only earned 7 euros, which compared to 25 euros on the first day, was a big step forward. On the third day, the amount of money was the same, maybe a little less. So I decided to continue my experiment until Sunday, to see if there might be more progress in the next few days, or if progress will remain constant.

In any case, it was for me a very funny experiment during which despite the jokes and laughter, I noticed how really small actions, small tricks can encourage people to pay more attention to their behavior. Many times, as in this case, a nudging experiment shows how to change a behavior for the person doesn’t require any effort or sacrifice. The secret is just to find a way to push him/her initially towards a change of conscious behavior.

Alessia Kayalibay

[literaticat]

Hi! Can you provide me with the correct wording please that industry professionals like to see, for following up with A) an agent and B) a publisher who accepts unagented submissions. Also, what do I put in the subject line? Trying to choose wording that won't come across as desperate or impatient, or piss anyone off, especially during the pandemic. Thanks!

I’d reply to the same email thread (not changing the subject line) so that they can be reminded of what the heck you are following up on. The ONLY time I’d change the subject line, personally, is if you have an offer (of rep or publication) in which case I’d change the subject line to:  OFFER OF REP: old subject line, or OFFER OF PUBLICATION (or similar): old subject line.

Then you simply say, to an agent or an editor who is reading a ms:

Hi ___, I’m just checking in on the status of XYZ, which I sent on May 1 (or whatever, that was more than 8 weeks ago). Is there any update here? 

Thanks!

or, to an agent, if you’ve gotten an offer: 

Hi ___, I wanted to let you know that I’ve been offered representation; I’d love to make a decision by x-date, can you let me know if you are still considering? 

Thanks!

or, to an agent, if you have an offer of publication:

Hi ___, I’ve received an offer of publication from [name of publisher]; I’d love to have an agent on board; can you let me know if you are still considering?   

Thanks!

[yvfu]

IoT shoulder angel