Why the best is not always the best

Recently I decided to treat myself to a new mouse - the Logitech MX Master 3. It is celebrated as the most comfortable and functional productivity mouse (the price tag to match), with every YouTube giving it a glowing recommendation.

Imagine my excitement as I ripped open the package, grabbed the mouse and… hated it. Turns out the “ergonomic“ form did not work for me - I found it awkward and difficult to use. So I returned it and kept using my £20 three-year mouse. 

Sometimes, we don’t need what is the most popular and celebrated thing - we just need what works well.

We often find ourselves wanting MORE - more things, more tools, more information sources - and in the end, they all just get in the way, distracting us.

So focus - try to find a balance between what you need and what works. And don’t blindly follow what other people say is best - sometimes the “best“ is not for us.

💡 Get people to say “YES!“

We are prone to using shortcuts when making decisions and Dr. Cialdini (author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion) has spent his career researching these shortcuts. He has distilled 7 principles of persuasion, which we will look at below.

• When the waiter at the restaurant gives you the bill, do they also give you a mint? There might be a good reason - not just for your breath, but because we are more likely to return favors. When we get something small, we are more likely to leave bigger tips.

• What happened when toilet paper started disappearing during the pandemic? Full-blown PANIC! We don’t want to loose out on things, so we are easily pushed by scarcity.

• Psychotherapists hang up their diplomas on the walls for a reason - it makes patients more likely to follow their advice. We value the opinions of people with knowledge and experience, which makes us more susceptible to their influence.

• Making a small act towards a goal - such as writing down the details of an appointment, makes you more likely to follow through on it. Small steps matter, even in big decisions.

• We are more likely to follow the advice of people we like. And we like people who are similar to us, who give us compliments, and who work with us toward a common goal.

• We tend to do what others have done as well. If 90% of people put brown sugar in their coffee, would you choose white? Most likely not.

• Humans are tribal by nature. If doing something will lead to the completion of a common goal, we are very likely to join. Also, research has found that using language relating to family makes you more persuasive.

  You can read more about the 7 principles here.

📚 My WordPress Meetups talk on content writing 💥

If you speak Bulgarian, you can enjoy the recording of my presentation “5 Steps to Creating Written Content for Your WordPress Site and Online Business“ during the WordPress Meetup session.

Watch the talk here.

📚 Shelf Shocks 💥

1. The Good-Enough Life by Avram Alpert

What if we are all already good enough, without the need to constantly optimise and self-improve? This is the view of Avram Alpert in one of the most important books I’ve come across recently. The Good-Enough Life argues that our constant uphill battles and our unending ambition for success, status, and money are not only making us miserable, but are at the heart of global problems like climate change and resource depletion.

What if we recognized that our efforts could be used not only for the pursuit of achievements, but to make the lives of people we care about us better and more meaningful?

2. When the Body Says No by Gabor Maté M.D.

In this important work, Dr Gabor Maté draws the connection between our minds and our bodies. You will learn that what happens to our physical bodies often has its roots in our grey matter, and that setting aside time for rest has more benefits than you’d think.

Filled with lots of examples and backed up by research (and the author’s own decades-worth of physician experience), the book will show us why ignoring our mental health and wellbeing is not a great idea.

3. The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science by Michael Strevens

Why did none of the ancient civizations invent trains or the MRI scan? Why did we start doing science “properly“ only during the 17th century, when we had invented concrete and democracy centuries ago?

“Science is an alien thought form“, argues Michael Strevens, in his highly enjoyable observation of the history and value of science. He claims it requires an innovative way of thinking about the world, which our predecessors found challenging. So how did “the knowledge machine“ turn our world upside-down? This book has the answers.

Fun Links ❄️

1. Get into the writing habit easily!

It’s already February: if you’ve been slacking on your New Year’s resolutions, maybe you need a helping hand. Polar Habits is a simple habit tracker that tracks your momentum, not daily streak, which means you don’t get demotivated just because you miss a day of your habit.

Instead, you see your progress compounding, making you more motivated as time goes on.

2. Make shareable tweets

Tweetpik is a fantastically simple tool that allows you to make a downloadable graphic for tweets. You can choose the display colours, the dimensions, the theme, etc.

Definitely a handy tool to keep bookmarked. And it is free!

You've reached the end of my newsletter. Hooray! If you’d like to see more of my work, you can GET MY BOOK Write Better: A Simple Guide to Better Business Writing or connect with me on LinkedIn for more fun and educational content.

If you have any comments or would like to share what you enjoyed the most, feel free to get in touch! See you in two weeks!