Alexandra Carmichael

October 12, 2012

This collection of links is inspired by NPR’s #bestthingallweek hashtag on Twitter. What’s the best thing you read this week?

Behavior Change is Belief Change by Buster Benson: “Anyone that tells you that you just need to ‘walk one more bus stop every morning’ in order to be a healthier person has reversed the formula (putting the easy thing first) in order to sell it to you. In order to be a person who walks to the bus stop every morning you have to change your core identity of yourself into a ‘healthier person who walks a lot.'”

Startup = Growth by Paul Graham: “Usually successful startups happen because the founders are sufficiently different from other people that ideas few others can see seem obvious to them… We usually advise startups to pick a growth rate they think they can hit, and then just try to hit it every week.”

Why Self-Discipline Is Overrated: The (Troubling) Theory and Practice of Control from Within by Alfie Kohn: “Just because motivation is internal doesn’t mean it’s ideal. If [people] feel controlled, even from within, they’re likely to be conflicted, unhappy, and perhaps less likely to succeed (at least by meaningful criteria) at whatever they’re doing.”

Quantifying Kids, an interview with Bill Schuller: “A child’s performance in the educational system is quantified at every step of the way. The difference in what I am doing is increasing the fidelity, increasing the time horizon, drawing correlation between the data and teaching my children to look at the results and reflect on them.”

Building that Perfect Quantified Self App: Notes to Developers, Part 1 by Measured Me: “The diet logs now are not just about counting calories, but also tracking allergies and more serious ailments, and effects of ingredients on mental and physical performance, or sleep. Happiness has been already tied to location, and will soon probably be linked to the weather, quality of sleep, or activities on Facebook.”

Growth Hacking – Lean Marketing for Startups by Mattan Griffel: This is a great slide deck talking about “a set of tactics and best practices for dealing with the problem of user growth.” Thanks to Chris Hogg for finding it!