Nir And Far: Business, Behaviour and the Brain

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The Hidden Power of Social Comparison Mar 31, 2025

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I’ll never forget the day I learned about Facebook’s $19 billion WhatsApp acquisition. Instead of celebrating my own recent success as an author, I found myself spiraling into a pit of self-doubt. “Why hadn’t I created a simple messaging app?” I wondered, mentally berating myself for missing out on what seemed like an obvious opportunity.

Sound familiar?

We’ve all been told that comparing ourselves to others is toxic. It’s the ultimate happiness killer, the thief of joy, the fast track to misery—or so conventional wisdom tells us. But here’s the thing: If comparison is so destructive, why do our minds keep returning to it? What if there’s more to this story than meets the eye?

You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: https://www.nirandfar.com/social-comparison/

Nir And Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/

Is Psychiatry Keeping Us Sick? Mar 10, 2025

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The iatrogenic effects of psychiatry.

Something is deeply wrong with the mental health system. Instead of leading to recovery, it often perpetuates cycles of dependency on therapy, medication, and diagnoses.

Psychiatric diagnoses, which are unreliable to begin with, have become our identities rather than tools for recovery. While more people are going to therapy than ever before, our collective mental health isn’t improving. For some disorders, such as ADHD and PTSD, medication is prioritized over education or therapy that teaches people how to cope; thus, we see medication as a cure-all and don’t learn tools that can help us heal.

As mental health awareness and interventions become increasingly common, we have to be aware of the iatrogenic effects—unintended, harmful consequences—of psychiatric diagnosis and treatment.

Is psychiatry keeping us sick?

You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: Is Psychiatry Keeping Us Sick? https://www.nirandfar.com/psychiatry-keeping-us-sick/

These Tiny Experiments Will Change The Way You Grow Mar 05, 2025

Show notes

Anne-Laure Le Cunff is a neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and founder of Ness Labs. Her research at King’s College London explores the psychology and neuroscience of lifelong learning, curiosity, and adaptability. Her book, Tiny Experiments, is a transformative guide to rethinking goals, embracing uncertainty, and using curiosity as a tool for growth. In this episode, we dive into redefining success, the power of experimentation, distraction, and much more!

Tiny Experiments: https://nesslabs.com/bookNess Labs: https://nesslabs.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neuranne

Why You’re Always Busy but Never Productive (and How to Fix It) Mar 03, 2025

Show notes

Nir’s Note: This guest post is by Sahil Bloom, an entrepreneur, investor, and writer known for his engaging content on personal development, finance, and wealth-building. He is the creator of “The Curiosity Chronicle,” a biweekly newsletter that captivates millions of readers with insights on various topics. His new book, The 5 Types of Wealth, is a guide to building a life around the things you truly care about.

Most of us don’t think about how we spend our professional time—we just try and keep up. But the secret to working smarter (not harder) lies in managing our most precious resource.

Luckily, we have the best time-management technique—timeboxing—to help us. The concept is simple: Block off windows of time for distinct tasks.

You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: Why You’re Always Busy but Never Productive (and How to Fix It) https://www.nirandfar.com/busy-but-not-productive/

The Surprisingly Strong Case for Luck in Sales - Nir And Far Feb 24, 2025

Show notes

My wife and I started our first business together in 2003. We sold solar panels in Long Island, New York, which meant making thousands of in-home sales calls.

Before we entered a potential customer’s home, we had a little ritual. We always looked at each other before we opened our car doors and said, “Let’s go sell a solar system.” It was cheesy and a bit silly, but somehow, we had to say it, or we thought we’d be jinxed and lose the sale.

Though we didn’t know it then, we had tapped into one of several practices that research has shown salespeople can use to close more deals. It turns out there’s a science to superstition, and whether the supernatural exists or not doesn’t really matter. At the end of the day, there are practices anyone can use to increase their business’s good fortune.

You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: The Surprisingly Strong Case for Luck in Sales https://www.nirandfar.com/luck-in-sales/

Getting Great Sleep is Much Easier Than You Think - Nir And Far Sep 23, 2024

Show notes

A few years ago, I started waking up at three o’clock every morning. Over the years, I’d read many articles about the importance of rest, so I knew the research was unequivocal: Quality sleep supports cognitive performance and lowers the risk of diseases and health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, obesity, and dementia.

Knowing that, I’d toss and turn in bed, disappointed that I wasn’t following through on my plan to get seven to eight hours of shut-eye. It was on my schedule, so why wasn’t I asleep?

You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: Getting Great Sleep is Much Easier Than You Think https://www.nirandfar.com/sleep-hacks/

How to Be Lucky in Business and Life: 4 Science-Backed Principles - Nir And Far Sep 16, 2024

Show notes

Something as vague and indiscernible as “luck” has no place in the business world, right? Yet studies show luck can make all the difference between business success and failure. So, can you learn how to be lucky?

Joël Le Bon, professor of marketing and sales at Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School, has found that luck is a significant factor in sales professionals’ performance. He even says companies can manage their luck to get a competitive edge.

You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: How to Be Lucky in Business and Life: 4 Science-Backed Principles https://www.nirandfar.com/how-to-be-lucky/

How to Stop Overthinking - Nir And Far Sep 09, 2024

Show notes

We all dwell on unresolved personal conflicts from time to time. Who hasn’t ruminated on a hurtful comment or unintentional harm we might have caused someone? Feeling bad about something you did, or something done to you, is human. Congratulations on not being a psychopath!

But while it’s expected that the arguments we’ve had, the negative events we’ve experienced, and the major decisions we face haunt us, overthinking can also pile on new problems.

You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: How to Stop Overthinking https://www.nirandfar.com/stop-overthinking

How to Handle a Distracting Boss - Nir And Far Sep 05, 2024

Show notes

ee if you can relate to Sarah.

She’s a software engineer who loves her job—except for her manager, Tom. To Tom, everything is a crisis worthy of interrupting Sara, even when she’s deeply focused on her work.

One morning, while Sarah is coding a critical feature, Tom calls and asks her to drop everything to help with an urgent report for the CMO. Sarah complies, but by the end of the day, she hasn’t dedicated much time to any of the tasks she planned to focus on.

You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: How to Handle a Distracting Boss https://www.nirandfar.com/handling-a-distracting-boss/

Only People Who Believe in Luck Have It - Nir And Far Jul 22, 2024

Show notes

How belief in luck makes us bolder and better.

Richard Branson will be the first to tell you that he’s generally a lucky person in business and life.

An adrenaline junkie, he’s lived through several near-death experiences, including in the early ’70s, when he and his then-wife survived a shipwreck that no other passengers did by jumping off the boat in a storm and swimming to shore.

You can read the Nir And Far article on: Only People Who Believe in Luck Have It https://www.nirandfar.com/believe-in-luck-for-success/

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