The Nobel Prize-winning psychologist distinguishes happiness from satisfaction, explains how they are sometimes at odds with one another, and why people tend to prefer the latter. “Happiness is a momentary experience that arises spontaneously and is fleeting. Meanwhile, satisfaction is a long-term feeling, built over time and based on achieving goals and building the kind of life you admire.” | learn more
Seeing is believing: the power of visualization.
This isn’t new data but might be surprising to many readers. Imagining doing a task can often be great practice for actually doing it. “In some cases, research has revealed that mental practices are almost effective as true physical practice, and that doing both is more effective than either alone.” This is, of course, a specific sort of visualization and not the same as daydreaming about being an NBA player. | learn more
Engineering serendipity for a better future than you planned.
TEDx talk by P.S. subscriber Tony Wilkins. “We spend too little time creatively thinking about controlling what we can control and too much time worrying about what we cannot.” | learn more
Know the customers’ “jobs to be done.”
I love this framework by Clayton Christensen. He asks the question, “Why did you hire that milk shake?” | learn more
Which is more important: new account growth or account expansion?
This post by Tomasz Tunguz answers the question: “If you have one marketing dollar to spend on your startup’s growth, should you spend it on acquiring a new customer or on expanding an existing customer?” | learn more
Learning from 3 years of bra engineering.
I am a big fan of these sorts of public “what we learned” posts – especially when they’re not written as a company post-mortem. I think we can all learn from Bra Theory founder Mona Zhang and her team’s journey. | learn more
Limiting social media use reduced loneliness and depression in new experiment.
“A new experimental study out of Penn State, however, directly links more social media use to worse emotional states, and less use to better.” This newsletter does not count as social media (says me)! | learn more
What should you do with your life?
Writer and masters student in cognitive science Alexey Guzey writes: “I ask a lot of people about their life plans. At least half of them tell me that they have no idea where to move and are just coasting along, not sure what to do next. Therefore, this post.” | learn more
How Superhuman built an engine to find product/market fit.
“Superhuman founder and CEO Rahul Vohra walks us through the framework his startup used to make product/market fit more actionable, detailing the survey and four-step process that were key to measuring and optimizing it.” | learn more
Defensive decision making: what is best vs what looks best.
“Sometimes we make decisions based on how they will look to others rather than whether or not they will produce the best outcomes. This article looks at why we tend to do that, and what we can do instead.” | learn more