If I had a cent for every time I heard “95% of purchase decisions are subconscious” I’d have more coins than the Trevi Fountain. So is it true? Curious Cat has been following the paper trail:
“This percentage is from a “rule of thumb” amongst cognitive scientists, in reference to “all thoughts” and not decisions / purchase decisions. There is no scientific research or validation for this claim. This claim is not a fact. The conscious mind plays an important role in any consumer purchase decisions, along with the subconscious mind [...] some are driven more by System 1 while some are driven more by System 2.”
Proton pack recharged and pointed at the next myth… In many countries around the world, the home ownership rate doesn’t count the share of people who own a home. Instead, it counts the share of homes lived in by an owner.
Which means young adults living with parents, a friend renting a spare room, or elderly parents living with grown-up children all get absorbed into the ownership column.
The Minneapolis Fed has shared an alternative method which counts people instead.
“Our approach also quantifies that 13.9 percent of adults in the United States live in owner-occupied homes but are not owners themselves. In other words, more than one in eight of the nation’s adults are misrepresented in the most-cited statistic on homeownership.”
I was nodding along with Ella Britton throughout her piece on looking for the context behind the consumer trend:
“The people we are trying to reach have not suddenly developed entirely different needs and ideals. They still seek belonging, enjoyment, identity, status and connection, just as they always have. What has changed is the world they are navigating. If a headline suggests that consumer behaviour has changed, don’t just take it at face value. Dig into the context first because that’s where the real story usually is.”
How to use AI whilst keeping the snap crackle of our grey matter alive is quite the conundrum. Daniel Miessler’s job vs. gym approach is a nifty way of looking at it. Job for when you just want the thing done, gym for when the doing is the point.
“For me, any sort of critical thinking, problem solving, creating arguments for or against a given position etc. are all Gym tasks. These are core to how I see myself, and I want to not only maintain my skills with doing these things, but I want to get better at them over time. My primary metric for this is whether or not I am getting sharper at the skills that are closest to my identity.”
The countries Limaria, Olvana and Amari are all part of the fictional world that the US army created for training purposes. There are 24 countries in total, each with their own backstories.
Scott Monaco’s ‘delights’ of the long haul flight had me properly chuckling. Neck pillows recommended.
Kudos to Thijs de Buck for hooking up his hamster’s wheel to Strava. Turns out Molly runs nearly 10km every night. No rest for the whiskered.
Bon weekend,
Fran