Nir Eyal Quotes Page 2

“Distraction stops you from achieving your goals. It is any action that moves you away from what you really want.”

“Even when we think we’re seeking pleasure, we’re actually driven by the desire to free ourselves from the pain of wanting.”

“Fun is looking for the variability in something other people don’t notice. It’s breaking through the boredom and monotony to discover its hidden beauty.”

“I discovered that living the life we want requires not only doing the right things; it also requires we stop doing the wrong things that take us off track.”

“Simply put, the drive to relieve discomfort is the root cause of all our behavior, while everything else is a proximate cause.”

“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.”

“Traction leads you closer to your goals. It is any action that moves you toward what you really want.”

“Triggers prompt both traction and distraction. External triggers prompt you to action with cues in your environment. Internal triggers prompt you to action with cues within you.”

“Understand the root cause of distraction. Distraction is about more than your devices. Separate proximate causes from the root cause.”

“Unless we deal with the root causes of our distraction, we’ll continue to find ways to distract ourselves. Distraction, it turns out, isn’t about the distraction itself; rather, it’s about how we respond to it.”

“We all know eating cake is worse for our waistlines than having a healthy salad. We agree that aimlessly scrolling our social media feeds is not as enriching as spending time with real friends in real life. We understand that if we want to be more productive at work, we need to stop wasting time and actually do the work. We already know what to do. What we don’t know is how to stop getting distracted.”

“We need to learn how to avoid distraction. Living the lives we want not only requires doing the right things but also necessitates not doing the things we know we’ll regret.”

“You can’t call something a 'distraction' unless you know what it is distracting you from.”