#045 – Great Work & The Endowment Effect

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read time 3 minutes 

#045 at a Glance:

• Quote that will get you thinking: How things get started.

• Podcast you should listen to: Complex software meets agriculture & livestock.

• Mental Model: The Endowment Effect.

• Article you should read: How to do great work by Paul Graham.

• Tweet I liked: The direction vs The curve.

Quote that will get you thinking:

Podcast you should listen to:

The Mentor with Mark Bouris #422 – Justin Webb

Justin Webb is the co-founder and Executive Chairman of AgriWebb – an agriculture and livestock management platform.

Justin's journey is a fascinating blend of agribusiness, finance, and cutting-edge technology. Born into a family of farmers, he has always been passionate about agriculture and technology's role in advancing this industry.

After obtaining a degree in economics and finance from Harvard University, Justin began his career as a quantitative analyst working in investment and risk.

His experience in finance and technology eventually led him to co-found AgriWebb, a game-changing animal management platform. With AgriWebb, Justin aims to revolutionize how farmers manage their livestock, using data and cutting-edge technology to improve productivity, profitability, and sustainability.

This is quite possibly the most fascinating episode of The Mentor that I’ve listened to. Couldn’t recommend it more highly ↓

Listen on Spotify here. Listen on Apple Podcasts here.

Mental Model:

The Endowment Effect 

A very interesting phenomenon that I came across whilst watching a recent episode of Behind The Diary with Steven Bartlett…

In psychology and behavioral economics, the endowment effect is a psychological bias which suggests that people are more likely to purchase a product they feel they already own.

The idea is that if a business can get its customers to believe that they own a product before they’ve purchased it, their perception of the product’s value increases.

It is for this exact reason that within Apple’s employee handbook which sets out the requirements for each of the Apple stores, it is required that products displayed in-store be plugged in so as to encourage consumers to try them out. It is also for this same exact reason that Apple employees will seldom handle an iPhone when assisting a customer through a purchase. They place it in your hands for the entirety of the sale.

(Having gone through the process of purchasing a new iPhone last week, I can attest to this practice).

The whole set-up is geared towards making the consumer believe that they already ‘own’ the product – all they have to do is buy it.

Brilliant.

Article you should read:

How to do great work by Paul Graham

Paul Graham is an uber-successful computer scientist, entrepreneur, investor, and author.

His article on ‘How to do Great Work’ is something I’ve read a handful of times over the last 6 months.

A few of my favourite takeaways:

• "The work you choose needs to have three qualities: it has to be something you have a natural aptitude for, that you have a deep interest in, and that offers scope to do great work."

• "Boldly chase outlier ideas, even if other people aren't interested in them — in fact, especially if they aren't."

• "The trouble with planning is that it only works for achievements you can describe in advance. You can't discover natural selection that way."

• "Morale compounds via work: high morale helps you do good work, which increases your morale and helps you do even better work."

• "Seek out the best colleagues. There are a lot of projects that can't be done alone, and even if you're working on one that can be, it's good to have other people to encourage you and to bounce ideas off."

Read the full article here (I promise it’s worth your time).

Tweet I liked:

That’s all for this week, thanks for reading!

Grateful for your support.

Stay hungry, stay humble, & stay curious. ⚡

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