Throughout history philosophers, historians, and thinkers have assumed that humans are naturally born evil. However, that may not be true. In this book, Rutger Bregman describes that we are naturally hardwired for kindness, cooperation, and trust. Examples of this can be shown throughout history and go back to the beginning of Homo Sapiens.

We can easily be influenced by people around us and bring out the worst in each other. This can be shown in both politics and economics. Bregman believes that when we start believing in the reality of human kindness, it can create social change.

"If we believe most people can't be trusted, that's how we'll treat each other, to everyone's detriment. Few ideas have as much power to shape the world as our view of other people. Because ultimately, you get what you expect to get."

- Rutger Bregman

This book has easily changed my perspective as a designer and how to start seeing people differently. This is a book I always recommend to others and has a special place on my shelf. I will create a seperate post to discuss more in detail of the book.

When it comes to design and understanding human behavior, Nudge is my go to book. Richard Thaler goes into exploring how we make decisions and how small nudges can help us make better choices, while not removing our freedom of choice.

While we can be heavily influenced by our surroundings (like having your phone on your table), by presenting good Choice Architecture it can present better influences on people's decision making.

As designers it our responsibility to understand what we are designing and how it can impact the behavior of users. Infinite Scrolling is an example of a negative choice architecture that has effected countless users in order to keep them in an app. Its important to evaluate how to let the user come up with the best decison in an ethical way.

"You want to nudge people into socially desirable behavior, do not, by any means, let them know that their current actions are better than the social norm."

- Richard Thaler

I read this book during my behavior design class with Ruth Schmidt and as regularily been on the back of my mind when it came to designing solutions and systems for the user.