The developer of a popular yoga iPhone app says Apple is forcing him to “steal” from users by requiring implementation of gotcha-style automated payments at the end of their free trial. The developer currently lets fans of the Down Dog app opt-in to monthly payments at the end of the [Keep reading]
If you read my recent entry on the Dunning-Kruger Effect, you’ve probably figured out that I enjoy a story that takes (some) people down a peg or two. Maybe it was all those years covering tech companies in Silicon Valley and Seattle, where fortunes are made on vaporware, owing [Keep reading]
We’re all used to earning interest at a bank when we save money. But could a financial institution soon charge you ‘interest’ to park your money there? Yes, says Ken Tumin, the man behind DepositAccounts.com. Interest rates are now so low that saving money could soon cost consumers. In today’s [Keep reading]
Emotional attachment can be costly. In fact, social scientists have actually measured how costly! People become too attached to stocks, to real estate, to automobiles, and of course, to ideas. We endow things we have with added value because of these attachments, and that makes us poor players in a [Keep reading]
Old advertising pitches nearly always boiled down to a cliche — “Half of advertising works, half doesn’t, and we don’t know which half is which. So, you’d better advertise.” Then the Internet came along and changed that equation, promising precise data on which ads do work, through highly targeted ads, [Keep reading]
“Hyperbolic discounting” is one of those terms that sounds more impressive than it is. People make weird – but oddly predictable – decisions when balancing today’s desires against tomorrow’s needs. As a concept, however, it’s quite powerful. There’s a pattern to your bad choices. Understand that pattern and you can [Keep reading]
HOBOKEN, N.J. — One thing you learn when covering a protest in person– if you are honest — is that you probably know less about what’s going on than almost anyone else. All you know is what you see right in front of your face. In the chaos, there’s no [Keep reading]
Ever thought something was a bad idea — like walking down a dark street, or adding a feature to a product you thought no one would want — but did it anyway because everyone else around you seemed to think it was ok? Group process can be a wonderful thing. [Keep reading]
I’ve spent my career writing about the scourge of hidden fees and surcharges — and how they wreck the normal price function of market economics — but for once, I’m not sure how I feel about a new fee making the rounds. (In fact, it’s the 10th Anniversary of Gotcha [Keep reading]
k Once upon a time, Americans waited until dinnertime to find out what happened in the world that day. Then, Ted Turner had a crazy itch to scratch and everything changed. Not for the better, I’d argue. For starters, people now tune to TV news — and to the Internet [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan