Group items tagged

persuasion: simplicity self-interest surprise confidence similarity

I'd like you to take a moment to experience the following sentence, taken from a recent article exploring the nature of human consciousness: "Neuroplastic mechanisms relevant to the growing number of empirical studies of the capacity of directed attention and mental effort systematically alter brain function." Exciting? Hardly!

Whether you know it or not, you will sell something today. "We are all in sales," insists Daniel Pink, author of To Sell Is Human -whether it's talking up your skills to get a promotion, convincing your kids of the merits of a new bedtime routine, or proving your romantic virtues to a possible partner.

Dear Lifehacker, I've read about how to plant ideas in someone's head, but the whole idea of bald-faced manipulation makes me uneasy. Still, I'm not great at making a case for what I want, even though I know it's a skill that's incredibly useful.