Being persuasive is one of the most important skills I try to master. I think of it as my soft power.
I used to say if I am not in tech I would’ve wanted to become a neuroscientist. I think of the brain as the hardware that runs our systems. Psychology is our constant trial to reverse engineer the software. One time they will converge into one thing that can determine the causality between brain cells (the hardware) and the way we act (the software).
I now changed my opinion. I am not interested in understanding human beings. It is a mean to an end. This end is being able to persuade them.
That’s why I love my job. I have to persuade people to do things without being their boss. Sometimes those people are coworkers, other times they are customers persuaded by well designed product experiences.
Now I think if I wasn’t in tech, I would’ve been a media person, or a politician. Because I get to persuade people. And it is a challenge I like.