Turn Limiting Beliefs Into Liberating Beliefs | Nir Eyal - E706
episodePreviously titled “Turn limiting beliefs into Liberating Beliefs | Nir Eyal - E706” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)
54 min
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 17 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
How did Nir Eyal’s journey from startup founder to bestselling author shape his ideas on behavior design?
In one famous study, students who visualized an A on the exam ended up getting worse marks. Why? Because they didn't study as hard as the other students who didn't visualize. Because in that moment I took out my phone and I said, Oh, I'm sorry, honey, I just have to do this one thing. By the time I looked up, she was gone. Because I was sending a very clear signal that my phone was more important than she was. And she left The most successful people in life, they want to want to do those things and they have cracked the code so that the pain isn't suffering. That's the secret. And the way you do this is by assessing these other many beliefs.
Welcome to Brave. Learn from Southeast Asia's best tech leaders. Build the future, learn from our past, and stay human in between. No BS on success. I'm Jeremy Al, Venture Capitalist, Sierra Founder, Harvard MBA, Science Fiction Nerd, and Dad of Two Daughters. Every week, we debate startup news, interview change makers, answer listener questions, and share personal insights. Join our movement of over 40,000 members and get transcripts, resources, and community at www.bravesea.com. Stay well and stay brave. Hey, so excited to have you back on the show. Thanks. It's great to be back in person this time. I know, right? We've caught a couple uh episodes throughout the pandemic remotely. It started
during COVID, right? When we couldn't
be together, so this is great. Great, we've made it out alive. And now you've written another book. Another book. Fantastic. And I think it's just so amazing to see you just always have ideas, start working on it, slogging through it, and now it's out in success. Congratulations.
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, we're on the fifth week of the Straits Times bestseller list. So it's and Singapore is the best selling country for the book right now. I think partially because the book is a love letter to Singapore. There's a lot of chapters in the book that could have only been written and been written about in Singapore. So for those who don't know yet, could you introduce yourself? Sure. So my name is Nir Aul, and I've been studying the psychology of human behavior now for the past sixteen, seven. Started out as a startup founder, sold two companies, then started writing about psychology of product design. And that became a blog that became my first book, Hooked, which became a class I taught at Stanford at the Graduate School of Business, later at the Hasselplatin or Institute of Design.
Then I wrote a second book called Indistractable. It's about how do you break bad habits. And then my third book that was just published last month is called Beyond Belief. And it's all about about our limiting beliefs and how to turn limiting beliefs into liberating beliefs.
Yeah. So super fascinating and I've told you before, but I remember when I was working in New York, I actually read your first book, Hooked. Classic paper person, bought, sees it, and then starts flipping through it. And what I got from it was like I didn't realize how much it was really the perspective of how to get somebody onto your app or your product. And I was like, Oh no, I feel like I'm being hooked into those mechanisms, right? And I thought That was quite interesting. So I wanna hear a little bit of your evolution about why did you start to be a writer in the first place and talk about the first book and then eventually we'll talk about your evolution. But why did you write that first book hooked in the first place?
Yeah.
So I write books not because I have the answer, but because I want to know the answer. And so for me, writing is the best form of thinking. And my mantra has always been to follow my curiosity. So when my second company was acquired, I had some extra time on my hands and I thought I was gonna start another company. And I was looking around and I had this very strong hypothesis. This was back in 2012. Okay. So the Apple App Store was only four years old. And I had a very Very strong thesis that as the interface shrank, as we went from desktop screens to laptop screens to mobile device screens to wearable screens, that external triggers, all the pings, dings, and rings, would become less important.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did Nir Eyal’s journey from startup founder to bestselling author shape his ideas on behavior design?
0:00–8:04
2
What is the Motivation Triangle and how does it explain why information alone doesn’t change behavior?
8:04–14:27
3
How does Nir define a belief and why is it different from a fact or faith?
14:27–21:22
4
Why does manifesting and vision‑boarding often backfire, according to the research Nir cites?
21:22–28:39
5
What is the difference between pain and suffering, and how can we use that distinction to improve performance?
28:39–35:41
6
How can we identify and update the limiting beliefs we inherit from family and culture?
35:41–42:04
7
What four‑question turnaround did Nir use to repair his relationship with his mother?
42:04–46:58
8
How can the live coaching exercise help rewrite your beliefs about exercise and make it feel enjoyable?
46:58–54:09
Speakers
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