No More Guessing if Something Is Interesting or Not!
Lately I've been thinking that the word "interest" might be a bit vague and overused. Today I did something about that. Now, when you're addressing your content or copy, you can tell exactly what is "interesting" and what isn't, using this first principles definition: Interest is a snap calculation made in response to a given stimulus that directs a decision and behavior towards or away from that stimulus. The calculation MAINLY integrates: An Emotional affect, Cognitive Associations, Mental Models, Memory, and Motivation (Reward Potential). And follows the above flow: Sensory Stimulus, Made Aware, Processed & Categorized (based on the above criteria), To Form a Decision, and produce a behavior. I openly admit that I'm missing a few considerations if we really want to dig deep. But as for a deeper, working definition, I know I can definitely use this, and hope someone else finds value in it. This has been added to the Knowledge Base as well! What should we do next?