Hooked Author: The Lie That Made Serena Williams Better

In 2014, Nir Eyal wrote Hooked, the book that taught a generation of consumer apps how to build habits. Then he wrote Indistractable, about how to take your attention back from them. His newest book, Beyond Belief, took him six years and argues that beliefs are tools, not truths.

Nov 12, 2026FeaturedLibrary of Minds

Listen to the episode on Delphi

He thinks most of us aren't actually addicted to our phones, and that blaming tech companies leaves us more helpless than we really are. In this conversation, he explains what makes products stick, the two-question test he gives founders before they use behavioral design, why he worries more about legal gambling than social media, and how a lie made Serena Williams better at the net.