How many times have you plopped down hundreds of dollars for some new gizmo, but spent the entire ride home grumbling about a 5 cent increase in the price of gas.

How many times have you sat in front of the TV, shuddering at some story about some serial killer, cursing everyone and their dear Aunt Milli for not doing more to protect you and your family but followed up the expose on heart disease with a quick trip to McDonalds for triple cheeseburgers.

How often have you absolutely convinced yourself that you knew the right answer to that question about Van Gogh on Jeopardy, when moments earlier you couldn’t even remember the name of the Art History professor you had Freshman year.

People aren’t rational, but we are extraordinarily good at coming up with stories to make us feel like we are. We are better still at assuming any story that rings true is true. It’s why in the back of our minds we think the plotlines to CSI or House might actually represent plausible scenarios, and it’s why despite mountains of evidence to the contrary we are convinced that we could beat the stock market or the craps table if we just had a shot.

Your business as anyone who hopes to create things for human beings is to get over the flawed intuition the we make all of our decisions based on sound reasons and instead realize that most everything you have ever joined, bought or found yourself involved in had as much to do with your gut telling you it’s a great idea as it did with your head telling you it is the right idea.

Learn to play to the gut. Learn to create things that get people to feel something. Give up on the arms race of features and concentrate some of that time on turning your product into a story, creating something memorable, generating experiences that people feel connected to.

Ultimately we are all human. Every last person who will ever use your product will be human and human beings are flawed, beautiful creatures who like stories a whole lot. Understand this fact, and you might just be able to change the world with it.

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