One of the best books I read last year was ‘Build’ by Tony Fadell. He led the teams that created the first 18 generations of the iPod and the first three generations of the iPhone before leaving Apple to launch the Nest Thermostat.

‘Build’ is a fast-paced read full of memorable stories but it was the line above that stuck with me. Fadell’s argument is that we often get used to life’s inconveniences and inefficiencies without stopping to ask if there’s a better way. We habituate to the status quo.

“Most people are so habituated to the problems in their home lives or work that they no longer realise they’re problems,” he writes.

Before the iPod came along, people had just accepted that if they wanted to play music they had to carry a heavy case full of CDs, he recalls. “But pretty much nobody thought about it as a problem with a solution.” That’s why he thought the iPod could take off.

Old problems, new solutions

There’s a term for people like Tony Fadell - “dishabituation entrepreneurs.” It was coined by Tali Sharot and Cass R. Sunstein in their new book, ‘Look Again’. Drawing on insights from neuroscience and behavioural science, the book explores our tendency to stop noticing our good fortune and also to overlook societal problems, for example climate change, misinformation or gender discrimination. 

It’s a term that could also describe the guests on Made For Us. They noticed industries that had habituated to old ways of doing things or consumers who hadn’t demanded more of companies. But noticing wasn’t enough. They weren’t willing to wait for others to solve the problem.

A couple of people that come to mind are Cassa Pancho, the founder of the dance company Ballet Black, and dancer Cira Robinson, who both worked with the shoemaker Freed of London to design pointe shoes for dancers of colour. It all happened because Cira was fed up with dyeing her shoes with brown make-up - a ritual known as pancaking that she admits she had accepted for most of her career. But one day, during a visit to Freed’s shop in London’s Covent Garden, she asked if the company could make a pair of brown pointe shoes for her. 

“We had been pancaking our shoes for forever,” Cassa said of Ballet Black’s dancers. “We all complained about it, but it was just the way things had always been done. And there were so many other things to overcome that pancaking shoes just didn't seem like a thing.”

Habituating, fast and slow

Slow habituation can spark creativity and innovation and society needs rebels who are willing to challenge unquestioned norms. But it’s worth asking why many of us are quick to habituate. As Sharot and Sunstein explain, it’s essential for survival. The brain needs to be attentive to what’s new and unexpected so it filters out the old and predictable. Habituation can happen at the societal level as well, they note, when people fail to be surprised by bias and discrimination. 

“We do not perceive the discrimination around us because we expect it…And here the problem lies: we cannot work to change what we do not perceive.” That is, until a dishabituation entrepreneur “comes along and makes what is in front of us clear and salient.”

Over to you

I’m hoping to explore this topic some more in a future edition, particularly what drives certain people to become dishabituation entrepreneurs and what we can learn from them. Do you know anyone who falls into this category, or do you consider yourself to be one? Reply to this email. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

Resources

Books:

Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making by Tony Fadell

Look Again: The Power of Noticing What was Always There by Tali Sharot and Cass R. Sunstein

Podcast:

The Next Big Idea - Interview with Tali Sharot

Show:

Ballet Black: Heroes - Barbican Theatre, London

Dishabituation influencers:

Some time ago, when my social media manager and I were looking for images of ballet dancers, we noticed that it was almost impossible to find stock photos of black or brown ballerinas. (Try it for yourself and see what you come up with). But we soon found many dancers and photographers who are filling that gap on Instagram. Below are some of my favourite dishabituation influencers of the ballet world: Alexandra Terry, Ingrid Silva, Blacks in Ballet, Rachel Neville Studios, Brown Girls Do Ballet.

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