Before you can flip a company, you have to see the comp plan running in your own head.
**Hardware cases.** Attention is finite, threat detection is fast, social comparison is involuntary. Slot machines, infinite feeds, push notifications, and engineered foods all target the same handful of evolved circuits. The user is not weak; the product is good at its job.
**Software cases.** Identity is the strongest reward in the system. We will defend a self-image long after the data has stopped supporting it. Sunk-cost careers, performative beliefs, status hobbies, the relationship kept for the story — each one is a personal perverse incentive paying out in identity instead of cash.
The fix at this scale is not willpower. It is environment design plus identity work — change the field the firmware runs in, and change the story the firmware is defending.
Move the cue, not the craving. Rewrite the identity, not the to-do list.