“Happiness is when you give the love…” — Philadelphia cab driver
Elevation results, when the right kind of tone and the right kind of emotions, with the right kind of rhythm and respect, become integrated with the right kind of themes to form a vibrant life-philosophical line of thought. — Finnish practical philosopher Esa Saarinen
“Don’t get out; it’s too cold,” I told the cabbie. “Just pop the trunk.”
He did. I put my bags in the back and slid into the cab. “38th and Walnut, please.”
A lot of “Health 2.0” tools seek to help people change their behaviors to lead more healthy, productive lives. This is an admirable goal, and one I wholeheartedly endorse. Some of the tools are really “gee-whiz” neat!
However, many people involved with building Health 2.0 tools have little or no formal background in human behavior. How do you expect to build tools that seek to change human behavior, with no human behavior experts — you know, psychologists — consulting with you or on your staff?
That’s like trying to write a piece of software without a programmer.
In reply to a query on this topic, and how people change their behavior, I wrote the following over at the Society for Participatory Medicine’s e-patients.net blog. I think it encapsulates my experience with understanding human behavior (as a supposed expert in human behavior)…