Field Notes · Layer 02
Human Principles
How people actually think, perceive, decide and act. The first principles applied to people.
A human principle is a first principle applied to people. It holds regardless of category, audience or product, because it describes human nature rather than a market. These explain how people behave.
The library
Universal truths · how people behave
01
Recognition before explanation
People trust what they recognize before they weigh what they are told.
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02
Identity drives behavior
Behavior is downstream of identity. People act, mostly, in line with who they believe they are. Change the belief and the behavior moves with it.
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03
People become what they repeatedly encounter
Formation happens through repetition. Repeated signals become beliefs. Repeated beliefs become identity. Nothing a person meets every day is neutral.
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04
Brands form people
A brand does more than influence a decision. Over time it shapes identity, behavior and culture. The only question is whether the formation is intentional.
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05
Dissonance assassinates belief
The stronger a brand's conviction, the less contradiction it can survive. Coherence is not hygiene. For a brand built on belief, it is survival.
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06
Utility creates relevance. Meaning creates loyalty
Products create utility. Brands connect utility to meaning. Utility wins the choice. Meaning is what keeps it.
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07
Rebrand the product to rebrand the customer
Most organizations set out to change behavior. The deeper move is to change identity. People defend identities far longer than they defend habits.
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08
People pursue identities before they abandon behaviors
Asking someone to stop is asking them to lose. Offering them someone to become is asking them to win. People move toward an identity before they move away from a habit.
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09
Aspiration outlasts shame
Shame spikes, then exhausts. Aspiration is quieter at the start and compounds. The durable emotion is the one that keeps a person in the room.
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10
People pursue better versions of themselves
People don't buy products. They pursue better versions of themselves. Only a few products become part of an identity, and the difference is understanding the deeper motivation behind the behavior.
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11
Every brand is a metaphor
Customers step into metaphors, not products. Treated as a design discipline, a governing metaphor becomes the operating system a whole organization runs on. Read closely across twelve brands.
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