"And for my next trick, I'll make your creativity disappear"
Magicians exploit weaknesses in human psychology and perception to perform seemingly magical tricks. But they're not the only ones. There are, of course, fraudsters and scammers, but even law-abiding companies will use every legal trick to make you buy their stuff. And the tech companies are only the latest to do so: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds — from a Magician and Google’s Design Ethicist. There is even a collection of known Dark Design Patterns.
Sometimes, it's not even done on purpose. Well-meaning intentions can also do us harm, for example, as with Real Time Dashboards considered harmful. Simply feeding the human desire for that small dopamine hit might get you a lot of short-term attention or users, but in the long term, it'll destroy creativity.
So, want to be more creative? Schedule a break. Turn off your cell phone, don't take your laptop with you. And enjoy being bored. It's what allows you to come up with new things.