Interesting book. Terrible performance.

Would you listen to Hooked again? Why?

No. Painful narration. Bad microphone. Record again with a real narrator please.

What did you like best about this story?

The content is good and the examples useful if you can get over the performance.

Would you be willing to try another one of Nir Eyal’s performances?

No

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No.

Any additional comments?

Re-record please!

43 people found this helpful

Insubstantial and outdated

IF you have never read any of the source material (Nudge, Thinking Fast and Slow) this overlong blogpost pulls from, you should read those and not this. If you have, this is a TED Talk given by someone who has also read those books. The examples and stories are out of date and superceded. Probably worst of all it is implied that the successful designs were empirical and rigorously grounded, when in fact they were mostly by chance and driven by experiments and metrics.

If you are building digital products and services and refer to this book or any of the neologisms within it as part of your planning and design, I would seriously recommend you learn much more about... everything. This book will not help you build anything worthwhile or lasting, it's a slideshow version of innovation.

Anyway you aren't missing much, it's all of 3 hours of material, most of that is padding: "in this book I will tell you all the secrets! Do you ever wonder what the secrets were? Did you ever think to yourself 'i wish I knew the secrets'? Well I will tell you the secrets, they are the kind of secrets that are so secret that nobody has told you them yet, and that's just what you said you wanted to know..."

8 people found this helpful

Great book, wish the narration was a little better.

Loved the insight on this book provides. It has changed my entire outlook on how and why I use the every day products I use. Great for aspiring entrepreneurs. If you can make it through the narration, you'll definitely get your money's worth.

8 people found this helpful

Good Book, Terrible Recording

What did you like best about Hooked? What did you like least?

As a survey of how to capture interest online, Nir Eyal has some fantastic insights and the words are worth the price. It will give anyone good ideas and builds a credible thesis. BUT, his recording of this book is awful. He obviously recorded it himself it in a very low tech way, and the audio quality switches throughout the book from bad to worse. I've worked audio recording sessions throughout my career, and I can tell that Nir did little research or trial and error practice recordings to create the audiobook.. If you can survive the recording, you'll learn good things from what he has to say. You might be better off buying the lower cost eBook instead.

Would you be willing to try another book from Nir Eyal? Why or why not?

Yes, his research and insights are good.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

IN ADDITION to the poor audio quality, he often stumbles through his words. LEARN TO DO MORE THAN 1 AUDIO TAKE if you record your own book! We pay a lot of money for these, and expect at least a bare minimum quality that isn't in this book.

42 people found this helpful

Will Be Putting Hooked into Action

Awesome book, with real actionable and easily understandable concepts. I am in the process of beginning a startup and Nir's guidance is invaluable. His moral compass is what every entrepreneur needs.

5 people found this helpful

Incredible content TERRIBLE recording

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes because the content is excellent

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Nir Eyal?

Anyone else

Any additional comments?

The content is soooo good and so up to date. Yet I think the narrator recorded this in his bathroom.

I never leave reviews but this is too good of a book to have this sloppy of a recording

13 people found this helpful

Great content, but not a great audio-book

What made the experience of listening to Hooked the most enjoyable?

Interesting concepts.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

He fumbled with words frequently and the audio quality felt a little off. I would recommend that they re-record this book or at least fix certain sections. I found it very distracting.

3 people found this helpful

get a professional studio

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

yes for the content but the recording is terrible - i have hear music in the background in some sections and car noise in another. like it was recoded on an iphone a car.very amatuer

What was one of the most memorable moments of Hooked?

the airplane is the background at one point

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Nir Eyal?

he was ok but again terrible product for a book taking about quality products.was totally a distraction

18 people found this helpful

Good content but bad audio and little overview

The narration is done by Nir Eyal himself. Overall he does it okay, but the microphone he has used must have been really cheap. And post-processing (compression, noise gate, etc) skipped altogether.

Add to the above that he occasionally stumbles over his words. These mistakes have not been edited out of the audiobook. Not a huge problem, but it leaves an impression of a very unpolished, maybe rushed, audiobook.

The content itself is good. Nir Eyal certainly knows his stuff. I watched an interview with him on Growthhacker.tv before getting this book. But: the content lends itself much more to a written format. As an audiobook, I miss a sense of overview.

So I'll be getting this in kindle ebook format instead, and I recommend you do the same;)

10 people found this helpful

It was missing a Chapter and end credits

The content was good. The problem was the book is missing chapters as well as end credits.

Needs to be fixed.

Hope they update this book for those that already purchased it.

2 people found this helpful