

The “IKEA Effect”:  When Labor Leads to Love  - tejbirwason
http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/11-091.pdf

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jzwinck
I expected this to be about the strengthening of interpersonal bonds by
accomplishing unfamiliar tasks together. I've built IKEA or similar furniture
with quite a number of people, from my own family to friends, acquaintances,
and potential mates. It was always a good time, even when a part went missing
or we assembled something backward early on and had to redo half our work.

Many people have essentially lost touch with their manual abilities: from
chopping vegetables (pre-chopped salad packs are virtually absurd) to changing
flat tires (people think I'm weird when I tell them I can do it and they don't
need to wait for a service to come). Even handwriting is all but lost in some
places.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I find it soothing to work with my
hands on small, simple objects which obey the rules of physics in a tangible
way. Not Excel workbooks, not online shopping, not driving a car using cruise
control with a camera that automatically keeps its distance from the car in
front of you, freeing your feet to do, well, nothing.

Making things is therapy. It's no surprise that the things we make are imbued
with positive emotions.

~~~
tzs
> Many people have essentially lost touch with their manual abilities

For many of us, using our manual abilities turns out like this:

[https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=316356132437](https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=316356132437)

We haven't so much lost touch as came to an understanding with the universe.
Niles and Frasier said it well on the episode "Seat of Power" on the TV series
"Frasier", after their attempt to fix a running toilet went very wrong:

    
    
       Niles: When you think about it, our only mistake today
       was trying to fix that toilet ourselves.
    
       Frasier: Yes, we tampered with the natural order of things.
    
       Niles: But now, order has been restored. By hiring a
       plumber, that plumber can now afford, say, a Dolly
       Parton album. Miss Parton can then finance a national
       tour which will, of course, come to Seattle, allowing
       some local promoter to make enough money to send his
       cross-dressing teenaged son to us for $150-an-hour therapy.
    
       Frasier: [raises his glass] To the circle of life.

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gtirloni
[http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_what_makes_us_feel_good_...](http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_what_makes_us_feel_good_about_our_work)

