Water Bottle Effect

I have two water bottles of equal size. They are also both equally effective at insulating — both have vacuum seal tech that keeps water cold (or hot) for long periods of time. They are basically identical. Yet, I use one of those bottles way more than the other. That's actually wrong, I never use even use the old one. Why is that? It's simply because one has a straw feature built into it's top and the other doesn't. That straw makes it probably 5 seconds more efficient to drink out of than the other bottle which just has a screw top. But that small additional efficiency is just enough that I have basically relegated my old bottle to become an ornament in my kitchen pantry. I noticed how important that small detail was to me when I turned my room upside down looking for the water bottle instead of using the perfectly good old one that sat in front of me.

I think this is a good metaphor for why certain things or people succeed in life. It's often a small detail, something that makes the product that much easier to use, an extra function that creates a frictionless experience, that determines success rate. Maybe it's the play-button on social media which generates content you will love and cues it up so you don't have to search. Maybe it's just that extra level of organization that makes your plan that much more easy to implement by other staffers. It's those seemingly small, almost inconsequential details that actually make the difference. But it's often hard to see them because they are just boring and invisible most of the time.