## Metadata - Author: [[Adam Mastroianni]] - Full Title:: The Five Tools of Hedonic Design - Category:: #🗞️Articles - URL:: https://www.experimental-history.com/p/the-five-tools-of-hedonic-design - Read date:: [[2026-08-21]] ## Highlights > 1. Once you are moderately happy, it’s very hard to get any happier. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m0hk189v56ec1g1khx9xa1ra)) > To beat the treadmill, then, we have to figure out clever ways of resisting adaptation and keeping good feelings fresh. > Here are five tools for doing exactly that. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m0hk2218380r08bbq2629htf)) > *Disrupters* refresh pleasant experiences by interrupting them. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m0hk2y2kmwnb32a18dxn6cpj)) > . *Variators* are little modulations that keep experiences fresh. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m0hk4g73mcxc40z3tvtdtg9x)) > The “Tourist” cocktail at P.F. Chang’s. When you order it, the bartender produces a Polaroid camera and takes a photo of you and your friends and gives it to you to take home. (Do not order alone.) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m0hk6tnjgsds45240sj05brm)) > We tend to judge experiences by [their peaks and their ends](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1993.tb00589.x?casa_token=ayr5Kf_FekgAAAAA:FNZ9vd-OFuwj_RgPtSMrGRn0S7sfnBBBOBJ1h0LghDKMiLkJvut6S81Swj67OzVDBXiGxKoQA26S). We can take this rule seriously and try to make the best parts better, the worst parts less bad, and the endings universally good. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m0hk77sn72d0nv30c8f42enw))