[semiAI]

re: "but so too does the esteem we receive from others. the article talks about the former effect, but not the latter"

Really insightful. In my experience, if you give your user too much leeway to the point they actually not only have diminishing returns, but also become self-harming - that feedback loop can go awry.

What is necessary for the compounded effect is to make sure that your "IKEA" put-together item... actually looks pretty damn good... (with minimal effort by the user, that is).

It does create a sense of ownership, that sense of "I did that!"

The key is to provide enough inspiration and emotional investment that the user can get over the hump-of-learning a new tool.

Like signing up here, laughable but I get the point