The power of habit why we do what we do and how to change it

The entire first part of this book was completely fascinating. I was completely in love with the first significant chunk - about a man who loses his hippocampi in a traumatic accident, but still manages to go for walks around the block, make food and hold conversations about computers, all without being able to remember such details as where he lives or how old he is or what year it is. A Oliver Sacks-worthy story illustrating the power of habit in determining how we live.

Duhigg goes on from there to illustrate, using animal experiments in rodents and monkeys how habits are formed and how we can form good habits and extinguish bad ones. He perfectly balances practicality with intriguing science and anecdotes.

The latter two halves of the book spiral off in a multitude of directions. How is having willpower a habit? I'm not really sold. Some of his anecdotes read like they would belong better in Blink or the Tipping Point and it undermines the strong, consistent definition of a habit from the first third.

Also, some of my favorite parts of the book - the febreze model and the target/pregnancy story are available online on NPR & NYTimes magazine and excerpted on lifehacker. (I had read them prior to this and hoped that the rest of the book would be the same quality)

★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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In Part One, Duhigg sketches the science behind habit by looking at a case study of someone who made radical changes to their health and lifestyle by choice, and one who made similar changes as a result of a disease that damaged his brain and removed choice from the equation. It was simply fascinating as he both related the cases and explored the science behind it.

Part Two shifts to the habits of organizations—how some megacorporations changed from within because they intentionally created institutional habits, which then spill over (sometimes intentionally, sometimes not) into the lives of their employees. Alcoholics Anonymous also serves as an example of intentional change here. The section's last chapter focuses on how companies can study the purchasing and browsing activities of customers to predict and manipulate spending habits. Some of this last chapter is truly disturbing and makes me want to read Qualityland again—and make more people read it.

In Part Three, his focus is on “Societies” and he shows how the Montgomery Bus Boycott illustrates the ideas he's been describing—and how Rick Warren's Saddleback Church is an intentional use of the same ideas (quick digression: I have less respect for Warren's ecclesiology now, although some of what bothered me could be an unbeliever's description of his actions and theory rather than Warren's). The last chapter discusses the case of someone with night terrors who commits a crime and a gambling addict's actions—are either responsible for what happens when their behaviors are mandated by habit rather than a conscious decision? I found this last chapter problematic and a bit simplistic in the way it dealt with the ethical questions. But it's still very thought-provoking.

As far as the audiobook-ness of this goes, it was okay. Chamberlin did a fine job with the material he was given. Yeah, occasionally, I felt like I was listening to a super-long podcast episode, but I'm not sure that's a flaw. And if it is, it's probably due to the text, not a problem on Chamberlin's part. Like with a lot of Non-Fiction audiobooks, it's hard to separate the authorial “I” from the voice saying “I,” so I have this cockamamie impression that I've gotten to know Duhigg a little bit. Am I the only one who has that problem?

The subtitle is “Why We Do What We Do...” and that's what this book is about. Somewhere along the line, I'd gotten the idea that there'd be a little more “here's what to do with this information” to the book. But that was wrong—Duhigg sketches it in an appendix, but it's just a sketch. Yes (as he says himself), it's not that difficult to use a lot of what's covered (particularly in Part One) on your own. I'd have preferred a little more application to go with the theory, but that wasn't his point, so I shouldn't quibble.

This is a fascinating book. That's all I have to say on that front. But I'm not sure what to do with the information. I'm not against learning things to learn them, but this seems to be begging for practical applications—in personal or business life. But I just don't know how. Maybe that's because I lack the imagination to apply it, or maybe it's a shortcoming from the book in not doing a better job in pointing to it. I'm leaning to the latter, but expect it's the former.

I thought the book was really good at explaining the patterns that turn behaviors in to habits.

My only complaint is how the author interweaves the various examples throughout the book.

He will start one story and then move to another one before coming back to the first one. It took a few chapters to get used to the style.

This is an excellent book that breaks down habits into the causes, the effects, and the abilities to change them. It provides numerous real life examples of how habits have helped people change their lives, and how habits have destroyed lives.

In addition to the causes and effects, it builds upon the message that habits can be changed. Better yet, it teaches you how to identify those habits AND how to change those habits for the better!

one example:
habit: you eat candy every day.
note: what happens right before you eat the candy?
result: you eat one every day at 10 am.
why?: it's likely you're hungry.
now what?: bring an apple to your desk. At 10 am, eat the apple. Same sugar fix, more filling and healthier option.
new habit: over time you'll stop going for the candy and start going for the apple.

This was an example from the book (summarized of course). Habits dont happen overnight. In fact, they can take months, or even years to implement. It is about sticking with those habits, analyzing the patterns from your bad habits and believing in yourself that you CAN change them!

Amazing look into habits and how habits work in our lives. I enjoyed this book so much and think it will help me to make changes in my life that I have wanted to make for awhile. Also an interesting look into marketing and how habits can influence a product's selling power.

The subtitle for this book could be “How to use habit to direct human behavior”. Most of the examples are less about habit on a personal level and more about them on a societal level. One example that I enjoyed was about a time in Iraq where people were collecting in a square everyday. Eventually someone would throw a loud firecracker (or worse) into the mix and everyone would flee – a dangerous situation. Rather than using force to move people out, they moved the food vendors a block away. Now the crowd couldn't hang around for hours on end, as their food habits caused them to disperse earlier.

An example of how a lack of practical usefulness can be compensated for with good writing.

Loved this book, can feel it's going to be a game changer for me.

A great book for learning about habits.
I recommend Atomic Habits for actually changing and creating habits.

Much more than a self help book. Liked a lot the social and marketing examples. The Starbucks Chapter is really inspiring. Recommended for an individual looking to tune up or a Business.

Very engaging! I haven't performed any of the “experiments” Duhigg suggests, but he makes the practice of adjusting one's habits seem simple (if not easy).

Brilliant.

While I like the message of the book on how we can change our Habits and how [a:Charles Duhigg 5201530 Charles Duhigg https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1349273209p2/5201530.jpg] proposes a method to change allegedly every habit you want, I don't quite like his writing style, while he makes you care for the people's lives and stories which don't have much to do with this model other than they were successful in changing habits in a way that makes sense in his proposed model of Cue, Routine, Reward.In the chapter where he deals with willpower, it wasn't clear to me how the willpower can be increased other than “save it for later” and “expect everything”.I Still think the whole book is selling the Apendix which a practical person can read, try and apply without all the fuzz of the actual book.Maybe I get it wrong and is the road not the goal what matters, like Miyagi's “Wax on, wax off” training to win a Karate Tournament in a few weeks.I'm pending to test the proposed framework to change in the Apendix, so ask me in a few months.

I like Duhigg's style, similar to Malcolm Gladwell: making his point with lots of interesting stories, to the point where it reads almost like a collection of short stories. I really enjoyed the book, the central thesis: cue, routine, reward is fairly simple and could easily be summed up in a much shorter article but that's ok because the stories are so interesting.

Nothing to special here, as other readers noted, the author does tend to overeach in analogy. He also doesn't go too much into how to establish habits from scratch rather than replace existing ones. Overall a solid read

A good introduction to the subject of habitual behavior and how we can go about changing it.

AUDIOBOOK

Great book on habits, highly recommend reading it after Atomic Habits. I feel like Atomic Habits was a great starter and this went deeper, in more depth on the same concepts. Tons of great examples to help remember the concepts.

The book is on firmer ground when it's talking about controlling our own habits. It gets shakier when talking about how companies and movements manipulate the public.

Decent book, however the main premise might as well have been published in a blog post. Rest of the book is just various stories illustrating the points - while very interesting (and making readers shine at dinner parties), they don't bring much value to the argument. I guess it's the case of vast majority of non-fiction. Still quite enjoyed listening to it (I have the audible version) and gave me quite a few ideas to experiment with both in personal as well as professional life.

I really enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. After reading the reviews I worried this book would be one of those that you skim over sections, but I thought all the stories and examples are what made the science interesting. Without them, it would be a research article. The stories give you an idea of how to apply the science to your life and improve your life. I read this from a business perspective to see how I could be more productive and get more done and I left with a better understanding of my own brain and how to train myself into better habits.

Thanks to this book, I could understand how my body works every day and how to improve my productivity, mindset and of course, habits. I will remember this book my entire life.

An interesting book. I enjoyed the stories and lessons learned. Near the end the author totally lost me when comparing a gambling habit with a parasomnia that caused a man to kill his wife. They are in no way comparable to me.

Thought this was a great book to help me think about the various habits in life. How to analyze them and figure out ways to change them for the better. I loved the Appendix section in the back which gave a brief overview of the core concepts in the book which will help me apply what I learned directly.

A bit more insightful than the average pop-psych books, which always seemed to me to be saying “here's 300 pages explaining something obvious.” He did pick a few excellent examples of his thesis; I thought the strongest chapters were on unintentional actions of bureaucracy, like hospital protocols, aluminum plant safety standards, and a subway fire in London. Some of it felt a little more hokey to me, but the practical afterword was very concrete and helpful

The subtitle for this book could be “How to use habit to direct human behavior”. Most of the examples are less about habit on a personal level and more about them on a societal level. One example that I enjoyed was about a time in Iraq where people were collecting in a square everyday. Eventually someone would throw a loud firecracker (or worse) into the mix and everyone would flee – a dangerous situation. Rather than using force to move people out, they moved the food vendors a block away. Now the crowd couldn't hang around for hours on end, as their food habits caused them to disperse earlier.