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The Power of Habit Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business Charles Duhigg 9781400069286 Books

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The Power of Habit Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business Charles Duhigg 9781400069286 Books

The entire book leads up to the Appendix, which contains the portion of the book where the reader starts to change his/her own habits. You could argue that the appendix alone would make a great magazine article: "Use this hot tip to transform your life!"

But you need all the background to understand the way habits work. You need all the extra evidence so that you'll trust the behavior modification strategy. There are extensive notes at the end of the book which refer back to original sources.

Now that I have read the book, I will refer again and again to the Appendix, because that's the core of it all. In the past few days since finishing the book, I made a few small changes to my daily habits. I plan to tackle bigger and bigger changes as time goes on. I expect to get better with practice.

Why put forth constant effort to maintain brute force willpower when you can step back to examine the tiny impulses that drive your desires and behaviors? Great book!


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The Power of Habit Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business Charles Duhigg 9781400069286 Books Reviews

I really wanted to like this book...

But what I wanted more than that were clear and concrete tactics or strategies to "hack" my habits...

Strategies and tactics that were groundbreaking, clear, repeatable, and effectively "life changing"...

Nope. Not so much.

I grade content quality by number of under-linings, margin notes, and folded pages I've set at the end of the read...

It scored extremely low in all of those categories. So it's not particular dense with usefulness.

A few other things I didn't like...

This book is 95% story, or anecdote. I'm not really into stories. I'd read a novel for a story. I read non-fiction to learn something useful- and prefer to do it quickly.

The stories themselves are delivered non-sequentially...
For example
story A beginning
story B beginning
story C beginning
Story D beginning

To understand story A we need to story B. To understand story B we need story C. To understand story C we need story D.

Then story A's middle or ending
Then story B's middle or ending
Then story C's middle or ending
Then story D's middle or ending

It might be interesting to write this way, but it's an irritating read. Who wants their thought sequences disparate like this?

This distracting structure could have been redeemed if there were meaningful conclusions or anything actionable amidst the mire.

But there was not.

Overall, is it worth reading? Yes...if you have nothing else very interesting to read.
Two halves coexist within this book’s covers. One is outstanding; the other is a bit sloppy. Part one is the heart of the book; it explains what habits are about, where they come from, how they’re hard-wired into our brains, and how they can be enormously powerful —both to enslave us and to free us if we only we learn how to handle them well (the book’s mission). I found this part of the book to be truly outstanding well-researched, engagingly written and extremely persuasive. It combines scientific research, personal life-stories and journalistic interviews to great effect.

While the 1st part is circumscribed to the individual level of analysis, on parts 2 and 3 the author takes the analysis from the micro to organizations (meso-level) and societies (macro-level). The author describes “the power of weak ties” of social networks, and claims that it helps understand the rise of social movements —which it clearly does. But in his explanation, networks are rebranded as “the habit of peer pressure”. Networks —as well as peer pressure, or culture— can be powerful forces for change, undoubtedly. But networks are not habits —as per his own definition. Different phenomena are conflated into the concept of habits, and in doing so the concept loses elegance and consistency.

Intellectually, the book is revealing. On a personal level, it is incredibly useful —and I’m thankful to the author for writing it. I would have limited the book claims to the phenomena it can explain beyond any reasonable doubt. By taking the concept of habits beyond what it can solidly explain, parts 2 & 3 detract a bit of value and credibility from the book. Were it not for that, I would have given 5 stars to the book. In balance, this is still a great book that --with the caveat expressed-- I strongly recommend.
The entire book leads up to the Appendix, which contains the portion of the book where the reader starts to change his/her own habits. You could argue that the appendix alone would make a great magazine article "Use this hot tip to transform your life!"

But you need all the background to understand the way habits work. You need all the extra evidence so that you'll trust the behavior modification strategy. There are extensive notes at the end of the book which refer back to original sources.

Now that I have read the book, I will refer again and again to the Appendix, because that's the core of it all. In the past few days since finishing the book, I made a few small changes to my daily habits. I plan to tackle bigger and bigger changes as time goes on. I expect to get better with practice.

Why put forth constant effort to maintain brute force willpower when you can step back to examine the tiny impulses that drive your desires and behaviors? Great book!