The Power of Habit

Okay. The first half of this book was fine; I liked it well enough. But by the end I was saying “Ohhh myyyy godddd can this please end?” The chapter on gambling was ridiculous; the “habit of gambling” is not something that's uncontrollable. This book gives too many opportunities to make excuses for our actions and “habits.” Oops, I have a gambling problem, well, it's a habit so it's not my fault! NO. So annoying in so many ways. I could not wait to finish this book and return it to the library where I will ignore it forever hereafter.

I started reading this book merely to get some tips on building better habits and destroying the bad ones. Now, my word of advice is just turn to the appendix and read the step-by-step guide. That appendix, however, only describes you what to do. The author has said that there is no one formula to create a habit, and that you should discover your own way to build your habits. That is what the rest of the book is for.

This book contain stories that stress the importance of habits and why and how you should care about it. True to his background as a journalist, Charles Duhigg is a great storyteller who seamlessly combines powerful narratives of people both extraordinary and ordinary with the results of scientific research. Once you have read all the chapters in the book, then the step-by-step guide will be much more meaningful and compelling for you. After all, telling the stories of people being able/unable to change their habits is just as important as the habit change guide itself. They provide readers with not only the knowledge, but also the motivation to actually take up to the challenge of transforming their habits. This also means that the book is a very slow read, though (that's why I gave it 1 less star). I myself needed 2 months to get to the end of this book, but that's partly because I haven't had a good grasp of what this book really is. I'm not that good at remembering stories, but it seems that the author did a really good job at delivering his tales of successes and failures at habit-building given that I can remember every single story very well now.

If you want to change yourself but don't know how, then this book will offer you many glimpses of enlightenment and the much-needed push to do so.

This was an interesting read on what “makes” up a habit (a trigger, a routine, and a reward). It's a scientific approach (vs anecdotal), although plenty of real-world examples are cited. Now, here's to see if I actually go changing any habits... :)

This is a well focused illustration of the profound importance of habits in our lives and in lives of organizations and societies that we are part of. The book pulls together many interesting and thoroughly researched examples of habits – from neurological research, marketing, team sports, corporate management, etc – to demonstrate the commonality of a “habit loop” (cue > routine > reward) in all of these settings. The conclusion, reiterated throughout, is that habits can be changed. The appendix of my (first paperback) edition includes a general framework for adjust habit loops through experimentation (essentially: identify the routine, experiment with rewards, isolate the cue, have a plan). Overall, a fairly quick and entertaining read on a subject relevant to everyone. Certainly, anyone trying to overcome a bad habit - we all have them - will benefit from knowing the underlying process.

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!

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.

Duhig does insightful analysis on the traits of a habit. He explores three areas of habits: individuals, organizations, and societies. This is not a good book on how to form a habit. It is a series of case studies that look at successful and self-destructing habits in individuals, organizations and societies.

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.

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.

Fascinating book about habits and how they can effect our entire lives. The first few chapters were really interesting as they focused on the psychology and biology of habits and how you can alter them by tweaking either the queue, routine or reward. As the book progresses, it moves from an inward looks at habits, to how habits effect our everyday lives, to organizational habits and finally how habits effect societies. Loved it, wish it had more examples of people who changed their daily habits to become something more. I'm also really interested in organizational efficiency and how habits can make or break entire institutions. If anyone has any good reads on the topic, I would love to know!

Read this!

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.

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.

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).

It starts small, personal, focused on the individual. Then grows to businesses and similar organizations. Then ultimately grows to make statements about our human nature, crowd psychology, and how we behave as communities and nations.

It was interesting but ultimately a “MEH” read.
It offers observations and generalizations, but no concrete solutions.
I'd have liked the conclusion to back track down through the intensity and bring it home to the individual more thoroughly rather than as a less cohesive afterthought.

The beginning is great fun, but this is definitely worth quitting halfway through.

Amazing, insightful and inspiring! Definitely a must read.

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.

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.

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.

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

A decent book with lots of interesting anecdotes on good and bad aspects of habit. I thought the organizational habit section was the strongest and most 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

Falling into that well mined territory of Levitt & Dubner, Gladwell and Pink - The Power of Habit was another great, heavily researched and thoughtful read about the science of habits.

I loved discovering Target's investment in data driven analysis. Motivated by how a pregnancy can make consumers more susceptible to marketing and flexible about their purchasing habits, Target saw a goldmine in identifying pregnant shoppers. An uptick in skin creme and vitamin purchases along with a myriad of other tiny factors, and Target can pinpoint your trimester with frightening accuracy. Or course people are creeped out by that sort of prescience, so while Target sends targeted flyers showcasing cribs and diapers, they're placed alongside ads for lawnmowers and wine glasses so that it will all appear random.

Or how there's a program called Hit Song Science that analyzes mathematical characteristics of a song to predict potential chart toppers. Hey Yeah was identified as a bonafide hit before the general public even heard the song.

Maybe one should despair at our entirely programmable decisions but I for one welcome our data driven overlords.

Brilliant.

It took me close to three weeks to get finished with this book and in the end I am glad that I did. The author (who by the way is an established business section reporter with the New York times) takes a neurological approach to understanding habits and the pivot role they play in our personal,business and social life. The first two parts of the book that covered the the habit loop and the cravings that drove these were the most engrossing.The other parts which covered habits of business organizations and the habits of the society where relatively less intriguing.

Overall the book could have been a third shorter than it currently is,however the author is a brilliant story teller and will keep you entertained and engaged with an interesting collection of anecdotes.

The author has also included a nice appendix section which is essentially a reader's guide on how to use the ideas/ topics covered in this book - a framework. That gets the book an additional star from me.