The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles DuhiggMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I first came across this work when an excerpt of the Target customer habit tracking was posted online somewhere in 2012, and it was relevant, interesting, yet terrifying.
A repost of Duhigg breaking his afternoon cookie habit came across my twitter feed earlier this year.
When I saw this at the library a month ago, it seemed like a sign that I should finally get around to reading this, and like reading anything on TVTropes, once you see patterns, you can't unsee them.
The thesis of The Power of Habit lies in our habit circle: a cue happens, we're compelled to perform our habit, and then get rewarded. Sometimes only a hint of a cue is required for us to automatically apply the habit, expecting reward. Duhigg demonstrates this again and again through anecdotes on an individual level, a company's level, and at a national level (the power of weak ties in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, for example).
The notes section is quite extensive should you wish to continue reading on a particular topic, and it's also fascinating to see what various entities had to say (or didn't say) when asked for fact-checking comments.
I can only hope that awareness of the cycle can be harnessed to change some of my own fidgety actions.
View all my reviews
