The Power of Habit

The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg, 2012.

Unreasonably short one-sentence description of the book: Habits can be changed if we understand how to do it, and changing certain "keystone habits" will make it easier for us to change others.

Random snippets:

• A 2006 Duke University study found that more than 40 percent of our actions are habit, not conscious decisions.
• "Habits emerge because the brain is constantly looking for ways to save effort.  Left to its own devices, the brain will try to make almost any routine into a habit."
• "Chunking" is the brain converting a sequence of actions into an automatic routine. This process is key to forming habits.
• The brain can't tell the difference between good and bad habits.  Habits never disappear, so both good and bad ones are always just a trigger away.
• In the 1920's, ad man Claude Hopkins stimulated the habit of teeth brushing for Americans with Pepsodent ads that featured a trigger (film on teeth) and a reward (attractive smile).  Before the ads, less than 7% of Americans owned toothpaste.  Ten years after the ads, 65% of Americans brushed their teeth regularly.
• For a new habit to last, the body has to expect and to crave the rewards--e.g. an endorphins surge or a sense of accomplishment.  For Pepsodent, people craved the cool, tingly feel of the citric acid and other chemicals which originally were added to improve the taste.  Today's toothpastes still contain additives, now expressly designed to provide that cool tingle after brushing, which our bodies crave.
• To change a habit you need to keep the old cue and reward, but change the routine.
• A study of alcoholics found that those who believed in something were much more likely to conquer the habit.  Belief in God often generated other beliefs about change.
• Small wins can be the key to creating keystone habits.
• A West Point study found that factor most correlated to success was "grit," defined as "the tendency to work strenuously toward challenge, maintaining effort and interest over years despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress."
  
• Willpower is the single most important keystone habit for individual success.  Self-discipline is more important than IQ, and can be created as a habit.  "Willpower isn't just a skill.  It's a muscle."
• Organizations have habits, too, and their actions are often guided more by institutional habits than by reasoned, independent decision-making.
• Pathological gamblers get a rush not only from winning, but also from near misses.  Non-pathological gamblers recognize near misses like any other loss.  As a result, gaming machines are designed to give a high rate of near wins.
• William James said that the will to believe is the most important ingredient in creating the belief in the possibility of change.

For 2017, I am revisiting 50 books I've enjoyed over the past few years and sharing a few interesting facts and findings I discovered in them.