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The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
by Charles Duhigg (Goodreads Author)
by Charles Duhigg (Goodreads Author)
I was having trouble staying asleep one night when I went to the Goodreads webpage (I know, you're not supposed to browse the web if you can't sleep), which recommended this book. I'LL DO IT!, thought I. What's more, I'll do it as an ebook on my iPad and I'll figure out how to start buying ebooks from the Tattered Cover. It's incredibly easy, by the way.
It struck my fancy because I've been reading a fair amount about behavioral economics (you know, that radical idea that you can better predict how humans will behave if you study their behavior) and this sorta fit with that. It's basically a self help book, though. (I think the last line of the book was something like: "You now know how to swim.")
It covers a bunch of topics--some of which were more engaging than others. The bit about how Target using your buying patterns to accurately predict whether or not you're pregnant was cool and freaky. I felt so much gratitude and appreciation and curiosity for AA all over again, highlighted here for its behavioral therapy group sessions. The bit about the army major who prevents riots by keeping food vendor out of a public square was very interesting.
My biggest complaint about this book is that he very rarely gets into the nitty-gritty of whatever it is he's describing. Even for something as simple as those little cue-action-reward diagrams that pop up all over the book, he waits until the appendix to really explain it (and I would recommend that anyone reading it start with that). There are heaps of end notes referring us off to scholarly articles--which is good but also a bit maddening. I would've loved to see more info about AA's twelve steps. Or read in more detail about how that woman got to be better at money. Or found out more about those habit patterns the army major mentioned.
Still, totally enjoyable read. Reading on the iPad does not make you sleepy, but that's not the book's fault. I took down a few notes to look into some of those articles, and I made notes of those cue-action-reward steps. I'll be thinking about this book for awhile.
It struck my fancy because I've been reading a fair amount about behavioral economics (you know, that radical idea that you can better predict how humans will behave if you study their behavior) and this sorta fit with that. It's basically a self help book, though. (I think the last line of the book was something like: "You now know how to swim.")
It covers a bunch of topics--some of which were more engaging than others. The bit about how Target using your buying patterns to accurately predict whether or not you're pregnant was cool and freaky. I felt so much gratitude and appreciation and curiosity for AA all over again, highlighted here for its behavioral therapy group sessions. The bit about the army major who prevents riots by keeping food vendor out of a public square was very interesting.
My biggest complaint about this book is that he very rarely gets into the nitty-gritty of whatever it is he's describing. Even for something as simple as those little cue-action-reward diagrams that pop up all over the book, he waits until the appendix to really explain it (and I would recommend that anyone reading it start with that). There are heaps of end notes referring us off to scholarly articles--which is good but also a bit maddening. I would've loved to see more info about AA's twelve steps. Or read in more detail about how that woman got to be better at money. Or found out more about those habit patterns the army major mentioned.
Still, totally enjoyable read. Reading on the iPad does not make you sleepy, but that's not the book's fault. I took down a few notes to look into some of those articles, and I made notes of those cue-action-reward steps. I'll be thinking about this book for awhile.
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