The stated purpose of The Power of Habit is to explain how habits work and, hopefully when armed with this information, the reader will be able to devise methods to go about changing their habits for good. Along the way New York Times investigative reporter Charles Duhigg takes the reader on an informative, lively tour of personal, organizational and societal habits.

Clearly based on extensive research and interviews (check the 60 pages of Notes for confirmation), Duhigg has taken a small idea from a Major fighting in Iraq who quelled rioting in the city of Kufa by simply keeping food vendors away from growing mobs and turned it into an extensive narrative on how habits work, how we create new ones and how we can change them.

In this regard Duhigg shines. In the habits of individuals section we learn about the three-step “habit loop” and how our brain looks for ways to save effort by first looking for “cues” or triggers, followed by a “routine” to follow that is physical, mental or emotional and finally a “reward” that determines if the loop is memorable enough to become a habit. Duhigg does a fine job of explaining habits, how they work and indeed how to change them.

Like many bestsellers based on social science research (Willpower by Baumeister and Tierney, Redirect by Tim Wilson and Change Anything by Kerry Patterson for example) Duhigg tells great stories, many with a surprising twist that engages the reader and seem to further his argument. However, at times he seems to overreach in estimating the power of habits and gives them credit for everything from Super Bowl victories, the amazing turnaround of Fortune 500 companies and the gains of the Civil Rights Movement.

While Tony Dungy as coach of the Indianapolis Colts, Paul O’Neill at Alcoa and Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott make for amazing stories in Duhigg’s capable hands, to attribute their successes to habits and habits alone seems to make the error that Phil Rosenzweig highlights in his seminal work The Halo Effect.

Could having a Hall of Fame quarterback at the most important position in sports have helped Dungy’s team as much, if not more than, simple habit change? Did rising aluminum prices in the late 1980’s and 1990’s account for some, if not most, of Alcoa’s financial success beyond O’Neill’s focus on worker safety? And after years and years of struggle before 1955 did the Civil Rights Movement finally reach its tipping point in Montgomery?

Make no mistake, Duhigg is very persuasive with these and many more stories, but beyond his explanation of habit formation and change and especially his own habit change process found in the Appendix (which I found very helpful), I feel he used his habit model as a hammer and every story he tells was a nail.

I still highly recommend this book, but beyond studies that were independently verified and research based more on causation than correlation, I would take some of Duhigg’s stories with a grain of salt. For the reader looking to change personal habits however I can think of no better place to start.