Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits--to Sleep More, Quit Sugar, Procrastinate Less, and Generally Build a Happier Life

by Gretchen Rubin

“One-Coin” Loophole: One of the most insidious of loopholes is the “one-coin” loophole—insidious because it’s absolutely true. This loophole gets its name from the “argument of the growing heap,” which I learned about in Erasmus’s The Praise of Folly. According to a footnote, the argument of the growing heap is: If ten coins are not enough to make a man rich, what if you add one coin? What if you add another? Finally, you will have to say that no one can be rich unless one coin can make him so. In other words, even though one coin certainly isn’t sufficient to make a man rich, a man only becomes rich by adding one coin after another. This teaching story highlights a paradox that’s very significant to habits and happiness: often, when we consider our actions, it’s clear that any one instance of an action is almost meaningless; yet at the same time, the sum of those actions is very meaningful. Whether we choose to focus on the single coin or the growing heap will shape our behavior. True, any one visit to the gym is inconsequential, but the habit of going to the gym is invaluable. Focusing on the one coin is a way to deny the conflict between our values: a person isn’t choosing between the desire to stay close to his extended family and his desire to skip the weekly family brunch to sleep in—because one missed brunch is no big deal. But when he considers the accumulated cost of the missed visits, the conflict looks different. I haven’t worked on that project for such a long ...