Andy's Reviews > The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

This book claims to explain how new science can help us stop bad habits. The advice on habit change ultimately comes down to the appendix with the author's personal anecdote about trying to lose weight. The conclusion is obvious and it's not science; it's just some dude's story. People looking for books on using increased awareness of thought loops to change habits would be better served reading something about cognitive therapy or meditation.
Managing Your Mind: The Mental Fitness Guide
Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life

Much of what he is talking about with automatic responses to external cues goes back to century-old findings about Pavlov's dogs, and one of the people interviewed even describes what they're doing as "Pavlovian" so that's not new. The actual new science is the fashionable brain biology stuff, which is still not very practical. It's like taking apart your GPS after a road trip to see if you had a good vacation. Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience

One of the most basic concepts in science is to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges, but the author mixes things up so much that it's like a fruit salad. Sleepwalking is a habit? Murder is a habit? Does "habit" mean anything???

Useful scientific advice on behavior change would tell us about controlled experiments of things that helped people. This book instead gives us lots of theories with a "loop" diagram that doesn't even make sense. According to the loop, you need an immediate reward to establish a long-term habit. But, for example, in the chapter about the Superbowl coach, nowhere is it explained what the immediate reward is for performing the correct behaviors thousands of times. Winning the game is the reward, but a losing team doesn't get that for years, if ever.