K.J. Charles's Reviews > The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

A book of three halves. (What, I don't do maths.)

The first third gets right into the way habits work (cue, behaviour, reward) and explains them really well--including why it's incredibly hard to break a habit but much easier to redirect one (identify your cue and reward, change the behaviour that links them). It's one of those super enlightening books that makes you want to tell everyone you meet about it, incredibly useful. Lots of stories about habits, good and bad, and people who changed them, and the things that make it easier to change (depressingly often includes some equivalent of 'divine revelation'). I really wanted more on the habit cascade thing, whereby making one small change can trigger a series of changes.

The second part is about the 'habits' of companies which is pretty interesting, but also kind of horrible in how corporate minded it is (developing healthy company habits is great because your workers spend more time at work!).

The third part is more society-wide, with particular focus on a woman who sued casinos for their predatory marketing directed at compulsive gamblers, which ends with the author's agreement that it was her fault for not breaking her gambling habit, not the casinos for actively exploiting addiction to bankrupt vulnerable people, which...okay, we'll have to agree to differ on whether predatory corporates are good, I guess!

The first third is really great, but the capitalist running doggery did not appeal to me. Also the author has a slightly annoying habit of nesting stories. But the first third is super worth reading, best analysis of habits I've yet encountered.