Habits
by Charles Duhigg
How did Eugene find his way home?
A virus destroyed the part of Eugene Pauly's brain that makes new memories. He couldn't tell you where his kitchen was, yet when he was hungry he walked straight to it. Charles Duhigg wants to know what was steering Eugene, because the same thing steers the rest of us.
Hear a sample · read by Laura
Duhigg splits every habit into a loop. A cue puts your brain on autopilot and picks a routine. You run the routine. A reward tells the brain the loop was worth keeping. Researchers at MIT watched rats' brains go quiet as a maze they'd learned turned into a habit.
The adman Claude Hopkins sold Pepsodent in the early 1900s by pointing at the film on everyone's teeth. Duhigg thinks the tingle did the real work. Mint oil and other ingredients left a cool feeling people came to crave, and without it their mouths didn't feel clean.
Duhigg says you can't wipe out a bad habit, only change it. His Golden Rule of Habit Change keeps the old cue and reward and puts a new routine in between. Alcoholics Anonymous gives drinkers meetings and a sponsor for the moments they'd have reached for a glass.
When Paul O'Neill took over Alcoa in 1987, he told investors his priority was worker safety, and one told his clients to sell. Cutting injuries meant changing how the aluminium company reported problems and ran its plants, and profits climbed. Duhigg calls habits that set off chain reactions keystone habits.
The loop
Every habit is a loop. A cue sets it off, you do the routine, and a reward follows.
Craving
A habit sticks once your brain starts to crave the reward before it even arrives.
The Golden Rule
To change a habit, keep the cue and the reward but swap in a new routine.
Belief
Change lasts longer when you believe it's possible, and a group often gives you that belief.
Keystone habits
Some habits pull others along. At Alcoa, Paul O'Neill's focus on safety improved the whole company.
A story from the book
Procter & Gamble launched Febreze to kill bad smells, and it flopped. Researchers met a woman whose house reeked of her cats. She couldn't smell a thing. People used to a smell had no cue to spray. Relaunched with more scent, as the finishing touch after cleaning, it took off.
One thing to try
Duhigg bought a cookie every afternoon. Trying other rewards, like an apple, a coffee or a chat at a friend's desk, he found he was after company. Pick a habit you want to change. This week, when the urge comes, try a different reward and see if the urge fades.
Knotd has the key ideas from 250+ non-fiction books, each in a few minutes, in plain words. The Power of Habit comes with a Name That Idea round to make it stick.
Get the whole book on KnotdOpen in the appHow did Eugene find his way home? A virus destroyed the part of Eugene Pauly's brain that makes new memories. He couldn't tell you where his kitchen was, yet when he was hungry he walked straight to it. Charles Duhigg wants to know what was steering Eugene, because the same thing steers the rest of us.
Cue, routine, reward; The tingle that sold Pepsodent; Keep the cue, swap the routine; Keystone habits.
Duhigg bought a cookie every afternoon. Trying other rewards, like an apple, a coffee or a chat at a friend's desk, he found he was after company. Pick a habit you want to change. This week, when the urge comes, try a different reward and see if the urge fades.
Yes. Knotd has the key ideas from The Power of Habit in a few minutes, in plain words, plus a Name That Idea round to test them. It's one of 250+ non-fiction books in the app.
