Review: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I resisted reading this book for a while since the garish cover and title made me think of books that are generally consumed only via “executive summary” and aren’t worth much more than that. However, I am glad I have read for it I found a fascinating overview of anthropological applied psychology and neuroscience that belongs on the shelf next to the works of [a:Malcolm Gladwell|1439|Malcolm Gladwell|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1224601838p2/1439.jpg] and [a:Steven Pinker|3915|Steven Pinker|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1235758085p2/3915.jpg].
Particularly interesting where the marketers at Procter & Gamble figuring out how to sell a Febreze, on track to be one of the biggest flops in company history, by leveraging the habit of adding smells rather than eradicating them.
The CEO of Alcoa reaped marketplace gains by laser focus on safety, affecting and aligning worker habits and other corporate-scoped examples include Starbucks and the famous example (I heard it before of Target data mining for pregnant customers). Activism by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rick Warren (Saddleback Church) along with the power of weak links in Rosa Parks’ movements adds a socio-political dimension.
I was somewhat disappointed by the denouement, where [a:Charles Duhigg|5201530|Charles Duhigg|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1349273209p2/5201530.jpg] seeks to compare a sleepwalker’s murder to a woman who hides and finds enabled a multi-year million dollar gambling habit.

I think he intimitation of a theory of aspect - perceptional differences was both the most intriguing and least developed part of the book...



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