How to Apply These Ideas to Business

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VER THE YEARS,   I’ve spoken  at Fortune 500 companies and     growing start-ups    about     how to apply the science  of     small habits    to run

more effective businesses and build better    products. I’ve compiled many of the most practical strategies into a   short bonus    chapter.     I think   you’ll find it  to be an incredibly useful    addition     to the main ideas mentioned in Atomic  Habits.

You   can download this chapter at: atomichabits.com/business

How to Apply These Ideas to Parenting

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NE  OF  THE most common questions I   hear from readers  is something along the lines of, “How     can I   get my kids to do     this

stuff?”   The ideas in Atomic  Habits  are intended to apply     broadly  to all of human  behavior (teenagers are humans,     too), which    means   you should find plenty    of useful     strategies in the main text. That said, parenting does face its     own set of challenges. As a   bonus    chapter, I’ve put     together a   brief guide on how to apply these ideas specifically to parenting.

You   can download this chapter at: atomichabits.com/parenting

Acknowledgments

I

HAVE RELIED     HEAVILY   on others    during   the creation of     this book. Before anyone else, I   must thank     my wife, Kristy,     who has been

indispensable throughout     this process. She has played    every     role a person can play in the writing  of a   book: spouse,     friend,   fan, critic, editor,  researcher, therapist. It  is  no     exaggeration  to say this book would     not be the same     without her. It  might    not exist at all. Like everything in     our life, we did it  together.

Second, I   am grateful to my family,   not only for their     support and encouragement on this book but also for     believing in me no matter what   project  I   happen  to     be working on. I   have benefited from many years of support     from my parents, grandparents, and siblings. In particular,  I     want my mom and dad to know that I   love them.    It  is     a special feeling   to know that your parents  are your greatest     fans.

Third, to my assistant, Lyndsey Nuckols. At this point,     her job defies description    as she has been asked to do     nearly    everything one could imagine for a   small business.     Thankfully, her skills and talents   are more powerful than my     questionable   management  style. Some sections of this book are as     much     hers as they are mine. I   am deeply    grateful for her help.

As for the content and writing  of the book, I   have a     long list of people to thank.    To start, there are a   few     people   from whom    I   have learned   so much     that it     would    be a   crime     to not mention them by name.     Leo Babauta, Charles  Duhigg, Nir Eyal, and BJ Fogg have     each influenced my thoughts on habits    in meaningful ways.     Their work and ideas can be found     sprinkled throughout     this text. If  you enjoyed  this book, I’d encourage you to     read their writing  as well.

At various  stages    of writing, I   benefited from the     guidance of many fine editors.  Thanks  to Peter Guzzardi for     walking me through the early stages     of the writing     process  and for a   kick in the pants when I   really needed     it. I   am indebted to Blake Atwood and Robin     Dellabough for transforming my ugly and insanely long first drafts     into a   tight, readable manuscript.    And I   am thankful to     Anne Barngrover for her ability to add a   little class and poetic     style to my writing.

I’d like to thank     the many people   who read early versions of     the manuscript, including Bruce    Ammons, Darcey   Ansell,     Tim Ballard, Vishal Bhardwaj, Charlotte Blank,    Jerome  Burt,     Sim Campbell, Al

Carlos,   Nicky     Case, Julie Chang,   Jason     Collins,  Debra     Croy, Roger

Dooley,  Tiago Forte,    Matt Gartland, Andrew Gierer,   Randy     Giffen,   Jon

Giganti, Adam    Gilbert, Stephan Guyenet, Jeremy  Hendon,     Jane

Horvath, Joakim  Jansson, Josh Kaufman, Anne Kavanagh, Chris

Klaus,    Zeke Lopez,   Cady Macon,  Cyd Madsen, Kiera McGrath,     Amy

Mitchell, Anna Moise,   Stacey   Morris,  Tara-Nicholle Nelson,     Taylor Pearson, Max Shank,   Trey Shelton, Jason     Shen, Jacob     Zangelidis, and Ari  Zelmanow. The book benefited greatly   from     your feedback.

To the team at Avery     and Penguin Random House   who     made this book a   reality,   thank     you. I   owe a   debt of     special   thanks   to my publisher, Megan   Newman, for     her endless  patience as I   continually pushed  back     deadlines. She gave me the space I   needed   to create    a book I   was proud    of and championed   my ideas at every     step. To Nina, for her ability    to transform my writing     while still retaining my original message. To Lindsay, Farin,     Casey,    and the rest of the PRH team for spreading  the     message of this book to more people   than I   could ever reach on my own. To Pete Garceau, for designing a   beautiful     cover for this  book.

And   to my agent,    Lisa DiMona, for her guidance and     insight   at every step of the publishing process.

To the many friends   and family    members who asked “How’s     the book going?”  and offered   a   word of encouragement     when I   inevitably replied “Slowly”—thank you. Every author   faces a     few dark moments when writing  a   book, and one kind word     can be enough  to get you to show up again the next     day.

I am sure there are people   I   have forgotten, but I   keep an     updated list    of anyone  who has influenced my thinking in     meaningful ways at jamesclear.com/thanks.

And   finally,   to you. Life is  short and you have shared     some of your precious time with me by reading  this book.     Thank    you.

—May 2018

Notes

I

N    THIS SECTION, I   have included a   detailed list of notes,     references, and citations   for each chapter in the book. I     trust that most readers  will

find this list to be sufficient. However, I   also realize    that     scientific literature  changes over time and the references for     this book may need to  be updated. Furthermore, I   fully     expect   that I   have made a   mistake somewhere in this     book—either   in attributing an idea to the wrong person or     not giving    credit     to someone where    it  is  due. (If     you believe this to be the case, please    email me at     james@jamesclear.com    so I   can fix   the issue as soon as     possible.)

In addition to the notes below,   you can find a   full list of     updated endnotes    and corrections at atomichabits.com/endnotes.

INTRODUCTION

We all    deal with setbacks : What about luck, you might ask? Luck matters, certainly.    Habits are  not  the  only thing that influence   your success, but  they are  probably     the  most important     factor that is    within your control.      And the  only self-improvement strategy that makes any sense is    to    focus on   what you can control.

The entrepreneur       and investor   Naval Ravikant : Naval Ravikant    (@naval), “To write a great book, you must first become      the  book,” Twitter, May 15,   2018, https://twitter.com/naval/status/996460948029362176.

“stimulus, response, reward” : B.    F.    Skinner,     The Behavior    of Organisms (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts,  1938).

“cue, routine,     reward” : Charles      Duhigg,      The Power of    Habit: Why We Do  What We  Do  in Life and Business    (New York: Random    House, 2014).

CHAPTER 1

just a       single gold medal       at   the Olympic   Games :    Matt Slater, “How GB  Cycling       Went from Tragic to    Magic,”      BBC Sport, April 14,  2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/cycling/7534073.stm.

the Tour de  France :    Tom Fordyce,     “Tour de   France 2017: Is    Chris Froome      Britain’s     Least Loved Great Sportsman?” BBC Sport, July 23, 2017, https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/40692045.

one of     the top bike manufacturers  in   Europe     refused    to sell bikes :       Richard      Moore, Mastermind: How Dave Brailsford Reinvented the  Wheel (Glasgow:  BackPage   Press, 2013).

“The whole principle  came from the idea” : Matt Slater, “Olympics  Cycling: Marginal Gains     Underpin   Team GB  Dominance,” BBC, August       8, 2012, https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/19174302.

Brailsford and his coaches    began by   making     small adjustments :      Tim Harford, “Marginal Gains Matter but  Gamechangers     Transform,” Tim Harford,     April 2017, http://timharford.com/2017/04/marginal-gains-matter-but-gamechangers-transform. they even painted    the inside of   the team truck white :       Eben Harrell, “How 1%

Performance Improvements      Led to    Olympic     Gold,” Harvard    Business Review,      October 30, 2015, https://hbr.org/2015/10/how-1-performance-improvements-led-to-olympicgold; Kevin Clark, “How a     Cycling       Team Turned       the Falcons      Into NFC Champions,” The Ringer, September 12,   2017, https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2017/9/12/16293216/atlanta-falcons-thomasdimitroff-cycling-team-sky.

Just five  years after Brailsford took over : Technically, the  British riders won 57 percent of  the  road and track cycling medals       at    the  2008 Olympics. Fourteen    gold medals       were available       in    road and track cycling events.       The Brits won eight of    them.

the Brits raised       the bar : “World       and Olympic     Records     Set  at the  2012 Summer    Olympics,” Wikipedia,      December  8,    2017,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_and_Olympic_records_set_at_the_2012_Summe

Bradley    Wiggins   became    the first British      cyclist :      Andrew Longmore, “Bradley Wiggins,” Encyclopaedia      Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/BradleyWiggins, last modified    April 21, 2018.

Chris Froome    won : Karen Sparks,       “Chris Froome,”   Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Chris-Froome,  last modified October      23,  2017.

During      the ten-year   span from 2007 to   2017 : “Medals     won by   the Great Britain Cycling Team at    world championships,     Olympic     Games and Paralympic Games       since 2000,” British Cycling, https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/gbcyclingteam/article/Gbrst_gbcyclingteam-GB-Cycling-Team-Medal-History—0?c=EN#K0dWAPjq84CV8Wzw.99, accessed June 8,    2018.

you’ll end up  thirty-seven times better :      Jason Shen, an   entrepreneur and writer, received     an   early look at    this book. After reading      this chapter,     he   remarked: “If   the  gains were linear, you’d predict to    be 3.65x better off.  But because     it     is    exponential, the improvement  is actually      10x greater.”    April 3,    2018.

Habits      are the compound interest :  Many people have noted how habits multiply     over time.  Here are  some of    my  favorite      articles and books on   the  subject:      Leo Babauta,    “The Power of    Habit Investments,”       Zen Habits,       January     28,  2013,

https://zenhabits.net/bank; Morgan      Housel,      “The Freakishly  Strong Base,” Collaborative Fund, October      31,   2017, http://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/thefreakishly-strong-base; Darren       Hardy, The Compound Effect (New York: Vanguard Press,   2012).

Accomplishing   one extra task : As   Sam Altman       says, “A   small productivity gain, compounded over 50   years, is    worth a     lot.” “Productivity,”       Sam Altman.      April 10,  2018, http://blog.samaltman.com/productivity.

Habits      are a     double-edged    sword :     I’d   like to    credit Jason Hreha with originally    describing habits  to    me  in    this way. Jason Hreha (@jhreha), “They’re     a     double edged sword,” Twitter,    February    21, 2018, https://twitter.com/jhreha/status/966430907371433984.

The more tasks you can handle      without    thinking : Michael (@mmay3r), “The foundation    of    productivity is    habits. The more you do automatically, the  more you’re subsequently freed to    do.  This effect compounds,” Twitter,      April 10,  2018, https://twitter.com/mmay3r/status/983837519274889216.

each book you read not only teaches :   This idea—that  learning     new ideas increases   the value   of    your old  ideas—is    something I first heard about from Patrick O’Shaughnessy, who writes, “This is    why knowledge compounds. Old stuff that was a     4/10 in    value can become a     10/10, unlocked    by   another      book in    the  future.” http://investorfieldguide.com/reading-tweet-storm.

Cancer      spends     80  percent    of   its  life undetectable : “How to    Live a     Longer,      Higher Quality      Life, with Peter Attia, M.D.,” Investor’s  Field Guide, March 7,    2017, http://investorfieldguide.com/attia.

The San  Antonio    Spurs :      Matt Moore,       “NBA Finals: A     Rock, Hammer and Cracking    of Spurs’    Majesty      in    Game 7,”   CBS Sports, June 21, 2013, https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-finals-a-rock-hammer-and-cracking-ofspurs-majesty-in-game-7.

Inspiration for  this drawing     came from a     tweet titled “Deception of linear vs   exponential” by @MlichaelW.    May 19,  2018. https://twitter.com/MlichaelW/status/997878086132817920.

The seed of   every habit : This paragraph  was inspired     by   a     quote from Mr. Mircea,      an account on   Twitter,      who wrote, “each habit began its   life  as   a     single decision.” https://twitter.com/mistermircea.

the goal cannot      be  what differentiates     the winners   from the losers :      Hat tip   to CrossFit coach Ben Bergeron   for  inspiring this quote during a     conversation I      had with him    on   February    28, 2017.

You fall   to   the level of   your systems :  This line was inspired     by the  following    quote from Archilochus: “We don’t rise to    the  level of our expectations, we  fall  to    the  level of    our training.”

CHAPTER 2

You can  imagine    them like the layers of   an  onion :      Hat tip   to Simon Sinek. His “Golden Circle”     framework is    similar in    design,       but discusses   different    topics. For more, see Simon Sinek, Start with Why: How Great Leaders     Inspire       Everyone   to    Take Action (London: Portfolio/Penguin, 2013), 37.

I    resolved    to   stop chewing   my nails : The quotes used in    this section       are  presented  as   a conversation      for  reading      clarity, but were originally    written       by   Clark. See: Brian Clark, “The Powerful Psychological Boost that Helps You Make and Break Habits,”      Further, November   14,  2017, https://further.net/pride-habits.

Research has shown      that once a     person :    Christopher J.    Bryan et al.,  “Motivating Voter Turnout       by   Invoking    the  Self,” Proceedings of the  National    Academy   of    Sciences     108, no.      31    (2011): 12653–12656.

There is    internal    pressure : Leon Festinger,  A     Theory of    Cognitive Dissonance (Stanford, CA:       Stanford    University  Press, 1957).

Your identity      is    literally    your “repeated beingness” : Technically, identidem is    a     word belonging     to    the  Late Latin language.   Also, thanks to Tamar Shippony,   a     reader of jamesclear.com, who originally    told me about the  etymology  of    the  word identity,     which she  looked up   in the  American   Heritage    Dictionary.

We change bit  by   bit : This is    another      reason atomic habits are  such an effective     form of change.  If    you change       your identity      too quickly       and become      someone    radically     different overnight, then you feel as   if     you lose your sense of    self. But if     you update and expand your identity      gradually,  you will find yourself      reborn into someone    totally new and yet

still   familiar.     Slowly—habit by   habit, vote by   vote—you   become accustomed to    your new identity. Atomic       habits and gradual improvement are  the  keys to    identity      change without     identity loss.

CHAPTER 3

Edward    Thorndike conducted an  experiment :       Peter Gray, Psychology, 6th ed.  (New York: Worth, 2011), 108–109.

“by some simple      act, such as   pulling      at   a     loop of   cord” :       Edward      L.    Thorndike, “Animal

Intelligence: An  Experimental Study of    the  Associative Processes  in Animals,” Psychological   Review:     Monograph Supplements 2,    no.  4 (1898), doi:10.1037/h0092987.

“behaviors followed  by   satisfying consequences” : This is    an abbreviated version       of    the original quote from Thorndike, which reads: “responses that produce     a     satisfying   effect in     a     particular situation    become      more likely to    occur again in    that situation, and responses       that produce     a     discomforting effect become      less likely to    occur again in    that situation.”      For more, see Peter Gray, Psychology, 6th ed.  (New York: Worth, 2011), 108–109.

Neurological      activity     in   the brain is    high : Charles      Duhigg,      The Power of    Habit: Why We Do What We  Do  in    Life and Business (New York: Random    House,       2014), 15;  Ann M.

Graybiel,      “Network-Level    Neuroplasticity      in    Cortico-Basal Ganglia Pathways,” Parkinsonism and Related      Disorders  10,  no.  5     (2004), doi:10.1016/j.parkreldis.2004.03.007.

“Habits    are, simply,     reliable    solutions” : Jason Hreha, “Why Our Conscious Minds Are Suckers for  Novelty,”    Revue, https://www.getrevue.co/profile/jason/issues/why-ourconscious-minds-are-suckers-for-novelty-54131, accessed    June 8,    2018.

As   habits       are created :   John R.   Anderson,  “Acquisition of       Cognitive   Skill,” Psychological Review       89,  no.  4     (1982),       doi:10.1037/0033–295X.89.4.369. the  brain remembers the past : Shahram       Heshmat,  “Why Do  We Remember Certain Things,     But Forget       Others,”     Psychology Today, October      8,    2015, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/science-choice/201510/why-do-weremember-certain-things-forget-others.

the conscious mind is    the bottleneck : William      H.   Gladstones, Michael       A.    Regan,       and

Robert B.    Lee, “Division    of    Attention:  The Single-Channel Hypothesis Revisited,” Quarterly       Journal      of    Experimental Psychology Section       A     41,  no.  1      (1989), doi:10.1080/14640748908402350.

the conscious  mind likes to   pawn off  tasks : Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,       2015).

Habits      reduce      cognitive load : John R.   Anderson,  “Acquisition of Cognitive   Skill,” Psychological Review       89,  no.  4     (1982), doi:10.1037/0033–295X.89.4.369.

Feelings   of   pleasure  and disappointment : Antonio      R.   Damasio,   The Strange      Order of Things:  Life, Feeling,      and the  Making      of Cultures     (New York: Pantheon   Books, 2018); Lisa Feldman    Barrett, How Emotions   Are Made (London:   Pan Books, 2018).

CHAPTER 4

The psychologist Gary Klein : I      originally    heard about this story from Daniel Kahneman, but     it     was confirmed  by   Gary Klein in    an   email on March 30,  2017. Klein also covers the story    in    his  own book, which uses slightly       different    quotes:      Gary A.    Klein, Sources      of Power: How People Make Decisions   (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998), 43–44.

military    analysts   can identify    which blip on  a     radar screen :     Gary A.    Klein, Sources      of Power:   How People Make Decisions   (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998), 38–40.

Museum   curators  have been known      to   discern :   The story of    the Getty kouros,       covered in Malcolm    Gladwell’s  book Blink, is    a famous      example.    The sculpture,  initially       believed to be   from ancient       Greece,      was purchased for  $10 million.      The controversy surrounding the    sculpture   happened  later when one expert identified   it     as   a     forgery       upon first glance.

Experienced       radiologists can look at   a     brain scan : Siddhartha Mukherjee, “The Algorithm     Will See You Now,” New Yorker, April 3,    2017, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/03/ai-versus-md.

The human      brain is    a     prediction machine : The German     physician       Hermann   von

Helmholtz   developed  the  idea of    the  brain being a     “prediction machine.” the       clerk swiped     the customer’s actual credit card : Helix van Boron, “What’s      the

Dumbest     Thing You’ve Done While Your Brain Is    on   Autopilot,” Reddit, August       21,

2017,

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/6v1t91/whats_the_dumbest_thing_yo

she kept asking      coworkers if    they had washed    their hands : SwordOfTheLlama, “What Strange      Habits Have You Picked Up  from Your Line of    Work,” Reddit,       January     4,    2016, https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3zckq6/what_strange_habits_have_y

story of     a     man who had spent years working   as   a     lifeguard : SwearImaChick,   “What Strange      Habits Have You Picked Up  from Your Line of    Work,” Reddit,       January     4,    2016, https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3zckq6/what_strange_habits_have_y

“Until you make the unconscious       conscious” : Although    this quote by Jung is    popular,     I had trouble       tracking     down the  original source.       It’s  probably     a     paraphrase of    this passage: “The psychological rule says that when an   inner situation    is    not  made conscious,    it     happens     outside,      as   fate. That is    to    say, when the  individual  remains undivided and does not  become      conscious of    his  inner opposite,    the  world must perforce act out  the  conflict and be   torn into opposing    halves.”      For more, see C.    G. Jung, Aion: Researches  into the  Phenomenology    of    the  Self (Princeton, NJ: Princeton   University Press,   1959), 71.

Pointing-and-Calling   reduces    errors :     Alice Gordenker, “JR Gestures,” Japan Times, October      21,   2008, https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2008/10/21/reference/jrgestures/#.WvIG49Mvzu1.

The MTA subway     system      in   New York City : Allan Richarz,     “Why Japan’s      Rail Workers Can’t       Stop Pointing     at    Things,”     Atlas Obscura,    March 29,  2017, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/pointing-and-calling-japan-trains.

CHAPTER 5

researchers in   Great Britain      began working : Sarah Milne, Sheina Orbell, and       Paschal

Sheeran,      “Combining Motivational and Volitional   Interventions to    Promote Exercise Participation:     Protection  Motivation Theory and Implementation Intentions,” British Journal     of    Health Psychology 7     (May 2002): 163–184.

implementation intentions are effective : Peter Gollwitzer  and Paschal       Sheeran, “Implementation Intentions  and Goal Achievement: A     Meta‐Analysis       of    Effects and Processes,”    Advances   in    Experimental Social Psychology       38   (2006):      69–119. writing   down the exact time and date of       when you will get a     flu  shot : Katherine  L.

Milkman,     John Beshears,  James J.    Choi, David Laibson,     and Brigitte C.    Madrian,

“Using Implementation    Intentions  Prompts     to    Enhance    Influenza Vaccination Rates,” Proceedings of    the  National    Academy   of    Sciences 108, no.  26   (June 2011): 10415– 10420.

recording the time of   your colonoscopy       appointment :     Katherine  L. Milkman,   John Beshears,     James J.    Choi, David Laibson,     and Brigitte C.    Madrian,    “Planning   Prompts     as a Means of    Increasing Preventive Screening  Rates,”       Preventive Medicine    56,  no.  1 (January 2013): 92–93.

voter turnout    increases : David W.  Nickerson  and Todd Rogers,      “Do You Have a     Voting Plan? Implementation    Intentions, Voter Turnout, and Organic      Plan Making,” Psychological    Science       21,   no.  2 (2010):       194–199.

Other successful government programs : “Policymakers       around       the  World Are Embracing  Behavioural Science,”    The Economist, May 18,  2017, https://www.economist.com/news/international/21722163-experimental-iterativedata-driven-approach-gaining-ground-policymakers-around.

people      who make a     specific    plan for when and where :     Edwin       Locke and Gary Latham,

“Building     a     Practically  Useful Theory of    Goal Setting       and Task Motivation: A     35-Year Odyssey,” American   Psychologist 57,  no.  9 (2002):      705–717,    doi:10.1037//0003– 066x.57.9.705.

hope is      usually     higher :     Hengchen  Dai, Katherine  L.    Milkman, and Jason Riis, “The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal   Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior,” PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2014, doi:10.1037/e513702014–058.

writer       Jason Zweig noted :      Jason Zweig, “Elevate     Your Financial    IQ:  A       Value Packed

Discussion with Jason Zweig,”       interview   by   Shane Parrish,      The Knowledge       Project,

Farnam Street, audio, https://www.fs.blog/2015/10/jason-zweig-knowledge-project. many ways to   use implementation intentions : For the  term habit stacking,    I am indebted to    S.    J.    Scott, who wrote a     book by   the  same name. From what I      understand, his    concept      is    slightly       different,   but  I like the  term and thought      it     appropriate to    use in this chapter. Previous    writers such as   Courtney    Carver and Julien Smith have also used the term habit stacking,    but  in    different    contexts.

The French       philosopher Denis Diderot :  “Denis Diderot,”    New World Encyclopedia, http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Denis_Diderot, last modified October      26, 2017.

acquired  a     scarlet      robe : Encyclopædia       Britannica, vol. 8     (1911), s.v. “Denis Diderot.” Diderot’s scarlet robe is    frequently  described   as   a     gift from a     friend. However,   I      could find  no   original      source claiming it     was a     gift  nor any mention     of    the  friend who supplied the    robe. If    you happen       to    know any historians  specializing in robe acquisitions, feel free to point them my  way so   we  can clarify the mystery      of    the  source of    Diderot’s    famous scarlet      robe.

“no more coordination,     no  more unity, no  more beauty” :   Denis Diderot, “Regrets    for My Old Dressing    Gown,”       trans. Mitchell     Abidor, 2005, https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/diderot/1769/regrets.htm.

The Diderot      Effect states :      Juliet Schor, The Overspent  American: Why We Want What We Don’t    Need (New York: HarperPerennial,  1999).

which was created    by   BJ  Fogg : In   this chapter,     I      used the term habit stacking     to    refer to linking   a     new habit to    an   old one. For this idea, I      give credit to    BJ   Fogg. In   his  work, Fogg uses the  term anchoring  to    describe     this approach    because your old  habit acts as an “anchor”    that keeps the  new one in place. No  matter what term you prefer, I      believe       it is a     very effective     strategy.     You can learn more about Fogg’s work and his Tiny Habits Method      at    https://www.tinyhabits.com.

“One in,    one out” : Dev Basu (@devbasu), “Have a     one-in-one-out     policy when buying things,”      Twitter,      February    11,   2018, https://twitter.com/devbasu/status/962778141965000704.

CHAPTER 6

Anne Thorndike : Anne N.   Thorndike  et    al.,  “A   2-Phase     Labeling and Choice Architecture Intervention to    Improve     Healthy      Food and Beverage   Choices,”   American   Journal      of Public     Health 102, no.  3 (2012), doi:10.2105/ajph.2011.300391.

choose      products  not because   of   what they are : Multiple     research studies       have shown that the  mere sight of    food can make us feel hungry       even when we  don’t have actual physiological hunger. According  to    one researcher, “dietary      behaviors   are, in    large part, the     consequence of    automatic  responses  to    contextual food cues.” For more, see D.   A. Cohen    and S.    H.   Babey, “Contextual Influences on   Eating Behaviours: Heuristic

Processing   and Dietary       Choices,”   Obesity       Reviews     13,   no.  9 (2012), doi:10.1111/j.1467–

789x.2012.01001.x; and Andrew      J.    Hill, Lynn D.   Magson,     and John E.    Blundell, “Hunger and Palatability: Tracking    Ratings      of Subjective  Experience Before,       during and after    the  Consumption of Preferred   and Less Preferred   Food,” Appetite     5,    no.  4     (1984), doi:10.1016/s0195–6663(84)80008–2.

Behavior  is    a     function   of   the Person     in   their Environment : Kurt Lewin, Principles  of Topological       Psychology (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1936).

Suggestion Impulse   Buying :   Hawkins    Stern, “The Significance of    Impulse Buying Today,” Journal    of    Marketing 26,  no.  2     (1962), doi:10.2307/1248439.

45 percent      of   Coca-Cola sales : Michael      Moss, “Nudged    to    the Produce     Aisle by   a     Look in the Mirror,”      New York Times, August 27,  2013, https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/28/dining/wooing-us-down-the-produceaisle.html?_r=0.

People      drink Bud Light because :  The more exposure    people have to food, the  more likely they  are  to    purchase    it     and eat  it.    T. Burgoine    et    al.,  “Associations between     Exposure   to Takeaway Food Outlets,      Takeaway  Food Consumption, and Body Weight       in

Cambridgeshire,     UK: Population Based, Cross Sectional    Study,”       British Medical      Journal 348, no.  5     (2014),       doi:10.1136/bmj.g1464.

The human body has about eleven      million     sensory    receptors : Timothy     D.   Wilson, Strangers to    Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive    Unconscious (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2004), 24.

half of     the brain’s      resources are used on  vision :      B.    R. Sheth et    al.,  “Orientation Maps of Subjective Contours    in    Visual Cortex,” Science       274, no.  5295 (1996), doi:10.1126/science.274.5295.2110.

When their energy      use was obvious    and easy to   track : This story was told to    Donella Meadows at    a     conference in    Kollekolle, Denmark,  in    1973. For more, see Donella Meadows and Diana Wright, Thinking    in    Systems:    A     Primer (White River Junction,   VT: Chelsea Green, 2015), 109.

the stickers      cut bathroom cleaning   costs : The actual estimate    was 8 percent,     but  given the   variables    used, anywhere   between     5 percent      and 10   percent      savings      annually     is    a reasonable guess. Blake Evans-Pritchard,  “Aiming     to    Reduce      Cleaning    Costs,” Works That Work, Winter 2013, https://worksthatwork.com/1/urinal-fly.

sleeping   .      .      .      was the only action       that happened in that room :       “Techniques involving stimulus control have even been successfully used to    help people with insomnia.  In short,     those who had trouble       falling asleep were told to    only go   to    their room and lie   in their       bed when they were tired. If    they couldn’t      fall asleep, they were told to    get  up   and change rooms. Strange      advice, but  over time, researchers found that by   associating the bed      with ‘It’s time to    go   to    sleep’ and not  with other activities    (reading     a book, just lying

there, etc.), participants were eventually  able to    quickly       fall  asleep due to    the  repeated process: it     became      almost automatic  to    fall asleep in    their bed because     a     successful trigger had been created.” For more, see Charles      M.   Morin et    al.,  “Psychological       and Behavioral  Treatment of    Insomnia:  Update       of    the  Recent Evidence   (1998–2004),”      Sleep

29,    no.  11    (2006),      doi:10.1093/sleep/29.11.1398;     and Gregory Ciotti, “The Best Way to Change  Your Habits?      Control       Your Environment,”      Sparring     Mind, https://www.sparringmind.com/changing-habits.

habits can be  easier       to   change     in   a     new environment :    S.       Thompson, J.    Michaelson, S.

Abdallah,     V.    Johnson,    D.   Morris,       K.    Riley, and A.    Simms, ‘Moments   of    Change’     as

Opportunities for  Influencing Behaviour: A     Report to    the  Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (London:   Defra, 2011), http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Document.aspx?

Document=MomentsofChangeEV0506FinalReport       Nov2011(2).pdf.

when you step outside     your normal     environment :    Various      research studies       have found that it     is    easier to    change       your behavior when your environment changes.    For example, students change       their television   watching    habits when they transfer      schools.      Wendy Wood and David T.    Neal, “Healthy    through      Habit: Interventions for  Initiating and Maintaining   Health Behavior    Change,”    Behavioral Science       and Policy 2,    no.  1      (2016), doi:10.1353/bsp.2016.0008; W.  Wood, L.    Tam, and M.   G.   Witt, “Changing

Circumstances,       Disrupting Habits,”      Journal      of    Personality and Social Psychology 88, no. 6     (2005),       doi:10.1037/0022–3514.88.6.918

You aren’t battling    old environmental  cues : Perhaps     this is    why 36 percent      of    successful changes in    behavior    were associated with a move to    a     new place. Melissa      Guerrero-Witt, Wendy     Wood, and Leona Tam, “Changing Circumstances,     Disrupting Habits,” PsycEXTRA Dataset 88,  no.  6     (2005),       doi:10.1037/e529412014–144.

CHAPTER 7

Follow-up research  revealed  that 35   percent    of   service members : Lee N.   Robins et al., “Vietnam   Veterans    Three Years after Vietnam:   How Our Study Changed    Our View of Heroin,” American Journal      on   Addictions 19,  no.  3     (2010),       doi:10.1111/j.1521– 0391.2010.00046.x.

the creation     of   the Special     Action       Office of   Drug Abuse Prevention : “Excerpts   from President’s   Message    on   Drug Abuse Control,” New York Times, June 18,  1971, https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/18/archives/excerpts-from-presidents-messageon-drug-abuse-control.html.

nine out   of   ten soldiers   who used heroin      in   Vietnam : Lee N. Robins,      Darlene      H.   Davis, and David N.   Nurco, “How Permanent Was Vietnam     Drug Addiction?” American Journal of    Public Health 64,  no. 12    (suppl.)      (1974),       doi:10.2105/ajph.64.12_suppl.38.

90 percent      of   heroin      users become    re-addicted :       Bobby P. Smyth et    al.,  “Lapse and Relapse following    Inpatient    Treatment of Opiate Dependence,” Irish Medical      Journal 103, no.  6     (June 2010).

“disciplined”      people      are better       at   structuring their lives : Wilhelm Hofmann   et    al., “Everyday Temptations: An  Experience Sampling   Study on How People Control       Their Desires,”      PsycEXTRA Dataset      102, no.  6 (2012), doi:10.1037/e634112013–146.

It’s easier to   practice   self-restraint     when you don’t have to   use it : “Our prototypical model of    self-control is    angel on   one side and devil on   the  other, and they battle it out. .      .      .      We tend to think of    people with strong willpower   as   people who are  able to fight this    battle effectively. Actually,     the  people who are  really good at self-control never have these battles in    the  first place.” For more, see Brian Resnick,     “The Myth of    Self-Control,”

Vox,  November 24,  2016, https://www.vox.com/science-andhealth/2016/11/3/13486940/self-control-psychology-myth.

A   habit that has been encoded   in   the mind is    ready to   be used : Wendy       Wood and Dennis Rünger,     “Psychology of    Habit,” Annual Review       of    Psychology 67,  no.  1      (2016), doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-122414–033417.

The cues were still internalized :      “The Biology       of    Motivation and Habits:       Why We Drop the    Ball,” Therapist   Uncensored), 20:00, http://www.therapistuncensored.com/biology-of-motivation-habits,  accessed    June 8, 2018.

Shaming  obese people      with weight-loss presentations :   Sarah E.    Jackson, Rebecca     J. Beeken, and Jane Wardle,      “Perceived Weight Discrimination      and Changes    in    Weight, Waist       Circumference, and Weight       Status,”      Obesity,      2014, doi:10.1002/oby.20891.

Showing   pictures   of   blackened lungs to   smokers : Kelly McGonigal, The Upside of Stress:   Why Stress Is    Good for  You, and How to Get Good at    It    (New York: Avery, 2016), xv.

showing   addicts     a     picture     of   cocaine    for just thirty-three milliseconds :     Fran Smith, “How Science      Is    Unlocking  the  Secrets of    Addiction,” National    Geographic, September 2017, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/09/the-addicted-brain.

CHAPTER 8

Niko Tinbergen performed a     series of   experiments :     Nikolaas Tinbergen, The Herring Gull’s       World (London:   Collins,       1953); “Nikolaas Tinbergen,” New World Encyclopedia, http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Nikolaas_Tinbergen,    last modified September   30,  2016.

the goose will pull any nearby      round       object :      James L.    Gould, Ethology:   The Mechanisms   and Evolution   of    Behavior    (New York: Norton,      1982), 36–41.

the modern      food industry   relies on  stretching : Steven Witherly,    Why Humans    Like Junk   Food (New York: IUniverse, 2007).

Nearly      every food in   a     bag : “Tweaking Tastes and Creating     Cravings,” 60   Minutes, November 27,  2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7Wh3uq1yTc.

French      fries .      .      .      are a     potent      combination :     Steven Witherly,    Why Humans    Like Junk Food (New York: IUniverse, 2007).

such strategies  enable      food scientists to   find the “bliss point” : Michael      Moss, Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the  Food Giants Hooked      Us (London:   Allen, 2014).

“We’ve     gotten       too good at   pushing    our own buttons” : This quote originally    appeared in Stephan     Guyenet,    “Why Are Some People ‘Carboholics’?”       July 26,  2017, http://www.stephanguyenet.com/why-are-some-people-carboholics. The adapted version    is    given with permission granted in    an   email exchange   with the  author in    April 2018.

The importance of   dopamine : “The importance of    dopamine  was discovered by   accident. In 1954, James Olds and Peter Milner,       two neuroscientists     at    McGill University, decided to implant      an   electrode deep into the  center of    a     rat’s brain. The precise       placement of the    electrode   was largely happenstance;      at    the  time, the  geography of    the  mind remained     a     mystery.     But Olds and Milner got lucky. They inserted     the  needle right next to the  nucleus      accumbens (NAcc),      a     part of    the  brain that generates  pleasurable feelings. Whenever   you eat  a     piece of    chocolate   cake, or    listen to    a favorite      pop song, or    watch your favorite      team win the  World Series, it     is    your NAcc that helps you feel so   happy. But Olds and Milner quickly       discovered that too  much pleasure     can be fatal. They placed the  electrodes  in    several       rodents’     brains and then ran a     small current       into each wire,

making the  NAccs continually excited.      The scientists   noticed       that the rodents      lost interest in    everything. They stopped      eating and drinking. All   courtship   behavior    ceased. The rats would just huddle       in    the corners      of    their cages, transfixed  by   their bliss. Within days, all   of the  animals      had perished.   They died of    thirst. For more, see Jonah Lehrer, How We  Decide (Boston:     Houghton  Mifflin Harcourt,   2009).

neurological       processes behind      craving     and desire :     James Olds and       Peter Milner,

“Positive      Reinforcement      Produced   by   Electrical   Stimulation of Septal Area and Other Regions       of    Rat Brain,” Journal      of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 47,  no.  6 (1954), doi:10.1037/h0058775.

rats lost  all  will to   live : Qun-Yong  Zhou and Richard      D. Palmiter,    “Dopamine-Deficient Mice Are Severely     Hypoactive, Adipsic, and Aphagic,”   Cell 83,  no.  7     (1995), doi:10.1016/0092–8674(95)90145–0.

without    desire,      action       stopped :  Kent C.    Berridge,   Isabel L.       Venier,       and Terry E.    Robinson,

“Taste Reactivity  Analysis     of    6-Hydroxydopamine-Induced    Aphagia: Implications for Arousal and Anhedonia Hypotheses of    Dopamine  Function,” Behavioral Neuroscience 103, no.  1      (1989),       doi:10.1037//0735–7044.103.1.36.

the mice developed a     craving     so   strong :     Ross A.    Mcdevitt    et       al.,  “Serotonergic versus Nonserotonergic   Dorsal Raphe Projection  Neurons:       Differential Participation in    Reward Circuitry,” Cell Reports      8,    no.  6       (2014),       doi:10.1016/j.cel    rep.2014.08.037. the average    slot machine       player :     Natasha     Dow Schüll, Addiction   by   Design:      Machine Gambling  in    Las Vegas (Princeton, NJ: Princeton   University  Press, 2014), 55.

Habits      are a     dopamine-driven feedback loop : I      first heard the term dopamine-driven feedback loop from Chamath   Palihapitiya. For more, see “Chamath  Palihapitiya,

Founder      and CEO Social Capital,      on   Money as   an   Instrument of Change,”    Stanford Graduate School of    Business,   November 13,   2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=PMotykw0SIk.

dopamine .      .      .      plays a     central     role in   many neurological processes : Researchers later discovered    that endorphins and opioids were responsible for  pleasure     responses. For more,  see V.    S. Chakravarthy,       Denny Joseph,      and Raju S.    Bapi, “What Do  the Basal Ganglia Do? A     Modeling   Perspective,” Biological  Cybernetics 103, no. 3     (2010), doi:10.1007/s00422–010–0401-y.

dopamine is    released  not only when you experience pleasure : Wolfram       Schultz,

“Neuronal   Reward      and Decision     Signals:      From Theories    to Data,” Physiological

Reviews       95,  no.  3     (2015), doi:10.1152/physrev.00023.2014, fig.  8; Fran Smith, “How Science Is    Unlocking  the  Secrets       of    Addiction,” National Geographic, September 2017, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/09/the-addicted-brain. whenever dopamine rises, so   does your motivation : Dopamine compels     you to    seek, explore, and take action: “Dopamine-energized,     this mesolimbic SEEKING  system, arising      from the  ventral       tegmental  area (VTA), encourages foraging,    exploration, investigation, curiosity,    interest      and expectancy. Dopamine  fires each time the  rat  (or human) explores     its environment. .      .      .      I      can look at    the  animal and tell  when I am tickling its   SEEKING  system       because     it     is    exploring   and sniffing.”    For more, see Karin Badt, “Depressed? Your ‘SEEKING’ System Might Not Be   Working:   A     Conversation with

Neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp,” Huffington Post, December  6,    2017, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karin-badt/depressed-your-seekingsy_b_3616967.html.

the reward       system      that is    activated in   the brain : Wolfram    Schultz,      “Multiple    Reward Signals     in    the  Brain,” Nature Reviews     Neuroscience 1,     no.  3     (2000), doi:10.1038/35044563.

100 percent      of   the nucleus    accumbens is    activated during wanting :  Kent Berridge, conversation     with author,       March 8,    2017.

Byrne hacked     his stationary bike : Hackster    Staff, “Netflix      and Cycle!,” Hackster,   July 12, 2017,     https://blog.hackster.io/netflix-and-cycle-1734d0179deb.

“eliminating obesity     one Netflix      binge at   a     time” :       “Cycflix: Exercise     Powered Entertainment,” Roboro,      July 8,    2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nc0irLBiY.

“We see   Thursday night as   a     viewership opportunity” :    Jeanine Poggi, “Shonda Rhimes  Looks Beyond      ABC’s Nighttime  Soaps,”       AdAge, May 16,  2016, http://adage.com/article/special-report-tv-upfront/shonda-rhimes-abc-soaps/303996.

“more       probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors” : Jon       E.

Roeckelein, Dictionary of    Theories,    Laws, and Concepts    in Psychology (Westport, CT:

Greenwood Press, 1998), 384.

CHAPTER 9

“A genius is    not born, but is    educated and trained” : Harold Lundstrom, “Father      of    3 Prodigies Says Chess Genius       Can Be   Taught,” Deseret      News, December  25,  1992, https://www.deseretnews.com/article/266378/FATHER-OF-3-PRODIGIES-SAYSCHESS-GENIUS-CAN-BE-TAUGHT.html?pg=all.

We imitate the habits       of   three groups :    Peter J.    Richerson  and Robert Boyd, Not by Genes    Alone: How Culture      Transformed Human Evolution   (Chicago:   University  of Chicago Press, 2006).

“a person’s    chances    of   becoming obese increased by   57 percent” : Nicholas    A. Christakis and James H.   Fowler,       “The Spread of    Obesity       in    a     Large Social Network     over

32     Years,”       New England    Journal      of    Medicine    357, no.  4 (2007), doi:10.1056/nejmsa066082.      J.    A.    Stockman, “The Spread       of Obesity       in    a     Large Social Network      over 32   Years,”       Yearbook of    Pediatrics  2009 (2009),      doi:10.1016/s0084– 3954(08)79134–6.

if   one  person     in   a     relationship lost weight :     Amy A.    Gorin et al.,  “Randomized Controlled Trial     Examining the  Ripple Effect of    a Nationally  Available    Weight       Management Program     on   Untreated Spouses,”   Obesity       26,  no.  3     (2018),       doi:10.1002/oby.22098.

Of   the ten people      in   the class, four became    astronauts : Mike       Massimino, “Finding     the

Difference   Between    ‘Improbable’ and ‘Impossible,’” interview   by   James Altucher,    The James Altucher     Show, January     2017, https://jamesaltucher.com/2017/01/mikemassimino-i-am-not-good-enough.

the higher      your best friend’s    IQ  at   age eleven      or   twelve :       Ryan Meldrum,  Nicholas

Kavish, and Brian Boutwell,   “On the  Longitudinal Association Between Peer and Adolescent     Intelligence: Can Our Friends      Make Us   Smarter?,”      PsyArXiv,  February    10, 2018,    doi:10.17605/OSF.IO/TVJ9Z.

Solomon  Asch conducted a     series of   experiments :     Harold Steere Guetzkow, Groups, Leadership and Men: Research   in    Human Relations   (Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie    Press, 1951), 177–190.

By the   end of   the experiment, nearly       75   percent    of   the subjects :  Follow-up  studies show that if     there was just one actor in the  group who disagreed  with the  group, then the subject was far more likely to    state their true belief that the  lines were different lengths. When      you have an   opinion       that dissents     from the tribe, it     is    much easier to    stand by   it     if you have an   ally. When you need the  strength     to    stand up   to    the  social norm, find a partner.   For more, see Solomon    E.    Asch, “Opinions   and Social Pressure,”  Scientific

American    193, no.  5     (1955), doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1155–31; and William      N.

Morris and Robert S.    Miller, “The Effects of    Consensus-Breaking and ConsensusPreempting     Partners     on   Reduction  of    Conformity,” Journal of    Experimental Social Psychology 11,   no.  3     (1975), doi:10.1016/s0022–1031(75)80023–0.

Nearly 75   percent      of    subjects     made the  incorrect    choice at least once. However, considering      the  total number      of    responses throughout the  experiment, about two thirds were correct.      Either way, the point stands:       group pressure    can significantly alter our ability  to make accurate     decisions.

a   chimpanzee learns       an  effective  way : Lydia V.    Luncz, Giulia Sirianni, Roger Mundry, and Christophe Boesch.      “Costly culture:      differences in nut-cracking efficiency   between wild chimpanzee groups.”     Animal       Behaviour 137  (2018):       63–73.

CHAPTER 10

I    wouldn’t    say, “Because I     need food to   survive” : I      heard a similar example     from the Twitter account,     simpolism  (@simpolism), “Let’s extend this metaphor.  If    society is    a human    body, then the state is    the  brain. Humans    are  unaware    of    their motives.     If asked

‘why do   you eat?’ you might say  ‘bc   food tastes good’ and not  ‘bc I      need food to    survive.’ What       might a     state’s food be? (hint: are pills food?),”      Twitter,      May 7,    2018, https://twitter.com/simpolism/status/993632142700826624.

when emotions and feelings    are impaired : Antoine      Bechara     et    al., “Insensitivity to Future   Consequences      following    Damage     to    Human Prefrontal  Cortex,”     Cognition   50, no. 1–3 (1994),       doi:10.1016/0010–0277(94)90018–3.

As the   neuroscientist   Antonio    Damasio : “When       Emotions   Make Better Decisions— Antonio Damasio,”  August       11,   2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=1wup_K2WN0I

You don’t “have”      to.  You “get” to :  I      am  indebted    to    my college strength     and conditioning coach, Mark Watts, who originally    shared this simple mind-set    shift with me.

“I’m not   confined  to   my wheelchair”:      RedheadBanshee, “What Is Something Someone Said       That Forever      Changed    Your Way of Thinking,”  Reddit,       October      22,  2014, https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2jzn0j/what_is_something_someone

“It’s time to   build endurance and get fast” : WingedAdventurer, “Instead     of       Thinking    ‘Go

Run  in    the  Morning,’   Think ‘Go  Build Endurance and Get Fast.’ Make Your Habit a

Benefit, Not a     Task,” Reddit,       January     19,  2017, https://www.reddit.com/r/selfimprovement/comments/5ovrqf/instead_of_thinking_go st=izmz9pks&sh=059312db.

“I’m getting an  adrenaline rush to   help me concentrate” :    Alison Wood Brooks,      “Get Excited: Reappraising Pre-Performance  Anxiety      as Excitement with Minimal     Cues,”

PsycEXTRA Dataset,     June 2014, doi:10.1037/e578192014–321;     Caroline Webb, How to

Have a     Good Day (London:   Pan Books, 2017), 238. “Wendy      Berry Mendes     and Jeremy Jamieson have conducted a     number      of studies       [that] show that people perform     better when they decide to interpret    their fast heartbeat   and breathing   as   ‘a    resource that aids performance.’”

Ed Latimore,  a     boxer and writer :     Ed  Latimore    (@EdLatimore), “Odd realization: My focus    and concentration goes up   just by   putting my  headphones [on] while writing.      I don’t even have to    play any music,”      Twitter,      May 7,    2018, https://twitter.com/EdLatimore/status/993496493171662849.

CHAPTER 11

In the   end, they had little to   show for their efforts :    This story comes from page 29   of Art &    Fear by   David Bayles and Ted Orland. In   an   email conversation with Orland on

October 18,  2016, he   explained   the  origins of    the  story. “Yes, the ‘ceramics   story’ in    ‘Art

&      Fear’ is    indeed true, allowing     for  some literary       license in    the retelling.    Its   real-world origin   was as   a     gambit employed   by photographer Jerry Uelsmann  to    motivate    his Beginning Photography students at    the  University  of    Florida.      As   retold in    ‘Art &    Fear’ it faithfully      captures     the  scene as   Jerry told it     to    me—except I replaced     photography with ceramics as   the  medium     being explored. Admittedly, it     would’ve    been easier to    retain photography as   the  art medium     being discussed, but  David Bayles (co-author) &    I      are both photographers       ourselves,  and at    the  time we  were consciously trying to    broaden the range of    media being referenced in    the  text. The intriguing   thing to    me  is    that it hardly     matters      what art form was invoked—the moral of    the  story appears      to    hold equally true straight      across the  whole art  spectrum   (and even outside       the arts, for  that matter).” Later in    that same email, Orland said, “You have our permission to    reprint any or all   of    the  ‘ceramics’  passage      in your forthcoming book.” In   the  end, I      settled on publishing an   adapted version,      which combines   their telling of    the  ceramics    story with facts from the  original      source of    Uelsmann’s photography students.   David Bayles and Ted     Orland,      Art  &    Fear: Observations on   the  Perils (and Rewards)  of    Artmaking (Santa Cruz, CA: Image Continuum Press, 1993), 29.

As   Voltaire   once wrote :      Voltaire,     La   Bégueule.   Conte Moral (1772).

long-term potentiation :     Long-term potentiation was discovered by   Terje Lømo in    1966. More precisely,   he   discovered that when a     series of signals was repeatedly transmitted by      the  brain, there was a     persistent effect that lasted afterward   that made it     easier for those    signals to    be transmitted in    the  future.

“Neurons that fire together  wire together” : Donald       O.   Hebb, The Organization of Behavior: A     Neuropsychological Theory (New York: Wiley, 1949).

In musicians, the cerebellum : S.    Hutchinson, “Cerebellar Volume      of Musicians,” Cerebral Cortex    13,   no.  9     (2003), doi:10.1093/cercor/13.9.943.

Mathematicians, meanwhile, have increased gray matter :    A.    Verma, “Increased Gray Matter Density      in    the  Parietal      Cortex of Mathematicians:  A     Voxel-Based Morphometry Study,”       Yearbook   of Neurology and Neurosurgery       2008 (2008),      doi:10.1016/s0513– 5117(08)79083–5.

When scientists analyzed  the brains       of   taxi drivers     in   London : Eleanor      A.    Maguire     et al., “Navigation-Related Structural  Change      in the  Hippocampi of    Taxi Drivers,” Proceedings      of    the  National Academy   of    Sciences     97,  no.  8     (2000), doi:10.1073/pnas.070039597; Katherine  Woollett     and Eleanor      A.    Maguire,    “Acquiring ‘the Knowledge’ of    London’s    Layout Drives Structural  Brain Changes,”  Current Biology

21,    no.  24   (December 2011), doi:10.1016/j.cub.2011.11.018;      Eleanor      A. Maguire,

Katherine    Woollett,    and Hugo J.    Spiers, “London     Taxi Drivers and Bus Drivers:     A Structural MRI and Neuropsychological Analysis,” Hippocampus       16,  no.  12    (2006), doi:10.1002/hipo.20233.

“the actions       become    so   automatic” : George       Henry Lewes, The Physiology of    Common Life (Leipzig:    Tauchnitz, 1860).

repetition is    a     form of   change :    Apparently, Brian Eno says the same thing in    his  excellent, creatively inspiring    Oblique      Strategies card set, which I      didn’t know when I      wrote this line!    Great minds and all   that.

Automaticity       is    the ability       to   perform   a     behavior : Phillippa Lally et    al.,  “How Are Habits Formed:    Modelling  Habit Formation in the  Real World,”      European  Journal      of Social     Psychology 40,  no. 6     (2009),      doi:10.1002/ejsp.674.

habits form based on  frequency, not time : Hermann   Ebbinghaus was the first person to describe learning     curves in    his  1885 book Über das Gedächtnis. Hermann   Ebbinghaus, Memory:     A     Contribution to Experimental Psychology (United      States: Scholar      Select, 2016).

CHAPTER 12

this difference in   shape played      a     significant role in   the spread       of   agriculture :

Jared Diamond,  Guns, Germs,       and Steel: The Fates of    Human Societies     (New York: Norton, 1997).

It  is      human      nature      to   follow       the Law of   Least Effort : Deepak      Chopra       uses the  phrase “law of    least effort” to    describe one of    his  Seven Spiritual     Laws of    Yoga. This concept      is not related       to    the  principle     I      am  discussing here.

a     garden     hose that is    bent in   the middle :    This analogy      is       a     modified    version       of    an   idea

Josh Waitzkin    mentioned in    his  interview   with Tim Ferriss. “The Tim Ferriss Show, Episode      2:    Josh Waitzkin,”  May 2,    2014, audio, https://soundcloud.com/timferriss/the-tim-ferriss-show-episode-2-josh-waitzkin.

“it   took American workers   three times as   long to   assemble their       sets” : James Surowiecki, “Better       All   the  Time,” New Yorker,       November 10,  2014, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/10/better-time. addition  by  subtraction :       Addition     by   subtraction is    an       example     of    a     larger principle known    as   inversion,  which I       have written       about previously  at https://jamesclear.com/inversion.    I’m       indebted    to    Shane Parrish       for  priming      my thoughts on   this       topic by   writing about why “avoiding   stupidity     is    easier than       seeking brilliance.” Shane Parrish,      “Avoiding   Stupidity    Is    Easier Than       Seeking      Brilliance,” Farnam Street, June 2014,       https://www.fs.blog/2014/06/avoiding-stupidity.

those percentage points       represent millions   in   tax revenue :  Owain       Service       et    al.,

“East: Four Simple Ways to    Apply Behavioural Insights,”   Behavioural Insights Team, 2015, http://38r8om2xjhhl25mw24492dir.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wpcontent/uploads/2015/07/BIT-Publication-EAST_FA_WEB.pdf.

Nuckols   dialed       in   his cleaning   habits :      Oswald       Nuckols     is       an   alias, used by   request.

“perfect   time to   clean the toilet” :     Saul_Panzer_NY, “[Question] What One Habit Literally Changed Your Life?” Reddit,       June 5,    2017, https://www.reddit.com/r/get disciplined/comments/6fgqbv/question_what_one_habit_literally_changed_your/diies

CHAPTER 13

“arsenal   of   routines” : Twyla Tharp and Mark Reiter, The Creative     Habit: Learn It    and Use It for  Life: A     Practical    Guide (New York: Simon and Schuster,   2006).

40  to   50  percent    of   our actions     on  any given day are       done out of   habit : Wendy Wood,       “Habits       Across the  Lifespan,”       2006, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315552294_Habits_Across_the_Lifespan. habits       you follow       without    thinking : Benjamin   Gardner,    “A       Review       and Analysis     of    the Use      of    ‘Habit’ in    Understanding,       Predicting  and Influencing Health-Related     Behaviour,” Health Psychology       Review       9,    no.  3     (2014),       doi:10.1080/17437199.2013.876238. decisive       moments : Shoutout    to    Henri Cartier-Bresson,   one of    the  greatest       street photographers of    all   time, who coined the  term decisive      moment,       but  for  an   entirely different   purpose:    capturing   amazing     images       at    just the  right time.

the Two-Minute Rule : Hat tip   to    David Allen, whose version       of    the Two-Minute Rule states, “If  it     takes less than two minutes,    then do it     now.” For more, see David Allen, Getting Things      Done (New York: Penguin,    2015).

power-down       habit : Author Cal  Newport     uses a     shutdown  ritual in which he   does a     last email   inbox check, prepares    his  to-do list  for the  next day, and says “shutdown

complete”    to    end work for  the  day. For more, see Cal  Newport, Deep Work (Boston: Little,      Brown,       2016).

He  always      stopped   journaling before      it    seemed    like a       hassle :     Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit       of       Less (New York: Crown,       2014), 78. habit  shaping :  Gail B.       Peterson,   “A   Day of    Great Illumination: B.    F.    Skinner’s       Discovery   of Shaping,” Journal      of    the  Experimental Analysis     of       Behavior    82,  no.  3     (2004), doi:10.1901/jeab.2004.82–317.

CHAPTER 14

he remained  in   his study and wrote furiously : Adèle Hugo and Charles E.    Wilbour, Victor     Hugo, by   a     Witness      of    His Life (New York: Carleton,    1864).

A   commitment device       is    a     choice       you make in   the present : Gharad      Bryan, Dean Karlan, and Scott Nelson,      “Commitment       Devices,” Annual       Review       of    Economics 2,    no.  1 (2010), doi:10.1146/annurev.economics.102308.124324.

outlet timer cuts off  the power       to   the router :     “Nir Eyal: Addictive   Tech, Killing Bad Habits &    Apps for  Life Hacking—#260,” interview   by   Dave Asprey,       Bulletproof, November    13,   2015, https://blog.bulletproof.com/nir-eyal-life-hacking-260/.

This is      also referred  to   as   a     “Ulysses  pact” : Peter Ubel, “The Ulysses      Strategy,”   The New Yorker, December  11,   2014, https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/ulyssesstrategy-self-control.

Patterson’s business  went from losing money      to   making     $5,000     in       profit :      “John H.

Patterson—Ringing Up  Success      with the  Incorruptible Cashier,”    Dayton Innovation Legacy, http://www.daytoninnovationlegacy.org/patterson.html, accessed June 8, 2016.

onetime   actions     that lead to   better       long-term habits :      James Clear       (@james_clear),

“What are  one-time    actions       that pay off   again and again in    the future?”     Twitter,

February      11,   2018, https://twitter.com/james_clear/status/962694722702790659

“Civilization advances by   extending the number    of   operations” : Alfred North Whitehead, Introduction to    Mathematics (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University  Press, 1911), 166.

The average      person     spends     over two hours per day on  social media :      “GWI Social,” GlobalWebIndex, 2017, Q3,

https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/304927/Downloads/GWI%20Social%20Summary%20Q

CHAPTER 15

over nine million     people      called it    home :       “Population Size and       Growth       of    Major Cities,

1998 Census,”    Population Census       Organization,

http://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files//tables/POPULATION%20SIZE%20AND%20

Over 60    percent    of   Karachi’s residents : Sabiah Askari, Studies       on Karachi:    Papers Presented at    the  Karachi      Conference 2013 (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2015).

It  was  this public       health       crisis that had brought   Stephen Luby to   Pakistan : Atul Gawande,      The Checklist    Manifesto: How to Get Things Right (Gurgaon,  India: Penguin Random House,       2014).

“In Pakistan,   Safeguard was a     premium soap” :      All   quotes in this section       are  from an email    conversation with Stephen     Luby on May 28,  2018.

The rate of   diarrhea  fell by   52   percent :   Stephen     P.    Luby et al.,  “Effect of    Handwashing on  Child Health:      A     Randomised Controlled Trial,” Lancet 366, no.  9481 (2005), doi:10.1016/s0140–6736(05)66912–7.

“Over 95  percent    of   households” :     Anna Bowen,       Mubina Agboatwalla, Tracy Ayers, Timothy      Tobery,       Maria Tariq, and Stephen     P. Luby. “Sustained improvements      in handwashing    indicators  more than 5 years after a     cluster‐randomised, communitybased  trial of    handwashing promotion  in    Karachi,     Pakistan,”  Tropical     Medicine    & International Health 18,  no.  3     (2013):       259–267. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4626884/

Chewing   gum had been sold commercially     throughout the 1800s : Mary Bellis, “How We   Have Bubble Gum Today,”      ThoughtCo, October      16, 2017, https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-bubble-and-chewing-gum-1991856.

Wrigley    revolutionized   the industry : Jennifer     P.    Mathews,   Chicle: The Chewing    Gum of the Americas,  from the  Ancient      Maya to    William Wrigley      (Tucson:    University  of Arizona  Press, 2009), 44–46.

Wrigley    became    the largest      chewing   gum company : “William       Wrigley,     Jr.,”

Encyclopædia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Wrigley-Jr, accessed      June 8,    2018.

Toothpaste had a     similar     trajectory : Charles      Duhigg,      The Power of Habit: Why We  Do What    We  Do  in    Life and Business    (New York: Random    House,       2014), chap. 2.

he started       avoiding  her : Sparkly_alpaca,    “What Are the  Coolest Psychology Tricks That You    Know or    Have Used?”       Reddit,       November 11,   2016,

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/5cgqbj/what_are_the_coolest_psycho

The earliest      remains   of   modern    humans :  Ian Mcdougall, Francis H.   Brown,       and John G. Fleagle, “Stratigraphic Placement and Age of Modern      Humans    from Kibish, Ethiopia,” Nature 433, no.  7027 (2005), doi:10.1038/nature03258.

the neocortex .      .      .      was roughly    the same : Some research indicates    that the  size of    the human brain reached     modern proportions around       three hundred    thousand   years ago. Evolution never stops, of    course,       and the  shape of    the  structure    appears to    have continued     to    evolve in    meaningful ways until it     reached both modern      size and shape sometime   between     one hundred thousand   and thirty-five  thousand   years ago. Simon Neubauer, Jean-Jacques       Hublin,       and Philipp Gunz, “The Evolution   of    Modern Human Brain Shape,”      Science       Advances   4,    no.  1      (2018): eaao5961.

society      has shifted      to   a     predominantly  delayed-return environment :    The original research   on   this topic used the  terms delayed-return     societies     and immediate-return societies. James Woodburn, “Egalitarian Societies,”  Man 17,   no.  3     (1982), doi:10.2307/2801707.      I first heard of    the  difference  between     immediate-return environments and delayed-return      environments in    a     lecture from Mark Leary. Mark

Leary, Understanding     the  Mysteries   of    Human      Behavior    (Chantilly, VA: Teaching, 2012).

The world has changed   much in   recent       years :       The rapid environmental      changes     of recent    centuries   have far  outpaced    our biological   ability to    adapt. On  average,     it     takes about twenty-five thousand   years for  meaningful genetic       changes     to    be   selected for  in    a human    population. For more, see Edward      O.   Wilson, Sociobiology (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1980), 151.

our brains evolved    to   prefer       quick payoffs     to   long-term ones : Daniel Gilbert, “Humans Wired to    Respond    to    Short-Term Problems,” interview   by   Neal Conan,       Talk of the Nation,      NPR, July 3, 2006, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php? storyId=5530483.

Disease    and infection  won’t show up  for days or   weeks,      even years :       The topics of irrational behavior    and cognitive    biases have become      quite popular      in    recent years. However,    many actions that seem irrational    on   the  whole have rational      origins if     you consider       their immediate outcome.

Frédéric   Bastiat :    Frédéric     Bastiat and W.  B.    Hodgson,   What Is Seen and What Is    Not Seen: Or    Political      Economy   in    One Lesson (London:   Smith, 1859).

Future      You : Hat tip   to    behavioral economist  Daniel Goldstein,  who said, “It’s an   unequal battle       between     the  present      self and the future self. I      mean, let’s face it,    the  present      self is present.  It’s in    control.      It’s  in    power right now. It    has these strong, heroic arms that can lift doughnuts into your mouth.       And the  future self is not  even around.      It’s  off   in    the future. It’s  weak. It    doesn’t even have a     lawyer present.     There’s       nobody       to    stick up   for the    future self. And so   the  present      self can trounce      all over its   dreams.”    For more, see

Daniel Goldstein,  “The Battle between     Your Present      and Future Self,” TEDSalon

NY2011, November 2011, video,

https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_goldstein_the_battle_between_your_present_and_

People      who are better       at   delaying   gratification       have higher SAT scores :     Walter Mischel,    Ebbe B.    Ebbesen,    and Antonette Raskoff      Zeiss, “Cognitive  and Attentional

Mechanisms in    Delay of    Gratification,” Journal      of    Personality and Social Psychology

21,    no.  2     (1972), doi:10.1037/h0032198;    W.  Mischel,     Y.    Shoda, and M.   Rodriguez,

“Delay of    Gratification in    Children,”  Science       244, no.  4907 (1989), doi:10.1126/science.2658056;       Walter Mischel,     Yuichi Shoda, and Philip K. Peake, “The Nature of    Adolescent Competencies       Predicted   by   Preschool Delay of    Gratification,”

Journal of    Personality and Social Psychology 54,  no.  4     (1988), doi:10.1037//0022–

3514.54.4.687; Yuichi Shoda, Walter Mischel,     and Philip K.    Peake, “Predicting

Adolescent  Cognitive   and Self-Regulatory     Competencies       from Preschool Delay of Gratification:     Identifying Diagnostic Conditions,” Developmental Psychology 26,  no.  6 (1990),    doi:10.1037//0012–1649.26.6.978.

CHAPTER 16

“I  would start with 120 paper clips in   one jar” : Trent Dyrsmid,    email to author,       April 1, 2015.

Benjamin Franklin : Benjamin   Franklin     and Frank Woodworth Pine, Autobiography      of Benjamin Franklin    (New York: Holt, 1916), 148.

Don’t break the chain of   creating   every day : Shout-out  to    my  friend Nathan      Barry, who originally inspired     me  with the  mantra,      “Create Every Day.”

people      who track their progress  on  goals like losing weight :     Benjamin       Harkin et    al.,

“Does Monitoring Goal Progress    Promote     Goal Attainment? A     Meta-analysis       of    the Experimental  Evidence,” Psychological Bulletin      142, no. 2     (2016), doi:10.1037/bul0000025.

those who kept a     daily food log lost twice as   much weight      as those who did not : Miranda Hitti, “Keeping    Food Diary Helps Lose Weight,” WebMD,    July 8,    2008, http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20080708/keeping-food-diary-helps-lose-weight;

Kaiser Permanente, “Keeping    a     Food Diary Doubles     Diet Weight Loss, Study Suggests,” Science Daily, July 8,    2008,

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080708080738.htm; Jack F.    Hollis et al.,  “Weight     Loss during the  Intensive   Intervention Phase of    the Weight-Loss Maintenance Trial,” American   Journal      of    Preventive Medicine 35,  no.  2     (2008), doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2008.04.013;       Lora E.    Burke, Jing Wang, and Mary Ann Sevick, “Self-Monitoring  in    Weight       Loss: A Systematic Review       of    the  Literature,” Journal      of    the American Dietetic       Association 111,  no.  1      (2011), doi:10.1016/j.jada.2010.10.008.

The most effective  form of   motivation is    progress : This line is paraphrased from Greg McKeown,    who wrote, “Research  has shown that of all   forms of    human       motivation the most    effective     one is progress.”  Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of  Less (Currency, 2014).

The first mistake    is    never the one that ruins you : In   fact, research has shown that missing a     habit once has virtually     no   impact on   the odds of    developing a     habit over the long-term,       regardless of when the  mistake      occurs.       As   long as   you get  back on track, you’re fine. See: Phillippa     Lally et    al.,  “How Are Habits Formed: Modelling  Habit Formation   in    the  Real World,”      European  Journal of    Social Psychology 40,  no.  6 (2009),   doi:10.1002/ejsp.674.

Missing    once is    an  accident : “Missing    once is    an   accident. Missing      twice is    the  start of    a new habit.” I      swear I      read this line somewhere or    perhaps      paraphrased it     from something similar,      but  despite       my  best efforts all   of    my  searches    for a     source are  coming up empty. Maybe I      came up   with it,    but  my best guess is    it     belongs      to    an   unidentified genius instead.

“When      a     measure  becomes  a     target” :    This definition   of Goodhart’s Law was actually formulated by   the  British anthropologist Marilyn      Strathern.  “‘Improving Ratings’:    Audit in      the  British University System,”    European  Review       5     (1997):       305–321, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-review/article/improving-ratingsaudit-in-the-british-university-system/FC2EE640C0C44E3DB87C29FB666E9AAB. Goodhart himself reportedly  advanced   the  idea sometime  around       1975 and put  it formally       into writing in    1981. Charles      Goodhart,  “Problems  of Monetary   Management: The U.K. Experience,” in    Anthony     S.    Courakis (ed.), Inflation,   Depression, and Economic       Policy in    the  West (London: Rowman    and Littlefield,  1981), 111–146.

CHAPTER 17

“When      I     suggested this to   friends     in   the Pentagon” : Roger Fisher, “Preventing Nuclear War,”       Bulletin      of    the  Atomic Scientists   37, no.  3     (1981), doi:10.1080/00963402.1981.11458828.

The first seat belt law : Michael      Goryl and Michael      Cynecki,     “Restraint       System       Usage in    the

Traffic Population,” Journal      of    Safety Research   17,   no.  2     (1986), doi:10.1016/0022– 4375(86)90107–6.

wearing    a     seat belt is    enforceable by   law : New Hampshire is    the lone exception,  where seat belts are  only required    for  children. “New Hampshire,” Governors Highway    Safety Association, https://www.ghsa.org/state-laws/states/new%20hampshire, accessed June      8, 2016.

over 88    percent    of   Americans buckled    up : “Seat Belt Use in U.S. Reaches     Historic      90 Percent,” National     Highway    Traffic Safety Administration,     November 21,   2016, https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/seat-belt-use-us-reaches-historic-90-percent.

Bryan Harris :     Bryan Harris, email conversation with author,       October      24,       2017.

She does the “song a     day” challenge : Courtney    Shea, “Comedian Margaret Cho’s Tips for Success: If    You’re Funny, Don’t Do  Comedy,”   Globe and Mail, July 1,     2013, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/comedian-margaret-chos-tips-for-success-ifyoure-funny-dont-do-comedy/article12902304/?service=mobile.

Thomas    Frank,      an  entrepreneur     in   Boulder,  Colorado : Thomas Frank, “How Buffer Forces Me  to    Wake Up  at    5:55 AM Every Day,” College       Info Geek, July 2,    2014, https://collegeinfogeek.com/early-waking-with-buffer/.

CHAPTER 18

Phelps      has won more Olympic   medals :    “Michael    Phelps Biography,” Biography, https://www.biography.com/people/michael-phelps-345192,      last modified    March 29, 2018.

El   Guerrouj : Doug Gillan, “El  Guerrouj:   The Greatest     of    All   Time,”       IAFF, November 15, 2004,    https://www.iaaf.org/news/news/el-guerrouj-the-greatest-of-all-time. they   differ significantly in   height :     Heights      and weights      for       Michael      Phelps and Hicham      El Guerrouj were pulled from their athlete       profiles       during the  2008 Summer    Olympics.

“Michael      Phelps,”     ESPN, 2008,

http://www.espn.com/olympics/summer08/fanguide/athlete?athlete=29547l;

“Hicham      El    Guerrouj,” ESPN, 2008, http://www.espn.com/oly/summer08/fanguide/athlete?athlete=29886.

same length       inseam     on  their pants :       David Epstein,     The Sports       Gene: Inside the  Science of   Extraordinary      Athletic       Performance (St.       Louis, MO: Turtleback Books, 2014). average    height       of   Olympic       gold medalists in   the men’s 1,500-meter       run : Alex

Hutchinson, “The Incredible  Shrinking   Marathoner,” Runner’s    World, November 12, 2013,     https://www.runnersworld.com/sweat-science/the-incredible-shrinkingmarathoner.

average    height       of   Olympic   gold medalists in   the men’s 100-meter : Alvin Chang, “Want to    Win Olympic     Gold? Here’s How Tall You Should       Be   for  Archery,     Swimming, and    More,” Vox, August 9,    2016, http://www.vox.com/2016/8/9/12387684/olympicheights.

“Genes     can predispose, but they don’t predetermine” : Gabor Maté, “Dr. Gabor Maté— New Paradigms, Ayahuasca, and Redefining Addiction,” The Tim Ferriss       Show, February     20,  2018, https://tim.blog/2018/02/20/gabor-mate/.

Genes have been shown      to   influence everything : “All traits are  heritable” is    a     bit   of    an exaggeration,   but  not  by   much. Concrete behavioral traits that patently      depend      on content provided    by   the home or    culture       are, of    course,       not  heritable    at    all; which language     you speak, which religion      you worship      in,   which political      party you belong to. But behavioral traits that reflect the underlying talents and temperaments      are  heritable: how       proficient with language    you are, how religious,    how liberal or    conservative. General intelligence is    heritable,   and so   are  the  five major ways in which personality can vary     .      .      .      openness   to    experience, conscientiousness, extroversion-introversion, antagonism-agreeableness, and neuroticism. And traits that are  surprisingly specific turn out  to    be heritable,   too, such as   dependence on   nicotine      or    alcohol, number      of hours     of    television   watched,    and likelihood   of divorcing.  Thomas     J.    Bouchard,  “Genetic Influence on   Human Psychological Traits,”       Current      Directions  in    Psychological Science

13,    no.  4     (2004),      doi:10.1111/j.0963–7214.2004.00295.x; Robert Plomin, Nature       and

Nurture:     An  Introduction to    Human      Behavioral Genetics     (Stamford, CT: Wadsworth,

1996); Robert Plomin,      “Why We’re Different,” Edge, June 29,  2016, https://soundcloud.com/edgefoundationinc/edge2016-robert-plomin.

There’s     a     strong      genetic     component : Daniel Goleman,   “Major Personality Study Finds That Traits Are Mostly Inherited,” New York Times, December  2, 1986, http://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/02/science/major-personality-study-finds-thattraits-are-mostly-inherited.html?pagewanted=all.

Robert      Plomin :    Robert Plomin,      phone call with the  author,       August       9,    2016.

more likely to   become    introverts : Jerome      Kagan et    al.,  “Reactivity in Infants:      A     CrossNational       Comparison,” Developmental      Psychology 30, no.  3     (1994), doi:10.1037//0012–1649.30.3.342; Michael      V.    Ellis and Erica S.    Robbins,    “In Celebration     of    Nature:      A     Dialogue with Jerome      Kagan,”      Journal      of    Counseling and Development 68, no.  6     (1990),       doi:10.1002/j.1556–6676.1990.tb01426.x; Brian R.

Little, Me, Myself,       and Us: The Science       of    Personality and the Art  of    Well-Being (New York: Public Affairs,       2016); Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of    Introverts  in    a     World That Can’t Stop Talking      (London: Penguin,    2013), 99–100.

People      who are high in   agreeableness :  W.  G.   Graziano    and R.       M.   Tobin, “The Cognitive and Motivational Foundations Underlying Agreeableness,”       in    M.   D.   Robinson,  E.

Watkins,      and E.    Harmon-Jones,    eds., Handbook of    Cognition and Emotion     (New York: Guilford,      2013), 347–364.

They also tend to   have higher      natural     oxytocin   levels :      Mitsuhiro Matsuzaki  et    al., “Oxytocin: A     Therapeutic Target for  Mental Disorders,” Journal      of    Physiological Sciences      62,  no.  6     (2012), doi:10.1007/s12576–012–0232–9; Angeliki     Theodoridou et al., “Oxytocin   and Social Perception: Oxytocin    Increases   Perceived  Facial Trustworthiness and Attractiveness,”    Hormones and Behavior    56,  no.  1      (2009), doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2009.03.019; Anthony     Lane et    al.,  “Oxytocin   Increases Willingness to       Socially      Share One’s Emotions,” International Journal      of Psychology 48,  no.  4

(2013), doi:10.1080/00207594.2012.677540;     Christopher Cardoso     et    al., “StressInduced     Negative    Mood Moderates the  Relation     between Oxytocin    Administration      and

Trust: Evidence   for  the  Tend-and-Befriend Response   to    Stress?”

Psychoneuroendocrinology 38,  no.  11    (2013), doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2013.05.006. hypersensitivity of   the amygdala : J.    Ormel, A.    Bastiaansen, H.   Riese, E. H.   Bos, M.

Servaas,      M.   Ellenbogen, J.    G.   Rosmalen, and A.    Aleman, “The Biological   and

Psychological Basis of    Neuroticism: Current      Status and Future Directions,” Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews     37,  no.  1      (2013), doi:10.1016/j.neu biorev.2012.09.004. PMID 23068306; R.   A.    Depue and Y.    Fu, “Neurogenetic       and Experiential   Processes  Underlying Major Personality Traits: Implications for  Modelling Personality      Disorders,” International Review of    Psychiatry 23,  no.  3     (2011), doi:10.3109/09540261.2011.599315.

Our deeply rooted      preferences make certain     behaviors easier :      “For example,    all people   have brain systems     that respond     to    rewards, but  in    different    individuals these systems       will respond     with different    degrees      of    vigor to    a     particular   reward,      and the systems’       average      level of    response    may be   associated with some personality trait.” For more,  see Colin G.   Deyoung,   “Personality Neuroscience and the  Biology       of    Traits,” Social and Personality Psychology Compass   4,    no.  12    (2010),       doi:10.1111/j.1751– 9004.2010.00327.x.

If  your friend       follows     a     low-carb  diet : Research   conducted in major randomized clinical trials shows no   difference  in    low-carb     versus low-fat diets for  weight loss. As   with many habits, there are  many ways to the  same destination if     you stick with it.    For more, see Christopher D.   Gardner     et    al.,  “Effect of    Low-Fat     vs   Low-Carbohydrate Diet on   12Month    Weight       Loss in    Overweight Adults and the Association with Genotype   Pattern       or Insulin   Secretion,” Journal      of the  American   Medical      Association 319, no.  7     (2018), doi:10.1001/jama.2018.0245.

explore/exploit  trade-off : M.   A.    Addicott     et    al.,  “A   Primer on Foraging    and the Explore/Exploit Trade-Off  for  Psychiatry  Research,” Neuropsychopharmacology 42, no. 10   (2017), doi:10.1038/npp.2017.108.

Google      famously asks employees : Bharat Mediratta  and Julie Bick, “The Google Way: Give  Engineers  Room,”      New York Times, October      21, 2007, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/jobs/21pre.html.

“Flow is    the mental      state” :      Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Finding      Flow: The Psychology of Engagement     with Everyday   Life (New York: Basic Books, 2008).

“Everyone has at   least a     few areas ” :     Scott Adams,      “Career Advice,”     Dilbert Blog, July 20, 2007, http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/07/career-advice.html.

CHAPTER 19

most successful comedians : Steve Martin,       Born Standing    Up: A     Comic’s Life (Leicester, UK:      Charnwood, 2008).

“4 years as   a     wild success” : Steve Martin,       Born Standing    Up: A Comic’s      Life (Leicester, UK:      Charnwood, 2008), 1.

“just manageable difficulty” : Nicholas    Hobbs, “The Psychologist as   Administrator,”

Journal of    Clinical      Psychology 15,   no.  3     (1959), doi:10.1002/1097–

4679(195907)15:33.0.co;   2–4; Gilbert Brim, Ambition:  How We  Manage Success      and

Failure Throughout Our Lives (Lincoln,    NE: IUniverse.com,     2000); Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,   Finding      Flow : The Psychology of    Engagement with Everyday   Life (New   York: Basic Books, 2008).

In psychology research  this is    kn own      as   the Yerkes-Dodson law : Robert Yerkes and John   Dodson,     “The Relation     of    Strength    of Stimulus    to    Rapidity     of    Habit Formation,” Journal of    Comparative Neurol ogy and Psychology 18   (1908):       459–482.

4   percent      beyond     your current    a bility :      Steven Kotler, The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science       of    Ultimate     Human      Performance (Boston:     New Harvest,     2014). In   his  book, Kotler cites: “Chip Conley, AI,  September 2013. The real ratio, according   to    calculations performed by   [Mihaly]     Csikszentmihalyi, is    1:96.”

“Men desire       novelty     to   such an  e xtent” :   Niccolò       Machiavelli, Peter Bondanella, and Mark   Musa, The Portable     Mach iavelli (London: Penguin,    2005).

variable   reward :   C.    B.    Ferster       and B.    F.    Skinner, “Schedules of    Reinforcement,”   1957, doi:10.1037/10627–000.    For more, see B.    F.    Skinner,     “A   Case History       in    Scientific Method,” American Psychologi st 11,   no.  5     (1956):       226, doi:10.1037/h0047662.

This variance    leads to   the greates t   spike of   dopamine : Matching Law shows that the rate      of    the  reward       schedule    impacts behavior:   “Matching  Law,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matching_law.

CHAPTER 20

there is    usually     a     slight decline     in    performance :    K.    Anders Ericsson     and Robert Pool, Peak: Secrets       from the  New Sci ence       of Expertise   (Boston:     Mariner     Books, 2017), 13.

“The pundits      were saying” :   Pat  Riley and Byron Laursen,    “Temporary Insanity     and Other Management Techniques: The Los Angeles      Lakers’ Coach Tells All,” Los Angeles      Times Magazine,  April 19,  1987, http://articles.latimes.com/1987–04–19/magazine/tm1669_1_lakers.

a   system that he  called the Caree r      Best Effort program  or   CBE : MacMullan’s book claims that Riley began his  CBE program     during the 1984–1985 NBA season.      My research shows that the  Lakers began tracking statistics    of    individual  players       at    that time,   but  the  CBE program     as   it     is    described   here was first used in    1986–1987.

If  they succeeded, it    would       be  a     C BE : Larry Bird, Earvin Johnson, and Jackie MacMullan, When the  Game W as Ours (Boston:     Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,   2010).

“Sustaining an  effort” :    Pat  Riley and Byron Laursen,    “Temporary Insanity and Other Management Techniques: The Los Angeles      Lakers’       Coach Tells All,” Los Angeles      Times Magazine,  April 19,  1987, http://articles.latimes.com/1987–04–19/magazine/tm1669_1_lakers.

Eliud Kipchoge : Cathal Dennehy,   “The Simple Life of    One of    the  World’s       Best Marathoners,”

Runner’s   World, April 19,  2016, https://www.runnersworld.com/elite-runners/thesimple-life-of-one-of-the-worlds-best-marathoners. “Eliud Kip-choge: Full Training     Log Leading Up       to    Marathon  World Record       Attempt,”   Sweat Elite, 2017, http://www.sweatelite.co/eliud-kipchoge-full-training-log-leading-marathon-worldrecord-attempt/.

her coach goes over her notes and adds his thoughts : Yuri Suguiyama, “Training   Katie Ledecky,”     American   Swimming Coaches     Association, November 30,  2016, https://swimmingcoach.org/training-katie-ledecky-by-yuri-suguiyama-curl-burkeswim-club-2012/.

When comedian Chris Rock is    preparing fresh material : Peter Sims, “Innovate  Like Chris  Rock,” Harvard    Business    Review,      January 26,  2009, https://hbr.org/2009/01/innovate-like-chris-rock.

Annual     Review :   I’d   like to    thank Chris Guillebeau, who inspired     me to    start my  own annual review       process      by   publicly      sharing his  annual review each year at https://chrisguillebeau.com.

“keep your identity    small” :     Paul Graham,    “Keep Your Identity      Small,” February    2009, http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html.

CONCLUSION

No one  can be  rich unless       one coin can make him or   her so : Desiderius Erasmus    and Van     Loon Hendrik     Willem,      The Praise of Folly (New York: Black, 1942), 31.   Hat tip   to Gretchen Rubin. I      first read about this parable       in    her book, Better Than Before,       and then tracked      down the  origin story. For more, see Gretchen   Rubin, Better Than Before (New York: Hodder,     2016).

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