The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business Charles Duhigg
by Charles Duhigg
What this book is, and who it's for
Charles Duhigg's 2012 book is the foundational diagnostic for behavior change — the book that introduced the cue-routine-reward loop to a popular audience and made it impossible to look at your own habits the same way again. Duhigg interweaves the neuroscience with case studies (Alcoa's safety transformation, Procter & Gamble's Febreze launch, civil-rights organizing) to show how the same loop operates at individual, organizational, and societal scales. Read this BEFORE Atomic Habits: Clear's book is the build manual that Duhigg's book makes the build worth attempting. Identify the cue, you can interrupt the routine. Don't see the cue, the routine wins.
How to read this stack. Each chapter below is a ~30-second summary — the core insight, no filler. Open the chapters that grab you. If the book resonates, buy the full edition on Bookshop.org (link at bottom). Affiliate- disclosed, indie-bookstore-supporting.
Opening
Chapters
- Chapter 1THE HABIT LOOP0.5 min
- Chapter 2THE CRAVING BRAIN0.5 min
- Chapter 3THE GOLDEN RULE OF HABIT CHANGE0.5 min
- Chapter 4KEYSTONE HABITS, OR THE BALLAD OF PAUL O’NEILL0.5 min
- Chapter 5STARBUCKS AND THE HABIT OF SUCCESS0.5 min
- Chapter 6THE POWER OF A CRISIS0.5 min
- Chapter 7HOW TARGET KNOWS WHAT YOU WANT BEFORE YOU DO0.5 min
- Chapter 8SADDLEBACK CHURCH AND THE MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT0.5 min
- Chapter 9THE NEUROLOGY OF FREE WILL0.5 min
Closing & reference
The Power of Habit pairs well with
A single book is an argument. A stack is a curriculum. The Power of Habit appears in this curated reading path — each pairs it with 3 other books that sharpen its ideas, in a suggested reading order.
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