My early thoughts on Atomic Habits

The past weekend I started to read Atomic Habits by James Clear, it has been quite nice so far, but I mean, after checking out several articles on behavior-related issues and decision making, there is little margin for a surprise. Nonetheless, there is one thing I believe the author did it right, which simplifies concepts (not entirely an easy task).

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Among the first ideas James Clear try to convince the reader is to forget about the goals and concentrate the effort on what he called system, which is nothing else than a set of articulated intermediate goals whatsoever, but in the end, goals…

I am aware of the need to use or (re)create new concepts since sophisticated readers might think there is no reason to read a book which statements are just rephrasing of old books. For instance, the feedback loop of habits’ modification is given as:

$$ cue \to craving \to response \to reward \to cue \to \dots $$

My cringe moment occurred when I read what is craving, defined as “the motivational force behind every habit”, hmm well those are the old desires? Come on… Not a big deal, maybe today I just too judgemental.