A kind reader emailed me the missing info on the creator of the books sculpture. It's French artist 'Seth', and the work is "The Tower of Babel, 2018-2024". Materials used: old books and resin, acrylic paint. Apparently the theme is «Scienta potestas est», Knowledge is power. Very apt.
Love this. The points that you make are great. I also think one of the reasons Atomic Habits has been so successful is it’s level of accessibility- you mention the ideas have been broken down into a simplistic manner but the language used is also very easy to digest (I’m not saying it wasn’t well written- it is. It is written in such a way that it appeals to almost everyone.) the language used is clear, easy to understand and to the point- which I feel like he developed from years of blogging. Each section is like a mini-blog and it keeps captivating your attention over and over again. I feel like a very minimal level of education is required to understand Atomic Habits main concepts and that is a credit to James Clear’s writing style- breaking down complex ideas into a simple and easy to digest format.
I love the points you raised Tom- it’s really interesting to find the potential reasons behind a successful book and all the points that you mentioned are a fascinating insight into what can make a book successful. Thanks for writing.
Thanks so much Bryce. It's really interesting what you say about the crisp, clear writing style honed by years of blogging. I think this is a bit overlooked when we think of the self-help and motivational classics. Consider Think and Grow Rich and How to Win Friends - Hill and Carnegie were both great writers, and clearly loved writing their books. On the other hand I've read loads of biz and self-help books by experts who weren't writers. There's only so much a good editor can do. Your other point that Atomic Habits was accessible to people of any education is a great one. I've seen the book sold on street corners in India, so the title, idea, and strategies have had a worldwide appeal to people with even little education. It's hard to get the right mix of smart content and wide accessibility, which was my point about The Power of Habit, which has "only" sold 3 million copies
Tom, there is a person that does book reviews just like you do. His name is "Aure" and has a site called Aure's Notes. He did an interesting review of the Atomic Habits book. I would post the link to the review, but I don't know if we are allowed to post links here. At the end of his review, he had a section titled "Things I Disagree With" (regarding the Atomic Habit book). I have copied and pasted that section and put it here below. I would like for you or anyone else to tell me what things you agree with him (Aure) on - or if you disagree with him. He lists some of the main points of the book and then gives his assessment of each point. Here below are the things he disagrees with and why he disagrees with those things:
Focus on the system: Peter Thiel condemns this system-oriented culture because it assumes no direction. When you focus on systems, you accept it goes slowly. When you focus on a definite purpose, you can find ways to hack it and produce a lot in a short amount of time.
Habit shaping: if you need time to master the first two minutes of the habit because you don’t want to do it…then maybe the habit isn’t for you? In a way, I feel the entire book was written for people that shouldn’t get into specific habits in the first place. If you really can’t do it…then don’t. Habit hacking does not make sense, because you shouldn’t have to hack a habit.
In fact, the author explains readers in the end to choose a habit that is easy to practice, making almost the entire book pointless.
No talk about lifestyle: the truth about habits is that following them hugely depends on your lifestyle. When I was on a strict lion diet and did nothing but working and working out, following any type of hard habit was much easier because I wasn’t craving any dopamine.
As soon as I drank alcohol, watched a movie, fapped, ate sugar, played video games, did not sleep enough, consumed social media, or something alike, following tough habits became much harder. James Clear talks about genes, but genes don’t have such a big impact.
You know what has? Sleep, food, exercise, and social relationships.
Everything you consume and do on a daily basis drives your behavior much more than genes. The equation is simple: garbage in, garbage out. You can’t sustain a gym routine if you watch Netflix and eat McDonald’s. As simple as that.
The myth of personality: Benjamin Hardy has shown quite well that personality is not permanent. James Clear advises the readers to do something that fits their personality, but this is wrong. If you have a personality that suits no habits, you won’t develop any.
Hardy advises the exact opposite of James Clear: you should practice habits that will force you to develop the personality you need to have to become the person you want to be! And the way to do so is by choosing who you want to become.
So James Clear was right at the beginning of the book when he advises readers to decide who they want to be and attach the habits to that person. He’s wrong when he advises people to choose habits based on their personality.
Thanks Joe these are all great points from Auren. I tend to agree with Peter Thiel that the problem with 'habit' books is they think a little too small. The most exciting thing about humans is our ability to transcend who we were, have epiphanies, are born again. The most interesting life trajectories are almost hard to believe. Just changing your habits or 'optimizing' may make sense in a sort of marginal improvement way, but I feel it's more powerful to decide who or what you want to be, then acquire the habits to become that person or achieve that goal
The idea that you can "vote" for your future self by taking a small step in the right direction is wonderful. It's nested in the idea that your actions shape your identity rather than the other way around. So liberating.
Thanks Chris, a great point about voting for a future self. Many of our problems stem from having a poor relationship with our future selves. It sort of goes against human nature to think like this, and yet civilization has been built it
I read Atomic Habits and many of the referenced books but did not feel it was a step change improvement in the message above the others. I wonder if there is still a stone unturned on why it sold 20M. It must be something unique in the market strategy.
The place where I first read about system vs goals was in the Scott Adams book, “How to fail at everything and still win bigly.” It only sold .5M. The ideas in there including Talent Stack have stuck with me more that those of any other book.
Thanks Chuck, yes it was only a stab at explaining it, but ultimately no-one knows exactly why a book or movie takes off. It just "works" for a large number of people, and at the right time. That's interesting about Scott Adams and system vs. goals, yes it's been around for a while and I think there is nothing really new in self-help/motivation. The ideas just get repackaged in an interesting new way for the next generation. I definitely got that feeling reading The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F***. Nothing I hadn't heard before, but it was aimed at Millennials who might not have had read a motivational book before, and the vibe perhaps suited a generation who didn't want to seem too go-getting or rapacious, but still succeed
A kind reader emailed me the missing info on the creator of the books sculpture. It's French artist 'Seth', and the work is "The Tower of Babel, 2018-2024". Materials used: old books and resin, acrylic paint. Apparently the theme is «Scienta potestas est», Knowledge is power. Very apt.
Love this. The points that you make are great. I also think one of the reasons Atomic Habits has been so successful is it’s level of accessibility- you mention the ideas have been broken down into a simplistic manner but the language used is also very easy to digest (I’m not saying it wasn’t well written- it is. It is written in such a way that it appeals to almost everyone.) the language used is clear, easy to understand and to the point- which I feel like he developed from years of blogging. Each section is like a mini-blog and it keeps captivating your attention over and over again. I feel like a very minimal level of education is required to understand Atomic Habits main concepts and that is a credit to James Clear’s writing style- breaking down complex ideas into a simple and easy to digest format.
I love the points you raised Tom- it’s really interesting to find the potential reasons behind a successful book and all the points that you mentioned are a fascinating insight into what can make a book successful. Thanks for writing.
Thanks so much Bryce. It's really interesting what you say about the crisp, clear writing style honed by years of blogging. I think this is a bit overlooked when we think of the self-help and motivational classics. Consider Think and Grow Rich and How to Win Friends - Hill and Carnegie were both great writers, and clearly loved writing their books. On the other hand I've read loads of biz and self-help books by experts who weren't writers. There's only so much a good editor can do. Your other point that Atomic Habits was accessible to people of any education is a great one. I've seen the book sold on street corners in India, so the title, idea, and strategies have had a worldwide appeal to people with even little education. It's hard to get the right mix of smart content and wide accessibility, which was my point about The Power of Habit, which has "only" sold 3 million copies
Tom, there is a person that does book reviews just like you do. His name is "Aure" and has a site called Aure's Notes. He did an interesting review of the Atomic Habits book. I would post the link to the review, but I don't know if we are allowed to post links here. At the end of his review, he had a section titled "Things I Disagree With" (regarding the Atomic Habit book). I have copied and pasted that section and put it here below. I would like for you or anyone else to tell me what things you agree with him (Aure) on - or if you disagree with him. He lists some of the main points of the book and then gives his assessment of each point. Here below are the things he disagrees with and why he disagrees with those things:
Focus on the system: Peter Thiel condemns this system-oriented culture because it assumes no direction. When you focus on systems, you accept it goes slowly. When you focus on a definite purpose, you can find ways to hack it and produce a lot in a short amount of time.
Habit shaping: if you need time to master the first two minutes of the habit because you don’t want to do it…then maybe the habit isn’t for you? In a way, I feel the entire book was written for people that shouldn’t get into specific habits in the first place. If you really can’t do it…then don’t. Habit hacking does not make sense, because you shouldn’t have to hack a habit.
In fact, the author explains readers in the end to choose a habit that is easy to practice, making almost the entire book pointless.
No talk about lifestyle: the truth about habits is that following them hugely depends on your lifestyle. When I was on a strict lion diet and did nothing but working and working out, following any type of hard habit was much easier because I wasn’t craving any dopamine.
As soon as I drank alcohol, watched a movie, fapped, ate sugar, played video games, did not sleep enough, consumed social media, or something alike, following tough habits became much harder. James Clear talks about genes, but genes don’t have such a big impact.
You know what has? Sleep, food, exercise, and social relationships.
Everything you consume and do on a daily basis drives your behavior much more than genes. The equation is simple: garbage in, garbage out. You can’t sustain a gym routine if you watch Netflix and eat McDonald’s. As simple as that.
The myth of personality: Benjamin Hardy has shown quite well that personality is not permanent. James Clear advises the readers to do something that fits their personality, but this is wrong. If you have a personality that suits no habits, you won’t develop any.
Hardy advises the exact opposite of James Clear: you should practice habits that will force you to develop the personality you need to have to become the person you want to be! And the way to do so is by choosing who you want to become.
So James Clear was right at the beginning of the book when he advises readers to decide who they want to be and attach the habits to that person. He’s wrong when he advises people to choose habits based on their personality.
Thanks Joe these are all great points from Auren. I tend to agree with Peter Thiel that the problem with 'habit' books is they think a little too small. The most exciting thing about humans is our ability to transcend who we were, have epiphanies, are born again. The most interesting life trajectories are almost hard to believe. Just changing your habits or 'optimizing' may make sense in a sort of marginal improvement way, but I feel it's more powerful to decide who or what you want to be, then acquire the habits to become that person or achieve that goal
Atomic Habits is a classic, and helped a lot.
The idea that you can "vote" for your future self by taking a small step in the right direction is wonderful. It's nested in the idea that your actions shape your identity rather than the other way around. So liberating.
Thanks Chris, a great point about voting for a future self. Many of our problems stem from having a poor relationship with our future selves. It sort of goes against human nature to think like this, and yet civilization has been built it
I read Atomic Habits and many of the referenced books but did not feel it was a step change improvement in the message above the others. I wonder if there is still a stone unturned on why it sold 20M. It must be something unique in the market strategy.
The place where I first read about system vs goals was in the Scott Adams book, “How to fail at everything and still win bigly.” It only sold .5M. The ideas in there including Talent Stack have stuck with me more that those of any other book.
Thanks for this analysis. Really enjoyed it.
Thanks Chuck, yes it was only a stab at explaining it, but ultimately no-one knows exactly why a book or movie takes off. It just "works" for a large number of people, and at the right time. That's interesting about Scott Adams and system vs. goals, yes it's been around for a while and I think there is nothing really new in self-help/motivation. The ideas just get repackaged in an interesting new way for the next generation. I definitely got that feeling reading The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F***. Nothing I hadn't heard before, but it was aimed at Millennials who might not have had read a motivational book before, and the vibe perhaps suited a generation who didn't want to seem too go-getting or rapacious, but still succeed