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I was looking forward to a substantial, science and evidence based, compelling read, but just found many mixed up ego and self finding trips, business manager motivation yada, and some good points accidentally mixed in. Read Clear James` Atomic habits instead, it´s much better.

What is really strange is that the chapters seem to follow a logical approach, if one orients her/himself as always first by the titles of the index, and it looks like they are dealing with the meta or concrete context, but are in reality just anecdotes, except of some technobabble about Target´s use of pattern recognition, AI, and behavioral science; I mean, why? Was it too difficult to pimp the already written material with the help of some experts to combine both nonfiction and autobiographical elements instead of this? It seems as if many people are getting their swift kick out of procrastination by material available in any newspaper column, youtube guru channel, or whatever, but I just don´t get the hype around it.

Worst of it, with this social science mixup and freely interpretation of the stories in a highly subjective style he is entering the realm of, don´t be scared or stop reading and forget liking my review,
You see, it´s sweet if some unique people with subjective mindsets and different characters deal with difficult situations in a positive way, but I don´t get the picture of how Duhigg can extrapolate this to universal ideas as if he would have used real scientific evidence of, let´s say, long term studies going over decades with millions of participants, or brain chemistry, neurology, or anything substantial instead of person XY had results YZ. This has absolutely no worth for the reader.

There are a handful of useful tips one can take away, most of them available in shorter, better, free, and easier form available in many wikis (see end of the review) if one just searches for motivation, positive psychology, meditation, self reflection, behavior, etc. that don´t just repeat commonplaces. How he is trying to deal with addiction is pop psychology at it´s worst and that the book doesn´t really offer solutions, plans, or at least good sources for more research is the kicker, as it´s what the title and marketing are implying and promising.

It´s not totally bad, but very, very overhyped and the sad thing is that people mind find it great to read this motivating stories, but without a concrete plan to self development and improvement, the motivation fades away as quickly as the memory of the redundant, convertible tiny tales. Oh, did I mention that reading the book has the lovely extra element of being belittled by a condescending, narcissistic writing style? A completely failed approach that depreciates the few, good elements in it and insults the reader.

Ok, one more, it stigmatizes the victims of gambling, addictions, or shopaholics instead of just moving a centimeter (review written in Europe, sorry) towards asking why such unregulated industries can easily hunt down already weakened human game. Shame on you, gambler! Evil shopaholic! How dare you having an alcohol problem! That´s a wise, mature, and productive way of dealing with serious topics. Without this, I would have given 3 stars, but including own, restricted bias and agenda disguised as facts downed it to 2.

Funny, just now that I am thinking about it, how each hard earned everyman bill has to be tracked down and taxed, while letting people lose everything within hours, the reasons for addictions, or brainwashing for consumerism is absolutely no problem and Duhigg is completely ignoring the structures producing the problems because he is so busy with victim blaming and shaming. Other authors stay objective or avoid such topics instead of superficially dealing with it to boost sales.

I am pretty sure that some of the concepts and ideas won´t stand the test of time, as real science, medicine, and screening technology improve, and as they appear like very soft humanities stuff. A final subjective list of elements a good nonfiction book should at least have, that are quite missing in this one:
A detailed plan how to DIY.
Own theories that are defined as subjective opinions in the case of humanities or, and in natural sciences, proofed by many hard facts.
New combinations of existing theories and ideas.
Entertaining, very well written anecdotes.

There is not much new under the sun and most fictional and nonfiction works are remixes and new interpretations of facts and tropes, but that doesn´t mean that it have to be loveless, average, wrong, and presumptuous concoctions. But thanks for extra training to deal with anger through cognitive techniques and quick meditations, at least it´s good for that.

A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real life outside books: