(in mice)
Needs to be as mandatory a suffix here as year, video, etc
Unraveling the mysteries of habit formation
21–30 of 58 posts
Re: Unraveling the mysteries of habit formation
#22What also still puzzles me about habits is the fact that once I have a routine (like going to the gym at 6am) it is super easy. But once I lost it I struggle a lot to get it back.
The paper might explain why it is so. Routine-setting in your brain runs separately than the execution of the activity itself, meaning you need to train the two separately, at least from what I understand.
Re: Unraveling the mysteries of habit formation
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Taking heroin may be called “a habit” but it’s not a habit. It’s an addiction with physical and neurological elements.
it absolutely is a habit, the fact that it affects you physiologically via pharma does not make it not a habit. a habit is something you do habitually, that is the exact definition of the word, and the reasons people do them vary wildly. I used heroin as an an extreme example. Going for a 5k jog every morning is also a habit that affects your brain chemistry, through different mechanisms, and can also be addictive. I…
> habit is something you do habitually, that is the exact definition of the word
That definition is too broad to be useful is absolutely not a definition used in the given context (psychology).
Same goes for the examples, you can generalize statements to to get common denominators (affects the brain), but it's not useful to do so, it's misleading.
Re: Unraveling the mysteries of habit formation
#24I was watching a Charlie Rocket interview today and I got a lot of inspiration from him. He made it a habit of staying positive, turning a loss into a win and always finding the upside. Instead of getting sucked into the despair, he takes a loss as a learning lesson. Good habits can be hard to find but once you get into the habit of something, it becomes super easy. Everything is hard to do -- if it was easy, everybo…
Could you share a link to the interview?
Re: Unraveling the mysteries of habit formation
#25(in mice) Needs to be as mandatory a suffix here as year, video, etc
Should it be? "New black hole observed" needs a mandatory "(with a radiotelescope)"? "Agentic AI is great" needs a mandatory "(according to my opinion)"?
Lots of things we know about human physiology comes from animal studies.
Mice are not just some random animal species. They are a model organism for humans, meaning that they are sufficiently close in many ways such that insights are transferable.
Re: Unraveling the mysteries of habit formation
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Taking heroin may be called “a habit” but it’s not a habit. It’s an addiction with physical and neurological elements.
it absolutely is a habit, the fact that it affects you physiologically via pharma does not make it not a habit. a habit is something you do habitually, that is the exact definition of the word, and the reasons people do them vary wildly. I used heroin as an an extreme example. Going for a 5k jog every morning is also a habit that affects your brain chemistry, through different mechanisms, and can also be addictive. I…
> it absolutely is a habit
You can follow the definition that you like, but the typical habit is something you just do without thinking. Taking drugs is mostly something you do to get the kick and in later stages because you don't want the withdrawal symptoms. Some addictions are quite habitual too (smoking is not just for the nicotin but also having the habit of taking a break for 10 minutes out on the balcony), but arguably there is more to an addiction than the habit component which is only a minor contributor if at all.
Re: Unraveling the mysteries of habit formation
#27I was watching a Charlie Rocket interview today and I got a lot of inspiration from him. He made it a habit of staying positive, turning a loss into a win and always finding the upside. Instead of getting sucked into the despair, he takes a loss as a learning lesson. Good habits can be hard to find but once you get into the habit of something, it becomes super easy. Everything is hard to do -- if it was easy, everybo…
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Re: Unraveling the mysteries of habit formation
#28(in mice) Needs to be as mandatory a suffix here as year, video, etc
Should it be? "New black hole observed" needs a mandatory "(with a radiotelescope)"? "Agentic AI is great" needs a mandatory "(according to my opinion)"? Lots of things we know about human physiology comes from animal studies. Mice are not just some random animal species. They are a model organism for humans, meaning that they are sufficiently close in many ways such that insights are transferable.
... I don't think the original commenter said anything about mice being a non-model organism.
But mice are far from humans, and I, at least, find the distinction rather important.
Re: Unraveling the mysteries of habit formation
#29(in mice) Needs to be as mandatory a suffix here as year, video, etc
Should it be? "New black hole observed" needs a mandatory "(with a radiotelescope)"? "Agentic AI is great" needs a mandatory "(according to my opinion)"? Lots of things we know about human physiology comes from animal studies. Mice are not just some random animal species. They are a model organism for humans, meaning that they are sufficiently close in many ways such that insights are transferable.
1. Your examples are very different; we know in both cases the qualifier. I clicked on the link fully expecting to read an article about people.
2. Mice are obviously a useful first test subject or they wouldn't be used; they are also different enough from humans for studies to have no guarantee of results transitioning either smoothly or at all to us.
So yes, let's be more responsible with our link titles if the original articles "forget" to include the limitations.
Re: Unraveling the mysteries of habit formation
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
This reminds me also of the Andrew Huberman Jordan Peterson discussion where doing sth you do not like actually physically lets a specific region in your brain grow and if you do not do it, it shrinks (sorry for the simplification - not a neuro scientist haha)
Huberman grossly misrepresents the science on these issues. Not a good source. Yes I am aware of his credentials. He is notoriously bad at extrapolating from studies and confidently mapping it to life advice. If believing it helps you establish better routines then there’s no harm in that. Just be careful about where you repeat this stuff because everyone who has studied even a little neuroscience groans when Huberma…
I haven't really listened to him much, didn't really like his style, just one or two of his sleep science episodes but I thought it was well-balanced and at each topic he added caveats etc. and always made sure to tell people to not just blindly trust the science but see what works for you. Can you point to any examples of him grossly misrepresenting the science on these issues. My personal hunch is most people don't watch the long-form stuff and only hear this second-hand in a short-form context where a lot of the details are stripped out.