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Summary of Atomic Habits

chrisbehan.ca

101–110 of 128 posts

Re: Summary of Atomic Habits

#101

I loved reading Atomic Habits during the first lockdown. I was excited to try out its actionables, specially tracking to keep me honest. I tried a bunch of iOS apps, but wanted no friction, no tracking, no cloud, no social, etc. so eventually built https://flathabits.com . Also wanted to own my habit data (as plain text), so I made sure Flat Habits stored its data locally as an org file. I'm an Emacs nutter and can s…

I was thinking this looks a lot like Plain Org. Those Emacs users must have a shared iOS UX or something. Nope it’s the same developer. Great job!

Re: Summary of Atomic Habits

#102
post #59

This is great, most self-help content is overly repetitive so definitely good to have summaries like this. Tangential: Is the whole good habits thing not a bit overdone at this point? I meant "Practice maketh perfect" isn't a new message -- every new generation is taught the value of discipline in schools by teachers and sports coaches, Outliers popularised the 10000 hours rule more than a decade ago. Why do then peo…

>>I meant "Practice maketh perfect" isn't a new message

It isn't. But it takes a lot of effort to make the obvious, obvious.

That's where unfortunately you need these things.

For example merely saying Where there is a will, there is a way, doesn't exactly cut it, until you actually watch somebody go so some distance doing a what you considered a impossible thing.

Re: Summary of Atomic Habits

#103

I loved reading Atomic Habits during the first lockdown. I was excited to try out its actionables, specially tracking to keep me honest. I tried a bunch of iOS apps, but wanted no friction, no tracking, no cloud, no social, etc. so eventually built https://flathabits.com . Also wanted to own my habit data (as plain text), so I made sure Flat Habits stored its data locally as an org file. I'm an Emacs nutter and can s…

Whoa, this is the app I've been looking for. Thank you so much. Every app under the sun now requires an account, has a friends list and stores data remotely. Please let me pay you for this app.

> Please let me pay you for this app.

If you wanna send me money, you can buy my other app ;) https://plainorg.com

Re: Summary of Atomic Habits

#104
post #95

I loved reading Atomic Habits during the first lockdown. I was excited to try out its actionables, specially tracking to keep me honest. I tried a bunch of iOS apps, but wanted no friction, no tracking, no cloud, no social, etc. so eventually built https://flathabits.com . Also wanted to own my habit data (as plain text), so I made sure Flat Habits stored its data locally as an org file. I'm an Emacs nutter and can s…

I would love to use this. Android please :(

Sorry. It's a native iOS app.

Re: Summary of Atomic Habits

#105
post #102
post #59

This is great, most self-help content is overly repetitive so definitely good to have summaries like this. Tangential: Is the whole good habits thing not a bit overdone at this point? I meant "Practice maketh perfect" isn't a new message -- every new generation is taught the value of discipline in schools by teachers and sports coaches, Outliers popularised the 10000 hours rule more than a decade ago. Why do then peo…

>>I meant "Practice maketh perfect" isn't a new message It isn't. But it takes a lot of effort to make the obvious, obvious. That's where unfortunately you need these things. For example merely saying Where there is a will, there is a way , doesn't exactly cut it, until you actually watch somebody go so some distance doing a what you considered a impossible thing.

> until you actually watch somebody go so some distance doing a what you considered a impossible thing.

Agreed which I why I would love to see more anecdotal evidence or stories supporting these messages. And by anecdotal evidence, I really mean n=1 stories not some controlled group studies.

Right now it feels like everyone from a lifestyle youtuber to a VC are telling us that _this_ is the way but I don't hear/see enough people turning their lives around or achieving the so-called "impossible" just because they adopted some good habits. Basically the ratio of people striking gold to people selling shovels seems too low to me.

Re: Summary of Atomic Habits

#106

I loved reading Atomic Habits during the first lockdown. I was excited to try out its actionables, specially tracking to keep me honest. I tried a bunch of iOS apps, but wanted no friction, no tracking, no cloud, no social, etc. so eventually built https://flathabits.com . Also wanted to own my habit data (as plain text), so I made sure Flat Habits stored its data locally as an org file. I'm an Emacs nutter and can s…

I was thinking this looks a lot like Plain Org. Those Emacs users must have a shared iOS UX or something. Nope it’s the same developer. Great job!

Thank you :)

Re: Summary of Atomic Habits

#107

I've been having major issues reading books (mainly non-fiction and strategy and personal development oriented) due to what I feel to be "filler content" as mentioned in the thread above. I'd be very interested in authors (I mean book authors) to provide direction on the mindset and shortcomings of the summary culture (e.g. Blinkist et-al) Surely, every 10th article on my FB feed is about reading books and there is p…

No post body was provided.

Re: Summary of Atomic Habits

#108
post #65

I read this book and I think this sums it up in a Tweet: The laws are: Make it obvious, Make it attractive, Make it easy, Make it satisfying; Each law maps to one of the four steps of habit formation: Make it obvious → Cue Make it attractive → Craving Make it easy → Response Make it satisfying → Reward; Make it Obvious To effectively build a new habit, make the cue for that habit blatantly obvious

For example? Leave fresh fruit on the table to encourage (cue) eating an apple a day?

Set fresh fruit as your desktop wallpaper?

Re: Summary of Atomic Habits

#109
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, to watch an apple rot on your counter over 2 weeks to remind yourself of your mortality and motivate yourself.

That's the danger of doing something like this. Plenty of people leave things out to remind themselves to do it, but it quickly becomes part of the background noise. I've had loose wires hanging from the ceiling for nearly a year to remind myself to install lights at some point.

Both of these could work. For example, after reading the book, I stopped showering unless I worked out for 30 minutes on my Concept 2 rowing machine and I have been very consistent about rowing since linking those habits. The rowing machine is also more convenient than running because it is not dependent on weather, so that follows another principle--make it easy to do the right thing.

Re: Summary of Atomic Habits

#110
post #105
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>I meant "Practice maketh perfect" isn't a new message It isn't. But it takes a lot of effort to make the obvious, obvious. That's where unfortunately you need these things. For example merely saying Where there is a will, there is a way , doesn't exactly cut it, until you actually watch somebody go so some distance doing a what you considered a impossible thing.

> until you actually watch somebody go so some distance doing a what you considered a impossible thing. Agreed which I why I would love to see more anecdotal evidence or stories supporting these messages. And by anecdotal evidence, I really mean n=1 stories not some controlled group studies. Right now it feels like everyone from a lifestyle youtuber to a VC are telling us that _this_ is the way but I don't hear/see e…

>>I don't hear/see enough people turning their lives around or achieving the so-called "impossible"

Makes perfect sense because hard things are hard to do, I'd like to believe a lot of people quit mid way. You will never hear from them, those that succeed become the few exceptional cases no wants to believe in because, they can't imagine themselves taking all the trouble like the drop outs to get to where the exceptions are.

>>Basically the ratio of people striking gold to people selling shovels seems too low to me.

Yes that's exactly how its supposed to be.

Plus, the point of habits isn't to achieve goals, but have a better system in life to do things.

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