The Power of Habit — Start Here
### 1. What the book actually argues Duhigg's thesis extends the basic habit loop (cue, routine, reward) with a fourth element — craving — as the actual engine that makes the loop run automatically: a habit persists because the brain has learned to crave the reward before the routine even starts. On top of the loop, the book develops three further mechanisms: the "golden rule of habit change" (a habit is changed most reliably by keeping the same cue and reward and swapping only the routine, not by attacking the loop head-on); "keystone habits" (certain habits, once changed, trigger cascading changes in unrelated areas of a person's or organization's behavior); and the role of belief and social community in making a changed habit survive a crisis or relapse.
The whole book, in one line
### 1. What the book actually argues Duhigg's thesis extends the basic habit loop (cue, routine, reward) with a fourth element — craving — as the actual engine that makes the loop run automatically: a habit persists because the brain has learned to crave the reward before the routine even starts. On top of the loop, the book develops three further mechanisms: the "golden rule of habit change" (a habit is changed most reliably by keeping the same cue and reward and swapping only the routine, not by attacking the loop head-on); "keystone habits" (certain habits, once changed, trigger cascading changes in unrelated areas of a person's or organization's behavior); and the role of belief and social community in making a changed habit survive a crisis or relapse.