reading time ~6mins

Notes on the book Atomic Habits by James Clear

What was good 

1. Don’t change your behaviour – change your identity and values 
2. Habits are the compound interest of self improvement 
3. Progress is slow and not linear – understand the plateau of latent potential – success comes when a critical threshold is broken 
4. Winners and losers have the same goals. But they have different systems to achieve those goals – focus on systems of continuous small improvements 
5. Change is slow and made by small actions done consistently inch by inch 
6. Motivation is overrated. Environment often matters more – time and place determine our behaviour like being in a mosque at prayer time 
7. Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behaviour  
8. Positive peer pressure – surround with people who do positive behaviours like eating healthy
9. We imitate our social circle even if they are suboptimal – the reward of fitting in seems to be more than the reward of following the truth
   1. We would rather be wrong as a group than be right as an individual 
10. Cultures determine which behaviours are attractive and desirable 
11. Walk slow but never backward
12. Repeat repeat repeat – that’s how habits are formed – they become automatic 
13. Humans prefer the path of least resistance – it’s not a bad thing – it saves energy – the law of least effort
14. The cost of good habits are in the present, the cost of bad habits are in the future – good habits are about playing the long term game. Instant gratification usually harms long term gains. Exercise, learning, healthy eating most things work this way
15. What is immediately rewarded is repeated – what is immediately punished is avoided 
16. Don’t break the chain of good habits even if no reward is in sight 
17. The first rule of compounding, never interrupt it unnecessarily. Charlie Munger
18. Goodhearts law: when a measure becomes a target it ceases to be a good measure 
19. The more local, tangible, concrete and immediate the consequence, the more likely it is to influence individual behaviour 
20. Habits + deliberate practice = Mastery
    1. Repetition is not enough – you need feedback and improvement 
21. The tighter we cling to an identity the harder it becomes to grow beyond it 
22. Happiness is the space between one desire being fulfilled and new desire forming. Caed Budris
23. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. Victor E Frankl 
24. Emotions drive behaviour not logic. We can only be rational and logical after we have been logical. The feeling comes first then the behaviour. Appealing to emotions is more powerful than appealing to reason 
25. Being poor is not having too little. It is about wanting more. Seneca 
26. Delight
    1. Outcome > Expectation
27. Satisfaction
    1. Outcome ≈ Expctations
28. Disappointment
    1. Outcome < Expectation 

What I did not agree with 

1. Animals live in immediate return environments and humans used to as well. Only for few hundred years now they live in delayed return environments
   1. Actually this point is false and over simplifies humanity by comparing them to animals
   2. Humans most likely had always been aware of delayed gratification and hard work 
2. Salesman moving 120 clips from one jar to the other everyday counting how many calls he has made. Became a millionaire eventually. Because he was repeating iterations
   1. This point also seems to oversimplify reality 
   2. Becoming a millionaire is not the ultimate goal or purpose of life 
   3. Iterations alone are not enough, you need an environment with immediate feedback and adjustment to improve
   4. he does cover this point later in the book 

General grievances with the self help industry 

The book provides a lot of examples and promotes getting 1% better everyday to achieve success in whatever you are trying to achieve. It promotes the idea of compounding. A lot of messages sound repetitive due to similar narratives being regurgitated by self help influencers all over social media 

The book (and the self help industry in general) ignores many variables in the universe beyond one’s control – and how success is not just about self improvement 

There is no mention of God, gratitude, generosity, ethics, humanity, community, service, welfare or social justice – a glaring and pervasive problem with the self help industry today

Hard and smart work are both meaningful and necessary. Yet, there’s little real correlation between hard work and success. The self-help industry would have you believe that something is always wrong with you — that if you’re not rich or famous, it’s simply because you didn’t try hard enough. 

This narrative leans lopsidedly on the myth of personal responsibility, unfairly placing all the blame on the individual – while conveniently ignoring the structural injustices and systemic inequalities we’re born into — systems designed to favour the few in power at the expense of the many 

Life is an unfair playing field. Those who try to define it with rigid rules are being dishonest — even if unintentionally. Success based on hard work alone can’t be guaranteed in a rigged game. We must understand the game we are playing and recognise that it’s not truly about this life anyway

True justice and fairness only exists in the hereafter – where sincere intentions and efforts will be measured and appreciated by Allah عزّ وجلّ  regardless of worldly outcomes which are never in our control

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said,

“Verily, Allah does not look at your appearance or wealth, but rather He looks at your hearts and actions.”

Muslim 2564c