Charles Duhigg

It is almost always a bad idea to use a reverse mortgage to pay for a vacation or to buy a risky investment, like stocks or deferred annuities.

Charles Duhigg

It’s okay to be ambitious, but if you play too rough, your peers will unite against you.

Charles Duhigg

Keystone habits explain how Michael Phelps became an Olympic champion and why some college students outperform their peers.

Charles Duhigg

People want to visit places that satisfy their social needs. Getting people to exercise in groups makes it more likely they’ll stick with a workout. You can change the health of the nation this way.

Charles Duhigg

Phelps, even at a young age, had a capacity for obsessiveness that made him an ideal athlete. Then again, all elite performers are obsessives.

Charles Duhigg

Routines are the organizational analogue of habits.

Charles Duhigg

Since cowardice must occur at a time and place where an enemy either has already appeared or may yet turn up, servicemen in peacetime – and ordinary civilians – can breathe a sigh of relief. If you are yellow-bellied back home, you’re not technically a coward.

Charles Duhigg

Technology giants have taken advantage of tax codes written for an industrial age.

Charles Duhigg

The best agencies understood the importance of routines. The worst agencies were headed by people who never thought about it, and then wondered why no one followed their orders.

Charles Duhigg

The biggest moment of flexibility in our shopping habits is when we have a child, because all of your old routines go out the window, and suddenly a marketer can come in and sell you new things.

Charles Duhigg