ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Katy Milkman does so many things simultaneously. She is the former president of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making. She is the co-founder and co-director of the Behavior Change for Good Initiative, a research center aimed at advancing the science of lasting behavioral changes.
An award-winning scholar and teacher, Katy writes frequently about behavioral science for major media outlets such as The Washington Post and The New York Times. She earned her undergraduate degree from Princeton University, where she studied Operations Research and American Studies. She completed her PhD at Harvard University, where she studied Computer Science and Business.
SYNOPSIS
How to Change helps people change without forcing the change on them. Katy Milkman has identified different human impulses, which generally sabotage the attempts made at making positive changes in one’s personal or professional life. She then goes on to give solutions on how to harness these impulses to inculcate new habits and behaviors that can make us more efficient. She even cites her own research and various case studies to elucidate her theories.
Throughout How to Change, the author shares the importance of the timing of any change, while emphasizing how big of a difference it can make to our lives.
WHAT WE LIKED ABOUT HOW TO CHANGE: THE SCIENCE OF GETTING FROM WHERE YOU ARE TO WHERE YOU WANT TO BE
The author has immaculately engineered all the chapters to come up with a near-perfect book. The concepts presented therein are concise.
How to Change is well organized and includes several anecdotal examples as well as more scientifically structured studies and papers. The author has shared effective techniques and pointed out where they might go wrong. The takeaways at the end of each chapter serve as perfect reference points.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER ABOUT HOW TO CHANGE: THE SCIENCE OF GETTING FROM WHERE YOU ARE TO WHERE YOU WANT TO BE
The only drawback is that the principles still need to be taken to the next step – implementation. The book is educational, but its application isn’t as practical as readers would have liked. Most of the research put forth in the book is academic in nature.
QUOTES
You’ll learn that making hard things seem fun is a much better strategy than making hard things seem important.
Plans don’t change minds – they only help us remember to do the things we already want to do.
The closer you are to someone, and the more their situation resembles your own, the more likely you are to be influenced by their behavior.
CONCLUSION
How to Change can help bring a real change in the way one lives their life. A useful book in every respect, it effectively demonstrates how we can use behavioral science to modify our and others’ behaviors. The key is to identify our goals and be resolute in implementing the action plan to accomplish them. That said, this book is not meant for readers who are already familiar with behavioral science.
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