Friday, August 21, 2009

Welcome to Habit Hacking

In this blog I would like to learn about habits. We all live by habits.
We are our habits -Aristotle
Habits are programs used by human body. Without habits the body is like a laptop without any software installed. Habits are functions. Imagine learning to drive anew each time you get into your car.
A preliminary list of topics
1. Default habits
Learned early and common to all
  • walking
  • talking
  • eating
2. Habits and morality
  • habits as branded by religion and society
3. Habits induced by consumer society
  • spending
  • smoking
  • eating
  • drugs
These are defined usually as addictions resulting by consuming something beyond its prescribed limit:
  • money/credit cards
  • cigarettes
  • food
  • drugs
4. Mechanics of habits
How habits are
5. Where are habits stored
  • probably in the spine (habits are reflexes?)
6. Habits in other organisms
What can we learn from them
  • pets
  • wild animals
  • nature
7. Habits of bureaucracies
  • war
  • growth
  • rule
  • hierarchy
  • law
8. Habits of systems
9. Habits of thought
  • beliefs
  • faith
  • likes
  • desires
  • emotions
10. Practical tips and how tos
  • Step by step guides
As far as I know habitology is not a mainstream academic science yet. In order to make the Mechanics of Habits a science we'll define new units so that we can measure related quantities.
There is a lot of information scattered around the internet about habits. I'll try to collect and classify them here.
With your help I wish to identify how habits work. Please share your experiments with habits:
  • Are you aware of your habits?
  • How do you change a habit or create a new habit?
  • How do you define habit?
Let's start our journey to discover and conquer habits!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Followers