The disappointing worldview of Atomic Habits

A book I really wanted to quit

Photo by Prophsee Journals on Unsplash.

CW: discussion of how prevalent weight loss is in the book Atomic Habits.

The description of Perfectly Cromulent states that I’m a “self help optimist in a pessimist’s world.” What I mean by this, among other things, is that I’m usually game to find something positive and useful in a self help text, even if it’s surrounded by various forms of nonsense.

In other words, I’m good at ignoring the bits I don’t like¹ and mining the little gold nuggets that might be available. Some books, though, make this very hard, even for an optimist like me.

Atomic Habits, by James Clear, was one of them.

Honestly, I had high hopes for this book. I was looking forward to reading a massive bestseller that seems like a go-to text in the self help world. Indeed, it’s often billed as the definitive book on habits. And if you’ve read this newsletter for a little while, you know I love habits! Habits are one of my superpowers. Atomic Habits should have been right up my alley.

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