My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Milkman has written a ‘state of the art’ introduction to people change, from the field of behavioral economics. It is not a long book; the author has an easy style, each chapter is well illustrated and there is a a concise summary to conclude each chapter. Like many of such books the material borrows from other authors and I don’t think there was anything especially novel in this one. It’s particular perspective is ‘an academic writing for a popular readership’, so many of her examples (but not all) are from academic studies (hers and her colleagues), often in a business context (this makes a change to the many sports illustrations in other books).

The weakness of the book is that her principles still need to be taken on to the next step – implementation into the reader’s life. I think James Clear’s Atomic Habits is more practically oriented and so useful.



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