Switch - Chip Heath [109]
Recommendations for Additional Reading
We read tons of books on change while writing Switch. Here are some of our favorites, in no particular order:
The Happiness Hypothesis, by Jonathan Haidt [Psychology, Philosophy, Happiness]. Haidt came up with the Elephant/Rider analogy that we use in Switch. If you want to be happier and smarter, you should read his book.
Mindset, by Carol Dweck [Psychology, Individual change]. If you found our discussion of the growth mindset (in Chapter 7) interesting, then please go to the source. Everyone should own this book.
The Heart of Change, by John Kotter and Dan Cohen [Business and organizational change]. Our favorite book of Kotter’s, this book will be useful if you are trying to change a big organization.
Mindless Eating, by Brian Wansink [Dieting]. Do you want to lose a few pounds, or are you just curious about why everyone else is getting fatter? This book is filled with clever research like the popcorn study we described in the first chapter.
Nudge, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein [Decision making and public policy]. The authors argue that people can be “nudged” to make better decisions, and they propose some great Path solutions.
One Small Step Can Change Your Life, by Robert Maurer [Individual and organizational change]. If you liked the chapter on shrinking the change, this is your book. Maurer shows how small steps can lead to great change.
Divorce Busting, by Michele Weiner-Davis [Relationships]. Anyone in a relationship can benefit from this book by a practitioner of solutions-focused therapy.
Influencer, by Kerry Patterson et al. [Societal and organizational change]. The authors behind Crucial Conversations wrote this excellent book on behavior change.
Unleashing Change, by Steven Kelman [Government, Organizational change]. Kelman reviews his experience in leading procurement reform in the federal government. If you’re looking for a change book that’s rigorous and full of data, check out this one.
Notes
Chapter One
Popcorn. For dozens of clever studies of eating behavior, see Brian Wansink (2006), Mindless Eating, New York: Bantam Dell. The popcorn study is on pp. 16–19.
Clocky. Sales statistics come from this MIT online magazine: http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/nanda.html (accessed June 20, 2009). Most of the sales came through Nanda’s own website. According to the article, Nanda “was somewhat taken by surprise when the device attracted a great deal of attention after its description was posted, along with dozens of other student projects, on the Media Lab website. Several trend-watching blogs and websites such as Engadget took note of the Clocky concept and soon had introduced thousands of potential customers to the device through photos and links online.” Gauri Nanda received an Ig Nobel Prize in Economics in 2005 for “theoretically adding many more hours to the workday.”
Jonathan Haidt. See Haidt (2006), The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, New York: Basic Books, especially pp. 3–5. Haidt reviews metaphors presented by Buddha, Plato (including the quotation we include), and Freud and then presents his own metaphor. We love his Elephant/Rider metaphor—particularly the obvious imbalance in physical power between the two—and we’re grateful to him for letting us use it here. In The Happiness Hypothesis, Haidt focuses not on change but rather on understanding what we can learn about being happy from the intersection of centuries of wisdom and modern psychology. If you want to be happier and smarter, read his book.
Self-control is an exhaustible resource. The papers we cite in this section are from an exciting area of research, started in the last fifteen years. The classic first paper, which includes the chocolate-chip cookie study, is Roy F. Baumeister, Ellen Bratslavsky, Mark Muraven, and Dianne M. Tice (1998), “Ego Depletion: Is the Active Self a Limited Resource?” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1252–1265. The sad-movie study is part of Mark Muraven, Dianne