Quotes by Charles Duhigg - Page 4

Everyone dies, and before that, most people eventually lose some of their faculties. So some people worry that as marketers get better at targeting the elderly, the line between advertising and unscrupulous manipulation will be harder to discern.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Advertising
Elderly
Manipulation
Marketers
Discern
Faculties
Targeting
Copy Quote
As the United States has become an older nation, reverse mortgages have grown into a $20-billion-a-year industry, with elderly homeowners taking out more than 132,000 such loans in 2007, an increase of more than 270 percent from two years earlier.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Elderly
Earlier
Grown
Loans
Mortgages
Copy Quote
I think there's a lot of people who right now are worried that people are going down frivolous paths, like inventing new social networks or new games, instead of inventing the cures for cancer or fundamental technologies that will change the world.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Cancer
Cures
Frivolous
Inventing
Worried
Change World People
Change World Change The World
Change The World
Networks
Fundamental
Paths
Social Networks
Technologies
Copy Quote
When a habit emerges, the brain stops fully participating in decision making. It stops working so hard, or diverts focus to other tasks. So unless you deliberately fight a habit -- unless you find new routines -- the pattern will unfold automatically.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Decision
Fighting
Focus
Copy Quote
For decades, activist shareholders were an entertaining, but largely ignored, Wall Street sideshow. Disgruntled investors would attend annual meetings to harangue executives, criticize strategies - and protest that their complaints were being ignored.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Being Ignored
Complaints
Criticize
Decades
Disgruntled
Entertaining
Executives
Ignored
Investors
Meetings
Protest
Shareholders
Wall
Annual
Attend
Largely
Strategies
Wall Street
Copy Quote
Stock exchanges say that more than half of all trades are now executed by just a handful of high-frequency traders, who use rapid-fire computers to essentially force slower investors to give up profits, then disappear before anyone knows what happened.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Computers
Disappear
Force
Half
Handful
Investors
Essentially
Exchanges
Executed
Profits
Slower
Stock
Trades
Copy Quote
Credit default swap is basically just an agreement that I have with you, where I sell you insurance on some bond you own. If the bond goes belly up, I promise to pay you. And as long as the bond doesn't go belly up, you pay me for selling you insurance.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Agreement
Belly
Credit
Default
Pay
Promise
Bond
Sell
Insurance
Swap
Copy Quote
Not so long ago, companies that borrowed lots of money were considered risky, appropriate only for daredevil stock pickers. Those with lots of cash on hand and few outstanding debts might be dull stocks, but they were at least safe bets for bondholders.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Appropriate
Borrowed
Cash
Daredevil
Outstanding
Bets
Debts
Risky
Stock
Copy Quote
Some officials overseeing local water systems have tried to go above and beyond what is legally required. But they have encountered resistance, sometimes from the very residents they are trying to protect, who say that if their water is legal, it must be safe.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Legal
Officials
Overseeing
Residents
Resistance
Encountered
Legally
Required
Systems
Copy Quote
When the vast baby-boom generation exploded into adolescence in the 1960s, marketers exulted. Advertising consultants, always eager to coin a phrase, began happily explaining to corporations the difference between 'teenyboppers' and 'counterculture consumers.'
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Adolescence
Advertising
Consultants
Corporations
Explaining
Marketers
Coin
Vast
Eager
Happily
Phrase
Copy Quote
Since cowardice must occur at a time and place where an enemy either has already appeared or may yet turn up, servicemen in peacetime - and ordinary civilians - can breathe a sigh of relief. If you are yellow-bellied back home, you're not technically a coward.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Breathe
Civilians
Coward
Enemy
Ordinary
Relief
Servicemen
Sigh
Appeared
Technically
Occur
Peacetime
Copy Quote
There is a calculus, it turns out, for mastering our subconscious urges. For companies like Target, the exhaustive rendering of our conscious and unconscious patterns into data sets and algorithms has revolutionized what they know about us and, therefore, how precisely they can sell.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Calculus
Conscious
Data
Patterns
Rendering
Subconscious
Target
Turns
Unconscious
Urges
Exhaustive
Mastering
Precisely
Revolutionized
Sets
Copy Quote
Drinking water that does not meet a federal health guideline will not necessarily make someone ill. Many contaminants are hazardous only if consumed for years. And some researchers argue that even toxic chemicals, when consumed at extremely low doses over long periods, pose few risks.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Chemicals
Consumed
Drinking
Drinking Water
Ill
Periods
Researchers
Toxic
Argue
Doses
Extremely
Federal
Hazardous
Long Periods
Low
Meet
Necessarily
Pose
Copy Quote
In the 1970s, New York City defaulted on its debt, and yes, the consequences were painful. Enrollment plummeted at City University campuses, which until then had offered free education. Seven thousand police officers were laid off. Crime skyrocketed. Services for the poor disappeared.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Enrollment
New York City
Thousand
Disappeared
Laid
Offered
Police Officers
Services
Copy Quote
I am going to pick on 'Huffington Post.' A lot of its content is great. They are doing a lot of original content now, but historically, a lot of what they did was aggregation. Newspapers don't want to become that, and yet 'Huffington Post' is incredibly popular. It's incredibly successful.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Newspapers
Great I Am Doing
Historically
Post
Copy Quote
If you look hard enough, you'll find that many of the products we use every day - chewing gums, skin moisturizers, disinfecting wipes, air fresheners, water purifiers, health snacks, antiperspirants, colognes, teeth whiteners, fabric softeners, vitamins - are results of manufactured habits.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Health
Air
Chewing
Fabric
Products
Results
Snacks
Teeth
Vitamins
Water
Skin
Every Day
Habits
Copy Quote
Cash from a reverse mortgage can be paid out in several ways, including a lump sum, a monthly payment, a line of credit, or a combination of those. If you do not need money right away, it is usually a bad idea to take all the money upfront, since it starts accumulating interest charges immediately.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Cash
Combination
Credit
Payment
Reverse
Accumulate
Bad Idea
Charges
Immediately
Lump
Monthly
Right Away
Sum
Upfront
Copy Quote
It's easy to forget, given her scandal-tinged life and tragic death, how incredibly talented Whitney Houston was. She holds the world record as the most-awarded female act of all time, with over 415 major recognitions during her career. She is the only artist to chart seven consecutive number one songs.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Consecutive
Houston
Tragic
Whitney
Life Time Death
Chart
Life Death Time
Talented
Holds
World Record
Copy Quote
When the mortgage giant Fannie Mae recruited Daniel H. Mudd, he told a friend he wanted to work for an altruistic business. Already a decorated marine and a successful executive, he wanted to be a role model to his four children - just as his father, the television journalist Roger Mudd, had been to him.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Marine
Mortgage
Roger
Altruistic
Daniel
Decorated
Executive
Giant
Role Model
Copy Quote
There is a woman named Wendy Wood, who did a study when she was at Duke, and she followed around college students to try to figure out how much of their day was decision-making versus how much was habit. And what she found was that about 45 percent of all the behaviors that someone did in a day was habit.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
College
College Students
Decision Making
Found
Habit
Percent
Study
Versus
Around
Did
Try
Behaviors
Named
Woman
Duke
Figure
Followed
How Much
She
Wood
Copy Quote
In 1980, a woman promised her dying sister to change how Americans thought about breast cancer. Thirty years later, the result - the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation - is one of the nation's largest non-profits, and one of the most successful triumphs in public health marketing and changing health habits.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Sister
Breast Cancer
Cancer
Dying
Marketing
Public Health
Thirty
Cure
Habits
Largest
Promised
Susan
Triumphs
Copy Quote
It almost goes without saying that when you are a startup, one of the first things you do is you start setting aside money to defend yourself from patent lawsuits, because any successful company, even moderately successful, is going to get hit by a patent lawsuit from someone who's just trying to look for a payout.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Lawsuit
Setting
Aside
Defend
First Things
Moderately
Patent
Startup
Copy Quote
General Atomics, the progenitor of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, started life in 1955 when a major military contractor, General Dynamics, feared that the military hardware market might dry up. It began exploring peacetime uses of atomic energy, but abandoned the effort when cold-war military spending took off.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Abandoned
Atomic Energy
Contractor
Dry
Dynamics
Exploring
Hardware
Atomic
Feared
Peacetime
Systems
Uses
Copy Quote
Companies aren’t families. They’re battlefields in a civil war. Yet despite this capacity for internecine warfare, most companies roll along relatively peacefully, year after year, because they have routines—habits—that create truces that allow everyone to set aside their rivalries long enough to get a day’s work done.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
War
Long
Years
Copy Quote
Monica Besra, a Bengali woman from a remote Indian village, was reportedly suffering from a malignant ovarian tumor when she went, in 1998, to a hospice founded by Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity. Nuns at the mission reportedly placed a medallion with Teresa's image on Besra's abdomen, and the tumor disappeared.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Bengali
Charity
Indian
Monica
Village
Disappeared
Mission
Nuns
Placed
Remote
Tumor
Copy Quote
Often in companies, you'll see tensions between sales and marketing. Sales people will want to give discounts to clients because they often get paid a commission based on how much they sell. So they're always pushing to give discounts because that will increase sales. Marketing, however, is judged by overall profitability.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Clients
Judged
Marketing
Paid
Profitability
Pushing
Always People Will
Based
Commission
Companies
Sell
People Will Always
How Much
However
Overall
Sales
Tensions
Copy Quote
As homeowners see the value of their homes decline, they become more likely to delay purchases of the big items - like automobiles, electronics and home appliances - that are ballasts of the American economy. When those purchases decline, large manufacturing firms, suddenly short on funds, could begin laying off employees.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
American Economy
Appliances
Decline
Delay
Electronics
Items
Manufacturing
Automobiles
Employees
Funds
Homes
Purchases
Suddenly
Copy Quote
Around New York City, samples collected at dozens of beaches or piers have detected the types of bacteria and other pollutants tied to sewage overflows. Though the city's drinking water comes from upstate reservoirs, environmentalists say untreated excrement and other waste in the city's waterways pose serious health risks.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Bacteria
Drinking
Drinking Water
New York City
Sewage
Tied
Waste
Beaches
Collected
Dozens
Environmentalists
Pose
Samples
Types
Upstate
Copy Quote
If you need five minutes every hour to look at tweets or to just surf the Internet, you need to schedule that into your schedule, allow yourself to do that. Because when people start procrastinating, what they've done is, they've tried to ignore that urge. They try to deny themselves time on Facebook or time surfing the web.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Deny
Done
Five
Internet
Minutes
Surf
Surfing
Time Yourself Your
Time Start Done
Time Done Yourself
Allow
Try
Facebook
Hour
Ignore
Schedule
Start
Themselves
Tried
Tweets
Urge
Web
Copy Quote
Someone will write a resolution that says, 'I want to exercise more,' or 'I want to lose 15 pounds' - which is great, that's a great goal to have - but every study tells us that if you pose things in abstract, goal-related terms, it's much less likely that you will accomplish it than if you structure it as an actual activity.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Abstract
Accomplish
Pounds
Resolution
Structure
Actual
Pose
Copy Quote
Some of the tactics that are used by Foxconn and other companies throughout China is, if you are late, if you violate one of the small rules, some of the punishment is that you have to copy down quotations from the chairman of Foxconn: you have to write out confessions explaining why you were late and promising never to do it again.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Chairman
China
Explaining
Late
Punishment
Quotations
Tactics
Rules
Companies
Confessions
Copy
Promising
Throughout
Violate
Copy Quote
We know there are certain chemicals that are designed to give us a rush of pleasure. But, one of the most amazing things about being human is our capacity to override that pleasure. To either say, 'I don't need that pleasure right now. I'm going to ignore the craving.' Or to find something else that we find a deeper sense of reward from.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Amazing Things
Being Human
Capacity
Chemicals
Craving
Deeper
Most Amazing
Designed
Ignore
Override
Reward
Rush
Something Else
Copy Quote
In a flash order transaction, buy or sell orders are shown to a collection of high-frequency traders for just 30 milliseconds before they are routed to everyone else. They are widely considered to give the few investors with access to the technology an unfair advantage, even by some of the marketplaces that offer the flash orders for a fee.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Advantage
Flash
Investors
Everyone Else
Fee
Orders
Shown
Transaction
Widely
Copy Quote
Typically, people who exercise start eating better and becoming more productive at work. They smoke less and show more patience with colleagues and family. They use their credit cards less frequently and say they feel less stressed. It's not completely clear why. But for many people, exercise is a keystone habit that triggers widespread change.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Change
Patience
Smile
Fitness
Stress
Copy Quote
A movement starts because of the social habits of friendship and the strong ties between close acquaintances. It grows because of the habits of a community, and the weak ties that hold neighborhoods and clans together. And it endures because a movement's leaders give participants new habits that create a fresh sense of identity and a feeling of ownership.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Giving
Strong
Ties
Copy Quote
However, to modify a habit, you must decide to change it. You must consiously accept the hard work of identifying the cues and rewards that drive the habits' routines, and find alternatives. You must know you have control and be self-conscious enough to use it -- and every chapter in this book is devoted to illustrating a different aspect of why that control is real.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Book
Hard Work
Real
Copy Quote
Habits are powerful, but delicate. They can emerge outside our consciousness, or can be deliberately designed. They often occur without our permission, but can be reshaped by fiddling with their parts. They shape our lives far more than we realize—they are so strong, in fact, that they cause our brains to cling to them at the exclusion of all else, including common sense.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Common Sense
Powerful
Strong
Copy Quote
What we know from lab studies is that it's never too late to break a habit. Habits are malleable throughout your entire life. But we also know that the best way to change a habit is to understand its structure - that once you tell people about the cue and the reward and you force them to recognize what those factors are in a behavior, it becomes much, much easier to change.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Labs
People
Too Late
Copy Quote
But countless studies have shown that a cue and a reward, on their own, aren't enough for a new habit to last. Only when your brain starts expecting the reward--craving the endorphins or sense of accomplishment--will it become automatic to lace up your jogging shoes each morning. The cue, in addition to triggering a routine, must also trigger a craving for the reward to come.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Morning
Accomplishment
Shoes
Copy Quote
Shampoo doesn’t have to foam, but we add foaming chemicals because people expect it each time they wash their hair. Same thing with laundry detergent. And toothpaste—now every company adds sodium laureth sulfate to make toothpaste foam more. There’s no cleaning benefit, but people feel better when there’s a bunch of suds around their mouth. Once the customer starts expecting that foam, the habit starts growing.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Feel Better
Hair
People
Copy Quote
Then one day, we’ll put the reward in the old place, and put in the rat, and, by golloy, the old habit will rememerge right away. habits never really disappear. They’re encoded into the sturctures of our brain, and that’s a huge advantage for us, because it would be awful if we had to relearn how to drive after every vacation. The problem is that your brain can’t tell the difference between bad and good habits, and so if you have a bad one, it’s always lurking there, waiting for the right cues and rewards.
Charles Duhigg / Writer
Vacation
Differences
Old Habits
Waiting
Copy Quote

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Charles Duhigg Quotes - Page 4

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