On Habit

Over the years, I have been lectured much about the strengths and dangers of habits. It is commonly suggested that having good habits is the path to traditional notions of success (e.g. money, comfort, fame), while having bad habits leads to pitfalls and tragedy. My little knowledge about habits informs my goals and methods, and I consider the concept central to my lifestyle.

My proximity must have blurred my focus. Although I have extensively considered habit within the context of my own mental landscape, as either a vice to conquer, or a tool to employ; until now I have never before thought of it as a psychological phenomenon.

What happens differently in the mind when you do an action by habit versus doing it normally?

Having not read nearly enough of the relevant literature to know for sure, my guess is that habituated actions are performed without any conscious intervention. A habit is then a physical principle – behavior carried out without any input from the will. Making decisions is an expensive process, and by hard-coding certain shortcut responses into the brain, we conserve some precious brain sugar for use on more difficult problems.

In some cases, a decision computation can be quite difficult. The choice of whether or not to eat a donut will give most people some pause. On one hand it is very tasty, but on the other hand it is not nutritionally beneficial. A person unhabituated to this scenario may spend minutes in ambivalent agony, however, for a sugar addict or strict health enthusiast, the decision becomes painless and automatic. A habit relieves a person of decision.

With new intuitions on habit, I raise two additional questions. Firstly, is it possible to make a habit of habit-making?

Surely this is possible. Any behavior will etch itself more firmly into one's brain with each repetition. Yes, different habits must be sparked in different ways, but some parts might be common to initializing any type of habit. By going through the ritual many times, one would become a habit-making machine.

Being able to acquire habits quickly and easily seems like a super power. Getting up at 6:00am to start work, exercising at the gym every day, eating a perfectly balanced diet – with good habits anything is possible. The most successful people are usually the best habit makers, but… I advocate that the habit-making habit is not all good, even if this process can be directed only towards “good” habits. The habit-making habit takes just as much as it offers, and the one dimensional idea of success flaunted by the rich and famous habit makers gives only half the picture.

With every new habit formed, more and more decisions become automated. Simultaneously the habit-making habit becomes more ingrained. The telos of this self-perpetuating habit cycle is to remove all need for willful decision-making from one’s life, reducing the relevance of conscious experience to that of an observer. By implementing the habit-making habit, one could easily actualize any habits they desire and become as successful as Jeff Bezos; but this comes at the cost of their soul.

Weighing options and making decisions forms a central part of the human experience. Rational thought is said by some to singularly distinguish us from the rest of the animal kingdom. I for one take pleasure and pride in decision-making. Obviously, habits (especially the good ones) are useful; I see no use in having a philosophical deliberation over every donut that passes by. But a habit of habit-making is dangerous. It is a cancer of the mind that will transform a human into a robot. The song Fitter, Happier by Radiohead I think nicely expresses the revolting side of making good habits.

Suppose I instead want to go the opposite direction, and make as many decisions as there are opportunities for. This is my second question. Is it possible to make a habit of conscious agency?

This would be manifested as a cannibalistic habit which seeks to destroy all others of its kind, and so forces every decision to be consciously deliberated on. Even before diving into the hypothetical particulars of how a habit like this could be formed, we can plainly see a contradiction with how it will handle itself. Let’s dive in anyway to see what might fall out.

People with a tendency to overanalyze small things, people who get hung up at the sight of a donut, and who override their habits with savage introspective interrogation – these are perhaps philosophers and psychologists. They have a strong inclination to find foundational reasons for their past or future actions. This inclination to pause and deliberate before carrying out an action can be fairly said to be born from habit, thus it is a valid candidate for the cannibal habit.

As predicted, this habit inevitably runs into a contradiction. Those who always ask why will eventually question their own curiosity, as is cliché. After all, would it not be better to live in blissful ignorance? How bad could it be to stop the incessant and crazed rumination to simply find a job, a spouse, a dog, and then embark on a normal life? Once this ultimate habit is eradicated, one can return to a life full of habit without questioning any underlying reasons.

Of course it is not that easy. In a newfound state of habitual bliss, the recovering questioner is likely to fall back into their questioning habit just the same as they are with any other of the habits which they had once found erroneous but now forgiven. I doubt that many scientists, philosophers, and thinkers have succeeded in murdering their own curiosity for good, although certainly most have seen it burn and rise several times over. Sisyphus would be proud of their perseverance.

Adopting either of these hypothetical habits leads to an unpleasant outcome. Most things are best in moderation – let’s take this to be true of habits as well.