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Comment by trms | Hacker News Reader

That's a brilliant analogy. It reminds me of something I've read in Scott Adams' book on habits. [0] In the days he was supposed to work out, he'd just put his shoes on and see what happened. That would lead him to the next action, until 99% of the times, he'd end up exercising.

[0]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17859574-how-to-fail-at-...

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I also enjoyed that book. I have a friend who has never been taught a lot of basic life skills and this is the book I would recommend to them, because it covers a bit of everything. It explains that eating well is important for our mental health, it explains that one should pay attention to how much of the talking they do in a conversation and make sure others have a chance to talk, etc. It hit on a wide range of good topics and I found it helpful.

I'm a bit surprised how politically charged some people seem to be about this book though. You can see it in the Goodreads reviews, a lot of people giving it one star because it said something they don't like politically. This is not a political book. I don't remember any political commentary from my reading of it, but apparently people have found a sentence here or there that seems to maybe suggest support for a political view they disagree with, so they give it one star. But, it's only a few people doing this and overall this is one of the highest rated books I've ever seen across several sites.

This is extremely on point. I was almost not going to post my comment including that book precisely because of the public's feelings towards the author.

When you decouple the ideas in the book from the author though, and weigh them on their own merits, they hold up, at least for me, and that's all that matters.

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