A fascinating look at a region of the brain called the habenula which controls motivation. The author explains how it helps us, hurts us, and why it’s so difficult to make permanent changes to our behavior.

The book then ran out of steam. I had a great review of why change sucks so bad, but then just the concept of living life in beta until I finally get it 100% right. Basically a version of Groundhog Day until my brain agrees that I’m correct.

Thanks to NetGalley and Forbes Books for an ARC of this book.

Was a good read, easy to pick up and needed minimal medical knowledge. Just not my fave read of the year unfortunately

Quite simply one of the best books I've ever read on dealing with failure with a paradigm almost the equal of Dweck's growth mindset. 'Iteration' and 'experimentation' may well have changed my future - and I don't say that lightly.
I shall be recommending this to anyone smart enough to read it. I do wish there was, perhaps, a workbook to go with it listing more reframing examples but I imagine that will come. Superb, thank you for this.

While this book identifies an apparently heretofore unknown part of the brain that regulates internal reward and punishment, or success and failure, what it describes in terms of human behavior is nothing new under the sun. The habenula described in this book apparently regulates dopamine. The effects of dopamine in the brain are well known and documented.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher.