All book reviews
5 books, ranked by how well their claims hold up against the research. How we score.
Good Habits, Bad Habits
Written by a leading habit researcher, it rests on solid, peer-reviewed findings. A few numbers get simplified, and it offers fewer ready-made tools than its competitors.
Thinking, Fast and Slow
A landmark tour of judgment and bias whose core ideas hold up well, docked half a point for priming and ego-depletion chapters that failed large replications.
Atomic Habits
Practical advice built on solid habit science, wrapped in catchy but untested claims about identity and compounding. Useful, but less proven than the subtitle says.
Mindset
A real research idea stretched far past its data: beliefs about ability matter a little, for some students, in some settings, not across all of life.
The 5 Second Rule
A harmless, memorable starting cue wrapped in confident brain claims that no study supports; the countdown itself has never been tested.