Thus, on motivation, we get stories of boot camp innovations from the US Army which, as part of a reformed approach to training recruits, apparently no longer requires thoughtless acquiescence to the orders of superiors, but instead soldiers who can ‘think for themselves’ (23) – think Full Metal Jacket directed by Socrates instead of Stanley Kubrick.

It is in this first chapter that Duhigg’s basic rhetorical recipe, repeated through each chapter, is debuted: the telling of real-life stories interspersed with (mostly psychological) research to underwrite the do-it-yourself lessons which conclude each section. After this breathless hush-hush of a beginning – ‘could I change my own life?’ (4) ‘make the audacious achievable’ (8) ‘recognize the choices that fuel true productivity’ (8) and so on – the book starts proper.ĭuhigg begins, perhaps unsurprisingly given his project, by discussing that well-whipped guru nag: motivation.

These begin after a short introduction in which the author explains how he came to write the book, in the process introducing a motif which will reappear throughout: that he has discovered the secret to being ‘truly’ productive that this is a fresh scientific discovery and, lastly, that you and I, the readers, can also get in on the act. So much for the book’s cover, what of its contents? Written by New York Times journalist Charles Duhigg, Smarter, Faster, Better: The Secrets of Being Productive is structured into eight main chapters, each representing what he labels ‘the eight ideas that seem most important in expanding productivity’ (6). Another clue is in the subtitle that, displaying the genre’s penchant for coating its nostrums in the sheen of science, pledges to reveal the ‘secrets of being productive’. The clue is in the title, which promises to make the committed reader ‘smarter, faster, better’. Smarter, Faster, Better: The Secrets of Being Productive. While finding that much of the text struggles to transcend the charge of ‘obviousism’, Richard Cotter does recommend two chapters that offer nuanced and striking insights of value to readers.

In Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive, Charles Duhigg presents eight key ideas that can maximise the productivity of organisations, companies and individuals, focusing on how we make choices and frame decisions in daily life.

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