Redirect — Timothy Wilson

Redirect lays out a set of techniques for achieving real, lasting change in our behaviour and improving our lives. Actually, this book doesn’t really tell you what to do — it isn’t a self-help book — instead, it describes why these techniques work so well (and also points out that many other ideas don’t).

Story-editing is a way to change behaviour indirectly, by changing the narratives we all have about the kinds of people we are, and the way we interpret the thing that happen to us. This is important because flawed concepts of ourselves and others leads us to all kinds of damaging cognitive errors (see also, for example, Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me) and Blind Spots). All of us fall prey to these errors. Yes, that includes you. (Also, me.) Wilson also talks about story-prompting, subtle ways to influence behaviour for the better (or otherwise, as the advertising industry has discovered). This is covered thoroughly by another book, Nudge, which I have read but somehow forgot to write about.

He also discusses the do good, be good principle. To become a good (kind, generous, friendly) person, simply force yourself to do good (kind, generous, friendly) things; the goodness will follow. As Aristotle said back in the day, “it is by doing just acts that the just man is produced, and by doing temperate acts the temperate man; without doing these no one would have even a prospect of becoming good”. This reminds me of a whole lot of things: research shows that smiling actually makes you feel happier; Forrest Gump’s mother’s folk wisdom, “stupid is as stupid does”; and Charlie Brown on hanging your head:

When you’re depressed, it makes a lot of difference how you stand. The worst thing you can do is straighten up and hold your head high because then you’ll start to feel better. If you’re going to get any joy out of being depressed, you’ve got to stand like this.

The best thing about the book is the repeated emphasis on something that many well-meaning social improvers forget: evidence. It’s usually worth trying out any new idea for improving people’s lives. But before you spend millions of dollars rolling out some programme to schools nationwide, you should spend some time and money checking whether it actually works. Wilson skewers a number of programmes that were shown to be ineffective after huge sums were invested in them, and points out one or two that do have a solid grounding in evidence. I have noticed a few programmes around being advertised as “Evidence-based”, which seems like progress. (Seeds of Empathy is one I have been reading about.)

Wilson’s talk at the RSA gives a good flavour of what the book is about but the book, of course, goes much deeper.