Author Guide · Nonfiction · Habits, Productivity & Communication
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To report one series for The New York Times on how Apple made its products, Charles Duhigg contacted about 900 people to find the twenty or thirty former employees willing to talk. That series, part of the paper’s iEconomy reporting, shared the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. He brings the same method to his books: a large body of research, carried by stories about real people, from an amnesiac who still builds new habits to a CIA officer recruiting a spy. He grew up in Albuquerque, took an MBA at Harvard Business School and spent eleven years at the Times before moving to The New Yorker. In twelve years he has published three books, each built around one question: why we do what we do, how productive people think, and how we connect in conversation. This guide covers his 3 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 3 key books · 2012–2024 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Charles Duhigg has written three books: The Power of Habit (2012), Smarter Faster Better (2016) and Supercommunicators (2024). The Power of Habit is the best known; it spent more than three years on New York Times bestseller lists. Start there. Below are all three in order, what each argues, and the doubts about one of its most famous stories.
Where to Start with Charles Duhigg
If you want the book everyone means
→ The Power of Habit (2012) — the habit loop of cue, routine and reward.
If you want to get more done at work
→ Smarter Faster Better (2016) — eight ideas about motivation, focus and decisions.
If you want better conversations
· Books like Atomic Habits → Supercommunicators (2024) — how to tell what kind of conversation you are in.
3 Charles Duhigg Books, in Order
The Power of Habit
Published by Random House in February 2012. Duhigg argues that every habit runs on a loop of cue, routine and reward, driven by craving, and that the way to change one is to keep the cue and the reward and replace the routine. Its three parts move from individuals (Eugene Pauly, an amnesiac who could still form habits; Tony Dungy’s football teams) to organisations (Paul O’Neill’s safety drive at Alcoa, Starbucks, Target) and to society (the Montgomery bus boycott). It spent more than three years on New York Times bestseller lists and was longlisted for the 2012 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year.
Smarter Faster Better
Published by Random House on 8 March 2016. Built around eight ideas, among them motivation, teams, focus, goal setting and decision making, it argues that the most productive people and organisations do not simply work harder but see their choices differently. The cases range from Marine Corps boot camp and Google’s research into what makes a team work to the cockpit of a crashing airliner and the writing room of Disney’s Frozen. It entered the New York Times bestseller list within three weeks of publication.
Supercommunicators
Published by Random House on 20 February 2024. Duhigg argues that most conversations are one of three kinds, practical (“What’s this really about?”), emotional (“How do we feel?”) and social (“Who are we?”), and that people connect when they notice which kind they are in and match it. The stories include a CIA officer winning over a reluctant recruit, a juror who changed his fellow jurors’ minds and a doctor talking with a vaccine sceptic, as well as the writers’ room of The Big Bang Theory. It spent more than 30 weeks on New York Times bestseller lists.
In What Order to Read Charles Duhigg
The three books stand alone, so read them in whatever order matches what you want to change. Publication order works well too: The Power of Habit sets out his way of turning research into stories, and the two later books apply it to new subjects.
If you only read one, make it The Power of Habit, the book that made his name. Smarter Faster Better is most useful if you manage people or projects; Supercommunicators is the one to choose if your difficulty is with other people rather than with yourself.
A reading path
1. The Power of Habit (2012)
2. Smarter Faster Better (2016)
3. Supercommunicators (2024)
Selected Journalism by Charles Duhigg
Beyond the 3 key books: 4 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Magazine and newspaper work
4
4 books · 2012–2020
- 2012How Companies Learn Your SecretsNew York Times Magazine; the excerpt from The Power of Habit on Target’s pregnancy prediction
- 2012The iEconomy seriesThe New York Times; with Keith Bradsher, David Barboza and colleagues, on Apple and the technology industry; Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting, 2013
- 2016What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect TeamNew York Times Magazine; on Google’s Project Aristotle, adapted from Smarter Faster Better
- 2020How Venture Capitalists Are Deforming CapitalismThe New Yorker
The years · 1974–2024
Quick facts about Charles Duhigg
- Known for
- Explaining research on habits, productivity and conversation through stories about real people, after a career as a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter at The New York Times.
- 1974
- Born in New Mexico, grows up in Albuquerque
- 2024
- Supercommunicators
- Born
- 1974, New Mexico; grew up in Albuquerque, the seventh of ten children of two lawyers
- Education
- BA, Yale College; MBA, Harvard Business School (2003)
- Journalism
- Los Angeles Times (2003–2006); The New York Times (2006–2017); now writes for The New Yorker
- Prizes
- Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting (2013, with the New York Times staff); George Polk Award (2007); National Academies Communication Award (2010)
- Translations
- His books have been translated into more than 45 languages
- Lives
- Santa Cruz, California, with his wife, the marine biologist Elizabeth Alter, and their two sons
The red mark is 2012: The Power of Habit, the first of his three books and the one that made his name.
How Charles Duhigg Writes: The Reporter’s Method
Duhigg writes like the investigative reporter he was. Each chapter opens with a person at a turning point, such as Lisa Allen giving up smoking after a divorce, or a pilot losing control of an airliner, then steps back to the research that explains what happened, and returns to the story for the ending. He told Harvard Magazine that his first aim in anything he writes is to entertain the reader, and that narrative is what makes an idea stick.
Each book is built around one simple model that readers can carry away: the habit loop of cue, routine and reward; eight ideas of productivity; three kinds of conversation. The cases come from very different worlds placed side by side, from Alcoa’s factories and a hospital in Rhode Island to a television writers’ room and a jury room, so that the same pattern shows up in each.
He sources his stories through interviews and published studies, and lists them in long endnotes. The risk of the method is that a vivid story can carry more weight than its evidence; the best-known example is the Target anecdote in The Power of Habit. Readers who like his blend of research and narrative will find the same approach in Malcolm Gladwell and, for habits in particular, James Clear.
Watch
Charles Duhigg in conversation with Michael Gervais
On the Finding Mastery podcast, the psychologist Michael Gervais talks with Duhigg about Supercommunicators: how to get past small talk, why conversations break down, and how listening and asking questions can be practised.
Frequently asked questions about Charles Duhigg’s books
How many books has Charles Duhigg written?
Three: The Power of Habit (2012), Smarter Faster Better (2016) and Supercommunicators (2024). He also published a great deal of journalism, mainly in The New York Times and The New Yorker; a selection is listed above.
What are Charles Duhigg’s books in order?
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (2012), Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business (2016) and Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection (2024).
Where should I start with Charles Duhigg?
With The Power of Habit. It is his best-known book and the clearest example of his method. If your interest is work rather than personal habits, start with Smarter Faster Better; if it is relationships and conversation, with Supercommunicators.
What is Charles Duhigg’s most famous book?
The Power of Habit (2012). It spent more than three years on New York Times bestseller lists and made the “habit loop” of cue, routine and reward widely known.
What is the habit loop?
The model at the centre of The Power of Habit: a cue triggers a routine, which ends in a reward, and over time the brain comes to crave the reward when it sees the cue. Duhigg’s “golden rule” of habit change is to keep the old cue and reward and insert a new routine.
Did Target really know a teenager was pregnant before her father?
The prediction model was real: Target statistician Andrew Pole described a project to predict pregnancy in a 2010 conference talk, and Duhigg reported on it in the New York Times Magazine in 2012 and in The Power of Habit. The story of the angry father, however, rests on a single anonymous account. The analytics expert Eric Siegel, who had invited Pole to speak, called the link between that story and Target’s model “an unsubstantiated but tacit implication”, and suggested the coupons may not have come from the model at all.
Did Charles Duhigg win a Pulitzer Prize?
Yes, as part of a team. The 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting went to The New York Times staff “for its penetrating look into business practices by Apple and other technology companies”, the iEconomy series. Duhigg accepted the prize with his colleagues Keith Bradsher and David Barboza. He has also won a George Polk Award and the National Academies Communication Award.
Is The Power of Habit the same as Atomic Habits?
No. Atomic Habits (2018) is by James Clear. Clear builds on the cue, craving, response and reward model that Duhigg popularised, but his book is a practical manual; The Power of Habit is mostly reporting and stories about how habits work in people, companies and movements.
What are the three kinds of conversation in Supercommunicators?
Practical conversations, about plans and problems (“What’s this really about?”); emotional conversations, about feelings (“How do we feel?”); and social conversations, about identity and how we relate to each other (“Who are we?”). Duhigg argues that conversations go wrong when two people are having different kinds at the same time.
Where does Charles Duhigg work now?
He left The New York Times in 2017 after eleven years and now writes for The New Yorker. He lives in Santa Cruz, California, with his family.
Footnotes
- Charles Duhigg — Wikipedia
- The Power of Habit — Wikipedia
- The New York Times, by Staff — The Pulitzer Prizes, 2013
- Charles Duhigg profile — Harvard Magazine, 2021
- Smarter Faster Better — Penguin Random House
- Did Target Really Predict a Teen’s Pregnancy? The Inside Story — KDnuggets, 2014
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“My number one goal, in anything that I’m writing, is to entertain the reader.”
— Charles Duhigg, interview in Harvard Magazine (2021)
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