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Brillyant comments on Open thread, Jan. 25 - Jan. 31, 2016 - Less Wrong
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How true is the proverb: 'To break habit you must make a habit'
I think it's certainly true. I suppose it depends on your definition of "habit"...
Isn't much of what we do habitual, whether it benefits us or not? In this way, you have either good habits or bad that are reciprocals of one another.
For example, people who refrain are not said to have a "habit of not biting their nails". But that is, I think, what is happening.
I stopped biting my nails (coating them in a bitter substance to remind myself not to bite them if I tried) and I did not make any replacement habit. I don't have a "habit of not biting my nails" any more than I have a habit of breathing. It happens automatically without conscious effort, so calling "not biting nails" a habit is misusing the word.
This is why I mentioned the definition of "habit" in my comment.
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