Atomic Habits v Dune

Local versus global impact, instruction versus incantation, information versus magic

Your Life is Like an Ocean

Let’s say your life — your thoughts, your emotions, your character and personality — is like an ocean.

Now let’s say, for some reason, among a nearly infinite set of potential reasons, you’d like to make some changes. This is not easy, but it is also not impossible. After all, the ocean is in a constant state of change.

Good news for you, you’ve got a lot of options. You can cut canals or channels. You can build levees. You can even dump sand and earth into shallow bays to create new islands.

This is the power of nonfiction — it can give you the direction and motivation you need to make specific, local changes. The spectrum of possibilities is wide. This is exciting. You have lots of plans. You feel like the master of your ocean. You form new trade routes, create valuable new real estate, protect coastal cities.

Then a hurricane comes and breaks a levee.

Or the tides shift and cut off access to that clever new channel.

Or the ice caps melt a few inches and your expensive little islands get swallowed up.

That’s OK! You can Build Back Better! There are plenty of other books! A few setbacks can’t shake your faith in the power of nonfiction.

You might wonder, though, in the context of this extended metaphor, what first determined the temperature of the atmosphere, and the size of the ice caps? What set the orbit of the Moon? What causes the weather?

Fiction.

When you were young, from before you can even clearly remember, stories were shaping you. True stories? Maybe, but probably not. Besides, it didn’t matter back then, did it? The stories that set the course of your life were metabolized the same way, whether they were somehow based on “real life,” or not. The power of the narrative was all that mattered. If a story found resonance in your child heart, it became part of you.

Well, I’ve got news for you. Whether you realize or accept it or not, the same thing is true today. Narrative is the master of your soul.

So, do you want to build a levee, or do you want to change the tides? Because if your life is an ocean, fiction still has the power to move the Moon.

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Local v Global

Here’s another way to codify this: if nonfiction’s impact is local, fiction’s is global.

You might argue that nonfiction can be as life-changing as fiction, given a narrative of adequate strength and power. I won’t argue.

I will, however, reiterate the point I made in Fiction v Nonfiction. Fiction’s primary concern is the depth and authenticity of the narrative itself, while nonfiction prioritizes the accurate communication of ideas and information.

Sort of like what I’m doing now.

I feel like I’ll have to say this every time, but that’s OK: I love nonfiction. We need canals, and a well-built levee can save a million lives. I’ll even go further and say that some books of nonfiction, if closely enough attended to, can have global impact on someone’s personality.

BUT. Generally speaking, it is great fiction that causes global change, while the impact of even the best nonfiction is local.

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Atomic Habits v Dune

James Clear’s Atomic Habits deserves its own post (and it’s already in the pipeline). For good reason, it is one of the most popular and most frequently cited books on productivity in the market right now. I’ve read it. It is excellent.

But if I’m being honest, the biggest impact it had on my life is probably that I now exercise more often, and more reliably, than I did before I read it. This is a big deal! I’m very happy and very grateful! Also, when I’m ready to tackle other Very Important Habits, I know I’ll be returning to the many cogently useful principles Clear outlines in his book. Also, if I ever get the chance to meet him, I will be an awkward fanboy.

All that said (and sincerely!) Atomic Habits did not have a meaningful impact on who I am as a person. In fairness, I don’t think it was designed to.

On the other hand, I recently finished reading Dune for the first time (finally). This was after seeing the movie four times in theaters. The story won’t leave me alone. Paul Atreides, with the Gom Jabbar at his throat, holds his hand inside a box of pain, while Jessica, his Bene Gesserit mother, waits outside, reciting the Litany Against Fear.

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

Paul passes the test.

So, too, I think, can I.

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Instruction v Incantation

I realize it doesn’t make much sense to compare Atomic Habits to Dune. I realize that. These books are nothing alike, and the potential effects of each are not comparable, regardless of the scope of those effects — local or global.

However, they do illustrate my point. Atomic Habits, in order to have any effect at all, took a lot of effort. I mentioned I exercise more often and more reliably. I owe this to consciously following a very specific set of steps and principles Clear outlines. It did not come naturally, and the process often felt like a chore.

I set Dune in contrast to this because no part of my relationship to that book has felt like a chore. I kept returning to the movie because I couldn’t help myself. Then I went and read the book for the same reason. As I follow my natural and growing passion for that narrative, the tides shift, and the weather changes.

If nonfiction is an instruction manual, fiction is an incantation.

I picked Atomic Habits because it’s relatively new, and it’s a great instruction manual. I picked Dune because it’s relatively new to me, and it’s a powerful incantation.

What you and I need probably isn’t more information. What we need is more magic.

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Guys I suck at Twitter

After I posted “Fiction v Nonfiction,” I decided to share it across my socials. Just, you know, trying to be a good Internet person (I am ordinarily very bad at Internetting.)

I bring this up because I need a pithy, eye-catching way to summarize the main idea I’m driving at. Here’s what I came up with (which you might have seen):

Cultural consensus:
Fiction = entertainment
Nonfiction = getting smarter/healthier/happier
The consensus is wrong.

It’s not great, but it’s something.

As I continue down this path, talking and writing about it, researching and sharing, I would love any input you have. For instance, how would you frame this whole conversation in one or two sentences?

Everyone I’ve talked to in person about this has had very interesting insights and perspectives I could not have predicted, and it would be fantastic to capture some of that here. That’s what the comments are for — please use them!