The Achievement Habit : The Achievement Habit By Bernard Roth

A fallacy is a weak argument that uses devices such as beliefs or emotions to support a claim. For example, in lines 28-29 of Mack’s speech he claims, “what would be surprising- and a genuine cause for concern- would be if someone read Shakespeare and thought they’d understand him.” This claim weakens his argument because it is an overgeneralization. Mack is placing a blanket statement on first time readers by saying that it would be surprising if someone understood Shakespeare the first time that they read his works. He could fortify this claim by making it more specific and not assuming the capability of others. Another example of a fallacy in Michael’s speech can be found in lines 93-94: “ Literature teaches you about life, and the better you understand literature, the better you understand life.” This statement is circular reasoning, which is a fallacy where the author restates the same claim twice in different terms to try and strengthen his argument. Mack can better this statement by elaborating how literature teaches you about life, instead of just restating his claim.

The author makes their point by raising the absence of actualities and truth that this individual is talking. They even venture to raise the undeniable realities, and post pictures of the circumstance out appropriate to not have the peruser oblivious in the event that they were ignorant of what was being discussed. The author additionally raises the absence of priority this individual has had on the influenced range which drives him to not realize what slash is truly discussing and settle on poor choices while connecting with the influenced.

After reading the paper On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt (Ciulla, Martin & Solomon, 2014, p.60) I began to wonder what type of person would be the best at bullshitting or a god of bullshit. Would it be a politician with their campaign promises, a parent with their benign lies about childhood fantasies such as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny or would it be someone who feels no remorse for their actions and would need to rely on bullshit to fit in. Based on this article alone I could not come up with a satisfactory answer.

In the book, The Achievement Habit, by Bernard Roth, chapter two reasons are bullshit, he gives multiple examples on ethos, logos, and pathos. Logos which is the logical appeal, ethos are the ethical appeal, and pathos which is the emotional appeal to the reader. In chapter two, reasons are bullshit the author talks about the reasons people give are pointless. He also states that people should stop giving excuses. That any kind of excuse, besides being sick or a death in the family, should not be accepted. This book by Bernard Roth is intended for the audience of college students. I believe that chapter two is a very important chapter for college students. Most college students use excuses for a lot of things, even things that they don’t need

“One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit.”(Frankfurt). This statement truly defines the current situation of our life. I have developed a decent interest in this topic because we are surrounded by it and the majority of people don’t recognize it. There have been a lot of difficulties in understanding this topic as there are no particular theory has been given to this topic. According to Frankfurt bullshit is unavoidable at conditions in which we expect somebody to talk without recognizing what he is discussing. Therefore, the production of bullshit is based on the opportunities that an individual have to express more on a particular topic than his knowledge on the particular topic. We are going to talk about the similarities and differences between lying and bullshit. We will also discuss that which one is more harmful to the society and why, we are also going to discuss about some of the questions that are related to bullshitting in our life and discuss why we are not doing anything about it or it is just a human tendency.

Habit as defined in Webster’s as a: a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiologic exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance b : an acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary (Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online, 2011). Behavior is the manner of conducting oneself or anything that an organism does involving action and response to stimulation. In everyday life habits are formed and intertwined with ones behavior. People are often associated with the way they behave

According to F.M. Alexander, "people not decided their future, they decide their habits, and these habits decide their future". A habit is a learned behavior repeated regularly, requiring small or no reasoning. Habits are created, are not obtained by inheritance, habits can transform themselves in needs. In addition, habits are not unique to people, organizations, to be made up of people, have habits also. There are right, and wrong habits; right habits normally are called as virtues, and wrong habits are called as vices. Undoubtedly, virtues must be constantly reinforced; on the other hand, vices must be rebuilt step by step, and convert them into virtues. In “The Power of Habit”, Charles Duhigg manages to reveal with great clarity how the different phases of the cycle of habits are conformed; how wrong habits can be reconstructed, and transformed to allow the growth of both, individuals and organizations. Through the use of various cases, Duhigg manages to explain how to transform wrong habits by focusing on the phase of the habit that need to be rebuilt. The author explains how people can fail to be slaves to the "customs", and as to regain control, either of their lives or their Organizations.

In On Habit, Alain de Botton writes about how people become habituated and believe there is nothing left to see or learn about the certain location they are in. In this essay, Botton discovers an attitude to approach places we think we already know, and no longer find interest in. This mindset is intended for the environment you are in, but can also be apply to styles of reading and writing.

The author of the book The Achievement Habit, Dr. Bernard Roth, presents a well structured argument about the ability to achieve, and how the world is perceived differently by everyone, which means it is a conscious decision to react negatively to conflict, or on the contrary, look at the situation with a different mindset and not see it as conflict at all. While being the author of this very popular book, Dr. Roth has been a Stanford Professor for over fifty years; at Stanford, he teaches a class on achieving which pertains to a lot of his stories in the book. Roth portrays his book as a series of events that occurred to him personally and establishes pathos, logos, and ethos in the first two chapters of his book as he describes how the events relate to his theories.

While watching “The Puzzle of Motivation” by Dan Pink, I was very intrigued. Throughout the entire talk, there were several interesting points that were made. It really interested me when Pink talked about the group that was rewarded. Pink stated that if the contestants were in the top 25% of the fastest times, they would be rewarded five dollars. With this incentive, most would hope to do well, if not better than the person that would not be rewarded. Pink then goes on to point out the results. How much faster did the group that was offered a reward actually do? On average, it took them three and a half minutes longer. This really stood out to me because when offered a reward for a task, normally a person would be more motivated and thus do better. What amazed me even more was that this isn’t just a one time thing. This is has been replicated over and over for nearly 40 years. As Pink says around 04:33, “These contingent motivators -- if you do this, then you get that -- work in some circumstances. But for a lot of tasks, they actually either don 't work or, often, they do harm.” These rewards that are being offered are being used to attempt to sharpen thinking and accelerate creativity, but instead it’s proving to do the opposite. It’s proving to dull thinking and block creativity.

When it comes to the topic of addiction, most of us will readily agree that it is a miserable trait to possess. An addiction is a physical and psychological state of being that if not treated correctly could result into harmful wrongdoing. In The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, he recounts a story in which a fatigued housewife named Angie Bachmann lost all of her family’s assets, amounting to a million dollars due to a gambling addiction. Every habit has three components: a cue or a trigger of an automatic behavior to start, a routine the behavior itself, and a reward which is how our brain learns to remember this pattern for the future. According to Duhigg, “you cannot extinguish a bad habit, you can only change it” (63). Duhigg

In the self-improvement book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen R. Covey presents an integrated and principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional issues and problems. Covey uses real life examples as well as his own experience to reveal a step-by-step way for living with integrity, honesty, and self-respect. In the book he explains principles that give someone the comfort to adapt to change and the wisdom to take control and full advantage of the opportunities that the business world and personal lives create. This book seems very useful and I found a few habits that I plan to adopt and work at including in my everyday life. They are basic things in everyday life that can make things easier, more

First off, we are creatures. We are animals. We're very sophisticated and good-looking and all that, but let's never forget that we're made of flesh and blood. In particular, our brains are incredibly complex evolved machines. Our brains govern basic processes such as breathing and food intake, and also enable us to appreciate the finer points of John Cleese's performances in Fawlty Towers.

Stephen R. Covey’s self-help book is an influential communication for personal change. He advises building from the inside-out and offers a plan for moving from dependence to independence and then to interdependence. The inside-out approach starts first with one self, which includes paradigms, characters, and motivations. To improve relationships with others, we have to first improve ourselves by putting character ahead of personality.

I know for certainty that this is a habit I desperately need to acquire because mostly everything that I do is based on urgency. I always feel like I 'm working with unreasonable deadlines. I know that I 'll be more effective and productive once I 've been able to prioritize my tasks based on importance rather than urgency.