Where would the self-help and business media be without the secret habits of highly successful people? Almost every week there’s a new article outlining a high-flying individual’s behaviours — with the implied promise that using the same techniques could deliver us fame and fortune, too.

Some of their advice is relatively common sense: you’ll often hear how top CEOs like Elon Musk begin work early, skip breakfast, and divide their time into small, manageable tasks. Other inspirational figures are more idiosyncratic in their habits. Bill Gates, for example, would reportedly rock backwards and forwards in his chair while brainstorming — a bodily means of focusing the mind. Gates was also very particular in his choice of notebook: it had to be a yellow notepad.

Why do successful people follow such eccentrically specific habits? And why are we so keen to read about them and mimic them in our own lives? The answer lies in a powerful psychological process called ‘superstitious learning’. The brain is constantly looking for associations between two events. While it is mostly correct, it sometimes mistakes coincidence for causality — leading us to attribute success to something as arbitrary as the colour of our notebook, rather than our own talent or hard work. And when we hear of other’s triumphs, we often end up copying their habits, too, including the arbitrary rituals that they had acquired through superstitious learning — a phenomenon known as ‘over-imitation’.

This is not to say the resulting habits are completely devoid of benefits. By giving us a sense of self-determination, the adoption of rituals — including the completely random behaviours that we have learnt ourselves or borrowed from those we admire — can help us to overcome anxiety and may even bring about a noticeable boost in performance. We need not be embarrassed by the little rituals that pepper our days; if the action costs nothing and helps you to feel a bit more in control of your day, it’s perfectly rational to continue. Whether you’ve been inspired by past experience or are mimicking your heroes, your arbitrary rituals may just push you a little bit closer to the success you seek.

(David Robson. www.bbc.com, 11.07.2022. Adaptado.)

The writer refers to Bill Gates’ habits to illustrate