I've noticed similar thing after reading through Atomic Habits and books written in similar way. Yes, padding the book with cherry-picked anecdotes to support y

I've noticed similar thing after reading through Atomic Habits and books written in similar way. Yes, padding the book with cherry-picked anecdotes to support your argument gets old quickly. It bothers me when only one side of argument is presented. There are few merits though. First, people learn better through examples than through theory alone. If the book can lay down some distilled observations and then show actual life situations where these concepts are presented in context, the subject becomes more clear and understandable. Second, summarizing book information may preserve the gist, but for habit-changing concepts to take hold they need to be repeated and ingested over days and not minutes. Third, not all have the same power of focus and most people need relatable stories to keep their attention. The Atomic Habits book has good summaries of each chapter and of overall concepts, so you are free to digest it in your own way. Regarding your principle of reading only 30+ year old books, I would be worried that the contained knowledge has gone stale, is based on data that was proven to be wrong, or just that the language/cultural context has shifted enough for me to misunderstand the author. Also, if a person is a top talent in a specific field, it doesn't mean they are a good writer, or that their interests are aligned with reader's.