It’s just like him!

Bad habits are things that accompany us throughout our lifetime. They distinguish us from others, define and characterize our personality and, paradoxically, also unite us. We’d like to inherit and pass on the best of qualities, but as we get older, all the baggage our parents have passed on to us becomes more and more evident. So, our society comprises not only families tied together by genetic roots, but also other families comprising more distant “relations” as well – that’s what we often call individuals who are the proud bearers of some of our own bad habits.

The origins of the National Collection of Bad habits

The idea for the project emerged in July 2022, on the occasion of the 200th birthday of the founder of genetics, Gregor Johann Mendel. The anniversary led me to the idea of ​​giving the general public (or the whole nation!) a unique chance to find and get to know „relatives“ they may not have had any idea existed. All people had to do was register their bad habits in a National Collection of Bad Habits – the largest most unique of its kind in the world!

The Collection Phase

The collection itself of bad habits all across the Czech Republic, both online and directly in the field, became the primary phase of the whole project, during which the goal was to collect the widest possible range of bad habits. We collected them at 200 locations in Bohemia and Moravia, approaching individuals in towns and villages, and large groups at cultural and sporting events. We visited schools, homes for the elderly, different associations, clubs, leisure groups, and all sorts of businesses. We were always try to inspire individuals to reflect on themselves and on society in general. We weren’t looking for notorious things (nail biting) or addictions (smoking, alcohol), but original patterns of behaviour that irk us about someone/something, or that are passed down in a family from generation to generation. We were looking for all sorts of bad habits: both our own and those of other people, our families and the country as a whole. We were looking for bad habits we had no idea existed, bad habits that would enable us to perceive the world around us in new ways.

The first important project milestone was BolesLOVE, a dating event that took place in Mladá Boleslav, during which we tried to make direct connections between residents based on their local bad habits, and thus take the project to the next level. You can find more about the project by clicking HERE.

The opening of the National Statistical Institute, which was open to the public on the Smíchov Riverbank Quay throughout June 2024, also helped us significantly with the phase during which we collected and analysed the data we collected. For more on the National Statistical Institute click HERE.

The project also began to take on a life of its own – for example, a theatre performance inspired by the National Collection of Bad Habits was conceived: click HERE.

At present

We originally planned to collect 10,000 bad habits during the year, but as other surprising areas opened up before us, we decided to take the project idea further. At this point, the collection has been going on for more than three years and we have gathered over 35,000 bad habits. The quantity and diversity of the material exceeded our original expectations many times over, and so, together with my close team of collaborators (Lucie Faulerová, Petra Černá Konečná, David Ondra, Kristína Drinková), we created the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BAD HABITS, which also serves as a thank-you to everyone who was involved in the project in any way. The National Collection of Bad Habits will be published in December 2025, and out of all submitted vices (as of November 2024, there were 35,666 in all), we selected 9,200 for the book. The book can be purchased here in the e-shop. More about book here.

And what’s next?

In July of 2023, we will end a year of gathering bad habits and start sorting them into Mendel’s Table of Bad Habits, which will become the largest online database of bad habits in the world in July of 2024. In the future, it will serve not only as a basic guidepost you’ll be able to keep expanding and supplementing, but also as a platform where you can search for ‘distant relatives.’ So you can keep submitting your bad habits.

Kateřina Šedá