I feel this, especially as someone who has troubles focusing š¤Ŗ Years ago, my brother boiled a lot of those books for me down to āPeace of mind for yourself and others is priceless. Seek that.ā
Also reminds me of a (paraphrased) tweet I once read:
Some books should be articles, some articles could just be tweets. Some of those tweets shouldāve just stayed as drafts lol
Maybe books used to be a man's best friend. Now, like everything else, they are a cash grab. I used to read self-help books. Now I'm pretty much done with it. I think what drew me to them is that they would speak to the small voice inside my head that told me I'm just missing one little piece and maybe this book will tell me what it is. It didn't work out. But the voice was not wrong. It's closer than you think. It's inside you.
I think we're just exposed to a hell of a lot more books nowadays than in the past tbh, both good and bad. Like, I could spend my whole life trying to read all the amazing books released in the past ten years and probably not even make a dent in the list, thrice that for garbage books. There's always been more crap than gold, that's why good media sticks out so much when you see it
When you consume media you're always taking the risk of being time scammed. Its literally up to you whether you want to take the risk or not
Of course you can lower the risk by looking at reviews and such but it will never eliminate it
Or judge what's useful to you. We don't have to commit to the end of a chapter. Or to the beginning.
Learning to skim and consider whether something is relevant or useful to you will only benefit you. Treat things like a dictionary where you look up what you need to use, then move on to living life, you know?
Plus, can always quit reading entirely or come back to it another time if something is not relevant today.
I think you can do the free trial and see for yourself. They really take the time to go thru the book and pick out the important elements to learn, and cut out all the fluff, so you can get thru the entire theory within 15mins. There is also an audiobook feature so you can listen instead of read too
I might get downvotes for this, but I felt similarly about Atomic Habits. I went in with such high expectations as it's an extremely popular book, but I was rather disappointed. Four Thousand Weeks, on the other hand, was a great read.
I actually enjoyed Atomic Habits. Is short as is and was a quick read on top of that. Could also just read the chapter summaries and get all of the information, though.
I think the chapter summaries are great! For me I'd often read them, have questions or feel incredulous, and then read the full chapter and feel satisfied with the answers
I liked it. Itās nothing earth shattering, but it does break down some simple steps to start making good habits.
While the info wasnāt earth shattering, it gave me a step by step way to get better.
Sometimes it nice to have someone tell you what to do and you just do it.
I havenāt read all of it but it did copy a lot of ideas from the power of habit (which the book admits to)which I think conveyed the ideas in a more enjoyable format to read however I think atomic habits had an interesting way of explaining the way habits are passively formed, I can understand why people dislike it though itās pretty generic advice.
I think it was much longer than it needed to be. There is truly valuable information in the book, but it can easily be converted to bullet points and still hold all the important info. The author's personal experiences at the beginning of the book were very intriguing though.
I was going to read that but then I listened to the Trail Runner Nation podcast episode about it and I felt like it gave me all the highlights and was useful enough so I never actually read it
Iām honestly puzzled by that as imo no self-help book could be more actionable as that one. Itās written really concisely and has nothing of what -OP is describing. Itās literally do A and B then C
That's true! As good as the book is, it does create a bit of a lengthy fuss about how things need to be done. While its core idea or the process described is amazing and has helped me structure shit in my life, it is a little elongated!
There are a few really solid ones, and you can find condensed summaries online, so really one month of binging those can be all you need for a very long time
Same, though it's fiction not self-help, just going through the writing process alone was like years of therapy as I had to unpack wtf I'd just written on the first draft lol
This is the way- I read a lot of them because I enjoy it and they make me feel motivated, but truly Iād be better off if I just read one and truly applied the concepts to my life
stop reading self-improvement books! I realized a few years ago this whole format is built on exactly the format you feel like is a scam. Sometimes it takes 300 pages to convince someone the simple idea the book is promoting will help them. But if you want to actually learn, not get convinced, then self-help books are a total scam. I replaced all my own self-help reading in my early 20's with books on science and history, and have learned so much more and "improved" so much more from that than any self-help book could ever do.
Controversial, but when it comes to social self-help books, when you boil it down they're all basically just corollaries to Dale Carnegie... IMO his advice is the same as all the modern authors, just with less pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo.
I've read three decent self help books in my life. I havent felt the need to read any others.
"Who moved my cheese?" By Spencer Johnson
"Grit" by Angela Duckworth
"How to be miserable" by Randy J. Peterson
These are not just helpful, but respect your time and energy and are immensely well written. The last one is easy to summarise if youre not feeling it.
The mistake is thinking that somewhere out there is a cheat code for life when in fact there is not. You can always sell something to other people if you promise them that they can lose weight without exercise, make money without work, or be productive without discipline. Donāt fall for it.
Okay I hear you but there are some genuine cheat codes. Men far smarter than us have spent their lives studying and illustrating interesting perspectives that can change your life
The 80/20 rule for example. Thatās actually worth reading about.
Most of Dale Carnegies principles.
Never split the difference.
There actually are some gems that provide real value. But these gems are hidden by the litany of BS books
The books are āself-helpā books they literally teach you how to improve they donāt change youā¦ you change yourself with the blue print that helped them change whatever theyāre teaching. šš¤£
Most of the self help books do more damage than good I have found.
These days, I have found it better to stick to more profound philosophy like stoicism or anything and read from the original sources.
Self help is a multi billion dollar industry. Some of the books might be indeed helpful but most are just money grab.
Itās so true. And Iāve found that many self help books are often just the author pitching his or her own way for finding success and then dumping that out as itās the only and best way to find success in (insert topic)
Science based self help is REALLY tough. I get why it became a trend, but sometimes it feels like authors are just looking to fill pages with theories instead of giving any tangible advice to act on.
Also the other problem is publishers get in trends. If you read two books with a similar topic, they're going to sound really similar. I never got the hype for "Atomic Habits" because I already read "The Power of Habit" first. I'm going to stop reading books on meditation, draw my boundaries on books about boundaries, etc. Anyways don't feel bad about skimming a book or skipping around... it's like essays with page requirements... as long as you get the main idea and motivation just use it to fuel the rest of your life.
For real, especially for sci-fi or fantasy, you need to give the author time to establish the world and it's rules unless you want to be hopelessly confused in the near future when John starts throwing fireballs and Jason opens a rift through space and time
Absolutely, i used to like self-improvement books like "how to think and grow rich" which btw i still love the hell outta that book, or the "the easy way to quit smoking".
But lately, every new self-improvement book i buy has less information or just about as much as i could get by reading an article on the matter. Huge oranges with barely any juice on it.
I believe that as time goes by, we are diverging from quality to quantity, everyone can be a writer this days, you can find a couple just by walking inside a starbucks, everyone feels that after they have an average idea, that it should be instantly exploited by doing a couple ted talks, youtube videos and e-books about it. And surely some do have amazing ideas or perspectives of life, but do you really need to make a 400 page book about it?
I think the signifance of reading books over reviews is the fact that it makes you think about the content- and makes you process the information which becomes ingrained in your mindset
If you're looking for a really good book on making friends/developing relationships I highly recommend The Like Switch.
Actually very helpful and includes a ton of great tips :)
Mental health, adhd/autism, motivation, maintaining/improving relationships/friendships, spirituality/finding yourself & place in the world. Anything really I guess lmao
I find a lot of self-improvement books, just repackage/put a new coat of paint on whatever is trending these days.
After the The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck came out, there were multiple copy cat books using the F\*ck word in the title, trying to be edgy.
Books like, You are a Badass, Unf\*ck yourself etc tried to cash in on that style of book. Not saying they are bad, just an observation.
I'm pretty much at the point where I have read enough self-help, that I KNOW what I need to do to change my life and now I am implementing those strategies. It's time to read other books/genres that challenge me and my outlook on life.
If I could make a recommendation, you can always purchase a subscription to Blinkist, which will give you condensed summaries of any book youād ever want to read. This way you get the core lessons of the book without reading the whole thing so youāre hopefully never time scammed by literature again.
Amazon usually lets you preview a few pages of even print books. I find it helps to find a specific weakness I personally want to work on then search around and maybe preview some books before buying anything. Like if I wanted to develop more friendships, I would see what I think is holding me back (prefer staying home and don't like joining clubs) and maybe look for a book about how to be more outgoing, how to deal with anxiety in new social situations, etc. Having goals based on what you can do and not what you want other people to do helps.
If I want to get into self improvement books Ill just find a audiobook on youtube and listen to it while I work. Helps me concentrate and you can learn a few things while working š
I mean, honestly I read a lot of these "self-help psychology" books and as much as I hate to admit it: some of them were soo bad. Like bad. Like bad-bad. For me it started making sense which books sucked when I found out whether the writer is a just a random writer, or a professional of some sort. People write a lot of stuff just to sell out to self-help readers. Stepping up which books you start buying might feel weird. But the more promises the book makes, the more disappointing it will be. Good luck finding new books! Lemme know if you need some recommendations :)
I feel like self improvement can be described a lot like the classic investing strategy of ātime in the mark beats timing the marketā. Your not likely to hit it big straight away and get everything You dreamed of. There really isnāt any piece of information in these books that will make you magically begin making progress. Motivation is something that you feel and canāt just logically create in your mind, Iāve found meditation has helped a lot with that but Iām sure others have their own ways
Itās a really good reason to stop reading self-improvement books and just start improving your life instead. They are, more often than not, repetitive and cliche. If youāve been interested in self-improvement for long enough, then youāve probably developed an idea of how to improve yourself already anyway. Nowadays, I opt for informative non-fiction about subjects that interest me (epidemiology, social studies etc). Iām learning way more now, and am never let down.
As I see it, the only reasonable strategy here, is for you to take your vent, blow it up to three hundred pages, and sell it as a self-improvement book.
It was the lesson that you had missed all along!
I know what you mean, for me it was a hobby that I was proud to spend my time and money on, but not anymore. After a while I took it to mean that it was time to stop learning, and time to start applying. That was a good move, but the newer books still bore me even after that š
Yeah, I hear you on this.
Itās why I developed a new way to consuming the wisdom from books in under 20 mins (no, not a book summary)
If you have 20 mins spare, Iād love to get your honest feedback on trying out the prototype.
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Itās called the āaction-fakingā & ātoxic self-helpā & āfalse positivityā loop.
Thereās this video on YT by James Jani on āThe toxic world of self help: Hustle Culture, toxic positivityā¦ ā You must watch it.
Iāve long been a consumer of this stuff, videos too, the 1980s when I was studying business was an explosion of āsuccess booksā and they were such drivel like āIacoccaā and āsearch for excellenceā. These books probably could have been reduced to 3 pages or 1 page. Now, Deming and his āKaizenā is pretty elegant if you steadily apply it.
I enjoy talking to people that I admire and asking them specific questions about what I consider the traits I want to emulate. People love to help and love to talk about themselves.
I love self improvement books but I feel you on this. For a while I was just listening to the free picks on Blinkist and then only reading the book if it seemed super interesting or insightful. That helped me weed out some of these crappy books. I think there are maybe 3 books in this category that I would even want to pass along even though Iāve read a bunch of them.
Thatās why I check every book on Goodreads to see if the reviews are any good. And beyond that, read the reviews because people will likely tell you if itās a waste of time to read.
I totally agree it's all filled with fluff. And it usually spends the 1st 1/3rd trying to sell itself to you, and the last 1/3rd trying to convince you that it's true. Now I usually just read the condensed version, or a YouTube video about it. Or if they have a similar Tedtalk about it, such as Start with Why, I'll check that out instead (book is just a fluffed up version of the talk).
I felt so disappointed when I read The Four Agreements. It sounded like it was written by a 7th grader. I was like, I should just stick to the meme of it on my phone lol.
I agree. Usually these people have podcasts that have the same information. You can just listen for free. Then you can see if they are crackpots or not.
What books?
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It's frustrating to invest your time and money into a book and not get much out of it. It's like being "time scammed"! I think a lot of these self-improvement books tend to repeat the same ideas over and over again, just in different words. It's disappointing when you're hoping for new and actionable information, but instead get a lot of filler.
I feel this a lot. I have read so many self improvement books and most had nothing substantial to say. I started steering away from those and started reading more about philosophy and memoirs of people who had attributes that I admired such as David Goggins for example. I took way more from those types books than any self help/improvement books that the author seemed to just explain one point in twenty different ways.
ā ļøā ļø4 minute books! Search the book title. It breaks it down and gives u all the info without the fluff! Best site I have found!! Saves me loads of time. Also the utube channel FightMediocrity
I really hope this helps!!š
Iāve started using chat gbt to summarize books for me with key points and most famous quotes. At the end of the day, itās about taking more action from what youāve learned. A lot of it is more of the same
Fair enough. A lot of self-development books are superficial and not useful.
I read lots of these books for work. I ask for referrals from colleagues and look for words like "actionable" "useful" "practical" in book reviews.
The most useful book I've read about friendship is actually *How to Be Yourself: Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety* by Ellen Hendriksen. It's written by a clinical expert and it gives very specific and practical advice.
The most useful book I've read about how to achieve a goal or aspiration (in any area) is *Tiny Habits* by BJ Fogg. It's a step by step process developed by an international expert on behaviour design. The advice is science-based and crowd-tested.
I hate books like that! So ridiculous. Itās run rampant in parenting books too, unfortunately. The authors put in so much fluff and anecdotes and ājokesā I hate it.
This is how I feel about many things, including the much lauded Atomic Habits.
That can easily be distilled into five pages max.
I once read a book by an old Navy commander or something called "Make your bed" which, instead of imparting any special wisdom or common wisdom in a captivating way, is basically just "If you make your bed at the start of the day you set yourself up for success. This is why this discipline is used in the armed forces as a base. Try it and it will work".
Honestly, most of these books are such a scam.
You could try something like Giovanni Dienstmannās Mindful Self-Discipline book. He has seemed to distilled a whole library of self help books and advice into one volume. Nothing new under the Sun here but same goes for most of the other books. I wish I knew of other similar books. If just to get the same message in a different take. If anybody knows of one, let me know.
This reminds me of those medical scam videos I clicked on from ads that popped up from online news articles. I think you should avoid the self-help books and see some professionals. Especially as they can help you get information that would apply to yourself more.
This self-improvement genre is full of crap books with a scant amount of content and hundreds of pages of padding. Even popular, widely recommended books can be like this. You're best getting specific recommendations from people/sources that you trust.
I think a lot of people like the books because they give them big ideas and that wows them, but the books offer little in the way of practical advice. I feel this way when I am forced to attend talks for my career - people go nuts because someone created a clever analogy and they walk away feeling smart, but the person talked for 45 minutes tying big brands to their main idea. I went to a talk at a conference a few years ago and someone said āoh her talk was amazing. She covered so much,ā and I said āshe just pointed out things that were happening on the internet then sang from the little mermaid for a while.ā Btw, Iām not exaggerating. The talk could have been ārich person talks about things she likes.ā
That said, what are you trying to improve?
I completely agree. They talk about one tiny subject that isn't enough help at all. And most of it is a story of their life. Not applicable to the reader enough and if it helps then it's just one tiny tip. Now I do believe the ultimate self help is Neville Goddard books.
I understand that. Many people feel the same way. I do have his books on my phone and I did read one book- feeling is the secret-- it was a very short read and easy but I mostly got my info from his YouTube videos, law of assumption coaches on YouTube and the subreddit taught me everything. The subreddit was the best place for info. r/NevilleGoddard
Try to briefly look up authors credentials before buying anything. I have a couple of self help books written by psychologists and researchers, and they are great, helped me a lot.
Experience with books shows how much fluff they can contain. I've personally been getting better at recognizing when the fluff hits so I can easily skip ahead until I see something that interests me.
Now I can understand 80% of the book in only 20% of the time and go through books much faster.
I recently read half of Conversational Intelligence I forget the name of the author, but it was the biggest waste of time and quite literally repeated the same thing over 6 chapters. Needless to say it was thrown in the trash.
Just ask chat GPT for a summary...
Usually, people who read sipmly enjoy it, they enjoy visualising things and it's a moment of calm, a way to be isolated of the world and chill
If you want to find new informations, reading is over rated, if you take no pleasure doing it, then there is indeed no point.
Yeah most of them are scams and if you notice they are trying to sell you subscriptions to stuff like membership sites to "really" lean how to achieve X because the money is in the recurring charges, not a book sale).
The self-help arena is largely a waste of time and money, like gardening and weight loss products.
And BTW: A lot of these Kindle books you see are commissioned to be written by cheap ghost writers just to churn our books for $0.99 Kindle sales. There's a whole work-at-home industry centered around who to do this for max profit. The big profits come from the soft-pron/romance arena but I'm sure self-help is profitable if you know how to game it.
This is one of the reasons why I watch YouTube videos explaining the jist of these books. Many of them are very well details and some even offer outlines. The people who actually change their lives from reading these books and watching these videos are the ones who allow themselves to really sit with and reflect upon the information theyāve received. They also make a point to put it to practice in some way.
I feel like most self-help books are like this. It might be more beneficial to think about what questions you're wanting to answer in terms of self-help and doing research that's more focused on answering those questions. Research specific practices that will help you overcome your specific challenges rather than sifting through these general "I'm some random person who has an idea" kinds of books.
Please don't tell me you read "Plays well with others".. because I really loved that book but your summary sounds awfully fitting. But do tell which book you read so I can avoid it.
Youād have to do all the mind-numbing work, but I would absolutely read more of your book summaries. Very funny.
Sam Harris taught me to appreciate the greatness of an excellent short book.
People wonāt pay a lot of money for short books, so the pressure is on authors to make them long, just so publishers can charge more money. Itās the dirty little secret of the publishing industry, according to Sam.
A red flag for me is if an author is known for being a speaker or writer. Some people are good at oration but really donāt have much to addā¦ do you think Tesla would have Simon Sinek come speak? Lol no
Authors and publishers make their money based on page count mostly so it makes sense that theyāll try to make it around 300 pages since less than that seems like it doesnāt have enough thickness to be a compelling read and more than that gets to be too intimidating.
It really annoys me. It's not that the information isn't out there. There's a ton of info on making friends. Its just that the author is too lazy and too greedy to spend time finding the info. It sucks.
That's why I use blinkist. I found most books (a) discuss the same topic as other books and (b) are overly long-winded. blinkist lets me figure that out real quick and not waste my time.
For example, everyone is raving about Atomic Habits right now. The book can easily be summarized as "Plan your work; don't be an idiot".
Personally, I find that all self-improvement books are the same time-honored techniques such as goal-setting, visualization, eliminating negative self-talk, and so on, wrapped up in new gimmicks. like Firewalking, Fancy cowboy boots and verbal abuse, Navy Seals, etc. If you've read one, you've read them all. Sometimes, the books are little more than come-ons to attend expensive seminars. The key is in seriously APPLYING these techniques rather than buying more books hoping for the magic bullet. There isn't one.
I feel the same way. I'm actually writing a book now and the whole thing is less than 100 pages. Cause I've kept it straight forward. My editor wants it to be more story like so people can see how I came to the conclusions. I just want it to be straight facts.
So, I'm encouraged to see this post! :P
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How do you decide which book you should read next and which books have you read until now?
Books are a door opener for your mind, so you get started with the topic but no book on this planet will replace taking massive action.
A lot of books are similar to what you wrote, just words put one by one so they form a sentence but have no real value, nothing to implement, nothing to understand.
The reason is mostly that the people themself have no clue about the topic but just read studies, research, and copy things they read online but have no real experience on their own.
There is just a bunch of books that are actually written by the author themself and just a bunch of authors who actually experienced all the struggle themself.
That said, a lot of people also fail to understand what this journey is all about and are way too impatient and hope to get "the master key" in a book that doesn't even cost them 100$. No one who managed to succeed in life will ever give up their secrets for nothing.
Not only because they want energetic compensation but also because money is a huge "ship" for the majority of people. If you want to change your life, you need to learn to let go of your old life. You can't build a new house if your old one is blocking the space. A huge motivator and sign of actual commitment is something that gives you some sort of pain if you would waste the opportunity. There is a good reason why Gyms have tons of subscribers but the majority of them never appear because the 20$ fee is nothing, no one is hurt if they burn 20$ instead of their calories. Try doing the same with 500$ or even with 5000$, suddenly you are the one that shouts "ONE MORE! C\`mon, just ONE MORE!" while training.
So before you continue reading books, ask yourself:
\- What is your actual goal?
\- What books have you read?
\- What learnings did you get from these books?
\- What of them did you actually implement in your life?
\- What secret do you expect from a book which you probably don't already know?
If you want to make friends you need to know where to look for them.. the Internet is not a great place, the pub probably isn't the best place unless you are already sociable which you probably aren't because you are reading a self help book on making friends. So maybe a club that teaches something you are interested in that involves group interaction. The club idea is good because you see these people on a consistent basis and become more comfortable around them which helps is if social anxiety is an obstacle you face.
Most self help books are made by people who are trying to help themselves financially.
I am convinced self-help books have no idea how hard it is to make friends in the current era. I would always hear the same people who backchat, gossip and so forth complain about nothing friends. I think most people are just 'bad' at being a decent friend, including you and me. There has to be a book that actively exposes these transgressions that people commit all the time - in the workplace, in school, and within families. These are the things that self-help books rarely, if ever, talk about.
I knowww lmaooo.
Hate that about self improvement books too.
Also the fact that they donāt delve into the main topic of the book without giving a bunch of examples which may or may not correlate with the topicš
Author Ryan Holiday will tell people that they should start a lot of books, but not finish them. It's the job of the author to keep you engaged all the way through to the end. If they fail to do so, put it down and move on.
Regarding the self help genre, I feel like the majority of books will only get you so far before you're basically re reading the same ideas lol there are a few gems out there but I agree with you. Most only require a few pages to get the main points across
My bf bought the art of not giving a fuck and couldnāt read half of it. We ended it up giving it away to a bookstore. Months later we saw his brother in showing it off as his reading on instagram and had a good laugh about it. They always make the title so attractive and then the book is a dump.
Read the books by the authors that have some achievement. That write the books because they had something to say.
The many authors who decide to write and then think about what to write are bad.
If you want to earn a million dollars, just write a book about becoming a millionaire. On the last chapter, you can just write they need to write a book about becoming a millionaire, and hope a million people buy it.
It's driving me nuts too.
Or those books which repeats the book title in every chapter (trying to convince you to keep reading to get to the real deal, forget the fact you already read 100 pages so far).
Or those books with subliminal advertising, mentioning their online programs on every page ("My client in the money bootcamp manifested yadayada")
And you also have the books which are written as attention seeking, to be heard, or as a revenge. ("I'm now a successful business, in your face Company X!")
And of course we also have the books with links embedded to 'free content' which is actually a funnel system.
Most of the books written by entrepreneurs these days are simply marketing for their other products. It's disturbing a lot of people are actually paying for what's secretly advertising. It's crazy when you think about it.
fair enough your example looks annoying but i think the more time and brain power you spend on a book the more you actually learn it. if you watched some short video or a long podcast you would learn so much more from the podcast and remember more.
I liked the subtle art of not giving a fuck (for learning confidence), the power of now (for learning meditation) the four agreements (for learning how to cultivate a great mindset). All short books. I think the four agreements is the best one because he doesn't waste time. Audiobooks are your friend, i listen to them at work, in the car, exercising, etc. and yeah you can probably find decent synopses on every book from someone that sacrificed their time to save yours. The subtle art was a one time read for me but i reread the four agreements often because I actually practice them as often as possible.
I feel this, especially as someone who has troubles focusing š¤Ŗ Years ago, my brother boiled a lot of those books for me down to āPeace of mind for yourself and others is priceless. Seek that.ā Also reminds me of a (paraphrased) tweet I once read: Some books should be articles, some articles could just be tweets. Some of those tweets shouldāve just stayed as drafts lol
>Some books should be articles, some articles could just be tweets. Some of those tweets shouldāve just stayed as drafts lol this sums it up lol
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Maybe books used to be a man's best friend. Now, like everything else, they are a cash grab. I used to read self-help books. Now I'm pretty much done with it. I think what drew me to them is that they would speak to the small voice inside my head that told me I'm just missing one little piece and maybe this book will tell me what it is. It didn't work out. But the voice was not wrong. It's closer than you think. It's inside you.
I think books in general can still be good. But I feel like the number of garbage books goes through the roof.
I think we're just exposed to a hell of a lot more books nowadays than in the past tbh, both good and bad. Like, I could spend my whole life trying to read all the amazing books released in the past ten years and probably not even make a dent in the list, thrice that for garbage books. There's always been more crap than gold, that's why good media sticks out so much when you see it
Is that a saying though?
When you consume media you're always taking the risk of being time scammed. Its literally up to you whether you want to take the risk or not Of course you can lower the risk by looking at reviews and such but it will never eliminate it
Or judge what's useful to you. We don't have to commit to the end of a chapter. Or to the beginning. Learning to skim and consider whether something is relevant or useful to you will only benefit you. Treat things like a dictionary where you look up what you need to use, then move on to living life, you know? Plus, can always quit reading entirely or come back to it another time if something is not relevant today.
this ^
Check out Blinkist.. it gives key summaries of books and will save you a lot of time.
100% this OP. I never read those types of books anymore. Big waste of time. Blinkist is the way to go
I enjoy listening to their sessions on LinkedIn learning.
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I think you can do the free trial and see for yourself. They really take the time to go thru the book and pick out the important elements to learn, and cut out all the fluff, so you can get thru the entire theory within 15mins. There is also an audiobook feature so you can listen instead of read too
I might get downvotes for this, but I felt similarly about Atomic Habits. I went in with such high expectations as it's an extremely popular book, but I was rather disappointed. Four Thousand Weeks, on the other hand, was a great read.
Its a bummer hearing that, was about to buy it. What let you down?
I actually enjoyed Atomic Habits. Is short as is and was a quick read on top of that. Could also just read the chapter summaries and get all of the information, though.
I think the chapter summaries are great! For me I'd often read them, have questions or feel incredulous, and then read the full chapter and feel satisfied with the answers
I liked it. Itās nothing earth shattering, but it does break down some simple steps to start making good habits. While the info wasnāt earth shattering, it gave me a step by step way to get better. Sometimes it nice to have someone tell you what to do and you just do it.
I havenāt read all of it but it did copy a lot of ideas from the power of habit (which the book admits to)which I think conveyed the ideas in a more enjoyable format to read however I think atomic habits had an interesting way of explaining the way habits are passively formed, I can understand why people dislike it though itās pretty generic advice.
I think it was much longer than it needed to be. There is truly valuable information in the book, but it can easily be converted to bullet points and still hold all the important info. The author's personal experiences at the beginning of the book were very intriguing though.
I commented the same!
I was going to read that but then I listened to the Trail Runner Nation podcast episode about it and I felt like it gave me all the highlights and was useful enough so I never actually read it
Iām honestly puzzled by that as imo no self-help book could be more actionable as that one. Itās written really concisely and has nothing of what -OP is describing. Itās literally do A and B then C
I have both books in my shelf and on the docket for my next readsā¦Iām still looking forward to checking them both out. Edit: grammar and typo
That's true! As good as the book is, it does create a bit of a lengthy fuss about how things need to be done. While its core idea or the process described is amazing and has helped me structure shit in my life, it is a little elongated!
4000 weeks is one of the best books I've ever read. Changed my thinking drastically.
Currently listening to the audio book for Atomic Habits, 8 chapters in and not seeing the hype
You could just stop reading self improvement books..
Yeah better to read one or two then just live your life in the best way you can
There are a few really solid ones, and you can find condensed summaries online, so really one month of binging those can be all you need for a very long time
I started writing my own book as an alternative. There is more than one way someone can improve themselves.
And it will not be wasting time to research other material for your book. Boom - two birds one stone.
I Like this
Same, though it's fiction not self-help, just going through the writing process alone was like years of therapy as I had to unpack wtf I'd just written on the first draft lol
This is the way- I read a lot of them because I enjoy it and they make me feel motivated, but truly Iād be better off if I just read one and truly applied the concepts to my life
stop reading self-improvement books! I realized a few years ago this whole format is built on exactly the format you feel like is a scam. Sometimes it takes 300 pages to convince someone the simple idea the book is promoting will help them. But if you want to actually learn, not get convinced, then self-help books are a total scam. I replaced all my own self-help reading in my early 20's with books on science and history, and have learned so much more and "improved" so much more from that than any self-help book could ever do. Controversial, but when it comes to social self-help books, when you boil it down they're all basically just corollaries to Dale Carnegie... IMO his advice is the same as all the modern authors, just with less pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo.
Can you recommenf some good science/history books?
The more I read the more itās mostly history.
Ask ChatGPT to give you the ten main takeaways from the book
Omg! You. Are. A. Genius. Why did I not think of this?!
Honestly I do this all the time. And sometimes I just look for through reviews on YouTube haha
was looking for this comment, now i just look up ChatGPT for all summaries and such
"how to win friends and influence people" by dale carnegie is supposed to be an excellent book.
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I've read three decent self help books in my life. I havent felt the need to read any others. "Who moved my cheese?" By Spencer Johnson "Grit" by Angela Duckworth "How to be miserable" by Randy J. Peterson These are not just helpful, but respect your time and energy and are immensely well written. The last one is easy to summarise if youre not feeling it.
The mistake is thinking that somewhere out there is a cheat code for life when in fact there is not. You can always sell something to other people if you promise them that they can lose weight without exercise, make money without work, or be productive without discipline. Donāt fall for it.
Okay I hear you but there are some genuine cheat codes. Men far smarter than us have spent their lives studying and illustrating interesting perspectives that can change your life The 80/20 rule for example. Thatās actually worth reading about. Most of Dale Carnegies principles. Never split the difference. There actually are some gems that provide real value. But these gems are hidden by the litany of BS books
Sure there are interesting ideas. But the hype around them changing your life isā¦ 99% BS.
The books are āself-helpā books they literally teach you how to improve they donāt change youā¦ you change yourself with the blue print that helped them change whatever theyāre teaching. šš¤£
Literally like cooking books. No matter how you well read every recipes, ingredients ain't gonna cook themselves.
> that they can lose weight without exercise You can, in fact most weight lost is by eating less calories and not burning more calories
Most of the self help books do more damage than good I have found. These days, I have found it better to stick to more profound philosophy like stoicism or anything and read from the original sources. Self help is a multi billion dollar industry. Some of the books might be indeed helpful but most are just money grab.
Itās so true. And Iāve found that many self help books are often just the author pitching his or her own way for finding success and then dumping that out as itās the only and best way to find success in (insert topic)
I'd recommend checking reviews in goodreads before buying any book. Would save you a lot of money and time.
Just read the table of contents beforehand, you can get a sense of how much fluff it is
Science based self help is REALLY tough. I get why it became a trend, but sometimes it feels like authors are just looking to fill pages with theories instead of giving any tangible advice to act on. Also the other problem is publishers get in trends. If you read two books with a similar topic, they're going to sound really similar. I never got the hype for "Atomic Habits" because I already read "The Power of Habit" first. I'm going to stop reading books on meditation, draw my boundaries on books about boundaries, etc. Anyways don't feel bad about skimming a book or skipping around... it's like essays with page requirements... as long as you get the main idea and motivation just use it to fuel the rest of your life.
What I do : If I read 10 pages and have learned nothing, I can be pretty sure I won't learn anything in the next 10 pages
Caution :- Do not apply this rule on fiction books.
For real, especially for sci-fi or fantasy, you need to give the author time to establish the world and it's rules unless you want to be hopelessly confused in the near future when John starts throwing fireballs and Jason opens a rift through space and time
Absolutely, i used to like self-improvement books like "how to think and grow rich" which btw i still love the hell outta that book, or the "the easy way to quit smoking". But lately, every new self-improvement book i buy has less information or just about as much as i could get by reading an article on the matter. Huge oranges with barely any juice on it. I believe that as time goes by, we are diverging from quality to quantity, everyone can be a writer this days, you can find a couple just by walking inside a starbucks, everyone feels that after they have an average idea, that it should be instantly exploited by doing a couple ted talks, youtube videos and e-books about it. And surely some do have amazing ideas or perspectives of life, but do you really need to make a 400 page book about it?
I think the signifance of reading books over reviews is the fact that it makes you think about the content- and makes you process the information which becomes ingrained in your mindset
Big agree. I don't view reading as a min-maxing endeavor, at that point I'd call it "research" and just start googling shit
But have you tried social media? MLM of time scams
omg the phrase ātime scammedā is perfect, i feel like that when i watch a stupid movie
If you're looking for a really good book on making friends/developing relationships I highly recommend The Like Switch. Actually very helpful and includes a ton of great tips :)
Second this
Do you have any recommendations for self-help books that are actually worth reading?
Not OP, but depending on your genre of interest I might have a cool list :)
Mental health, adhd/autism, motivation, maintaining/improving relationships/friendships, spirituality/finding yourself & place in the world. Anything really I guess lmao
Would you classify yourself as a beginner/intermediate to the subject or are you ready for some hardcore stuff
Uhhh somewhere in the middle
untethered soul is really good for spirituality/finding yourself
I find a lot of self-improvement books, just repackage/put a new coat of paint on whatever is trending these days. After the The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck came out, there were multiple copy cat books using the F\*ck word in the title, trying to be edgy. Books like, You are a Badass, Unf\*ck yourself etc tried to cash in on that style of book. Not saying they are bad, just an observation. I'm pretty much at the point where I have read enough self-help, that I KNOW what I need to do to change my life and now I am implementing those strategies. It's time to read other books/genres that challenge me and my outlook on life.
TSAonGAF wasn't really good either.
Go to Goodreads and look at the reviews for the book. Thereās always a homie whose review is a just a summary. Itās beautiful. What a world.
If I could make a recommendation, you can always purchase a subscription to Blinkist, which will give you condensed summaries of any book youād ever want to read. This way you get the core lessons of the book without reading the whole thing so youāre hopefully never time scammed by literature again.
š You should write synopsis for a living.
Amazon usually lets you preview a few pages of even print books. I find it helps to find a specific weakness I personally want to work on then search around and maybe preview some books before buying anything. Like if I wanted to develop more friendships, I would see what I think is holding me back (prefer staying home and don't like joining clubs) and maybe look for a book about how to be more outgoing, how to deal with anxiety in new social situations, etc. Having goals based on what you can do and not what you want other people to do helps.
If I want to get into self improvement books Ill just find a audiobook on youtube and listen to it while I work. Helps me concentrate and you can learn a few things while working š
I mean, honestly I read a lot of these "self-help psychology" books and as much as I hate to admit it: some of them were soo bad. Like bad. Like bad-bad. For me it started making sense which books sucked when I found out whether the writer is a just a random writer, or a professional of some sort. People write a lot of stuff just to sell out to self-help readers. Stepping up which books you start buying might feel weird. But the more promises the book makes, the more disappointing it will be. Good luck finding new books! Lemme know if you need some recommendations :)
I feel like self improvement can be described a lot like the classic investing strategy of ātime in the mark beats timing the marketā. Your not likely to hit it big straight away and get everything You dreamed of. There really isnāt any piece of information in these books that will make you magically begin making progress. Motivation is something that you feel and canāt just logically create in your mind, Iāve found meditation has helped a lot with that but Iām sure others have their own ways
avoid Gary John Bishops latest books it's all filler. I'm tempted to write him a letter telling him he sold the fuck out.
Itās a really good reason to stop reading self-improvement books and just start improving your life instead. They are, more often than not, repetitive and cliche. If youāve been interested in self-improvement for long enough, then youāve probably developed an idea of how to improve yourself already anyway. Nowadays, I opt for informative non-fiction about subjects that interest me (epidemiology, social studies etc). Iām learning way more now, and am never let down.
Most self help books you can read the chapter titles and try the gist of the whole book lol š
OP you could be a self help author! Brilliant!
I don't have anything constructive to say, but after reading so many BS posts on this subreddit, your synopsis made subbing here time well spent.
Download an app called āuptimeā it basically condenses the main points of the book is neat little slides.
Now write a book on it. And you'll be the new self improvement guru.
Omg, Uno Reverse Card
They wont get to the point. Its like sex with my wife. She is almost there but wont get orgasm.
LOL
As I see it, the only reasonable strategy here, is for you to take your vent, blow it up to three hundred pages, and sell it as a self-improvement book. It was the lesson that you had missed all along!
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I know what you mean, for me it was a hobby that I was proud to spend my time and money on, but not anymore. After a while I took it to mean that it was time to stop learning, and time to start applying. That was a good move, but the newer books still bore me even after that š
Can you recommend any?
atomic habits is different tho
Yeah, I hear you on this. Itās why I developed a new way to consuming the wisdom from books in under 20 mins (no, not a book summary) If you have 20 mins spare, Iād love to get your honest feedback on trying out the prototype.
I'm keen.
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Itās called the āaction-fakingā & ātoxic self-helpā & āfalse positivityā loop. Thereās this video on YT by James Jani on āThe toxic world of self help: Hustle Culture, toxic positivityā¦ ā You must watch it.
Iāve long been a consumer of this stuff, videos too, the 1980s when I was studying business was an explosion of āsuccess booksā and they were such drivel like āIacoccaā and āsearch for excellenceā. These books probably could have been reduced to 3 pages or 1 page. Now, Deming and his āKaizenā is pretty elegant if you steadily apply it.
I enjoy talking to people that I admire and asking them specific questions about what I consider the traits I want to emulate. People love to help and love to talk about themselves.
I love self improvement books but I feel you on this. For a while I was just listening to the free picks on Blinkist and then only reading the book if it seemed super interesting or insightful. That helped me weed out some of these crappy books. I think there are maybe 3 books in this category that I would even want to pass along even though Iāve read a bunch of them.
Thatās why I check every book on Goodreads to see if the reviews are any good. And beyond that, read the reviews because people will likely tell you if itās a waste of time to read.
I totally agree it's all filled with fluff. And it usually spends the 1st 1/3rd trying to sell itself to you, and the last 1/3rd trying to convince you that it's true. Now I usually just read the condensed version, or a YouTube video about it. Or if they have a similar Tedtalk about it, such as Start with Why, I'll check that out instead (book is just a fluffed up version of the talk). I felt so disappointed when I read The Four Agreements. It sounded like it was written by a 7th grader. I was like, I should just stick to the meme of it on my phone lol.
Just download headway it gives u a condensed form of the book if u like what it has u can read the full version afterwards
I agree. Usually these people have podcasts that have the same information. You can just listen for free. Then you can see if they are crackpots or not. What books?
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It's frustrating to invest your time and money into a book and not get much out of it. It's like being "time scammed"! I think a lot of these self-improvement books tend to repeat the same ideas over and over again, just in different words. It's disappointing when you're hoping for new and actionable information, but instead get a lot of filler.
Looks like you're already improving yourself by not reading those books š¤
I feel this a lot. I have read so many self improvement books and most had nothing substantial to say. I started steering away from those and started reading more about philosophy and memoirs of people who had attributes that I admired such as David Goggins for example. I took way more from those types books than any self help/improvement books that the author seemed to just explain one point in twenty different ways.
ā ļøā ļø4 minute books! Search the book title. It breaks it down and gives u all the info without the fluff! Best site I have found!! Saves me loads of time. Also the utube channel FightMediocrity I really hope this helps!!š
Iāve started using chat gbt to summarize books for me with key points and most famous quotes. At the end of the day, itās about taking more action from what youāve learned. A lot of it is more of the same
Fair enough. A lot of self-development books are superficial and not useful. I read lots of these books for work. I ask for referrals from colleagues and look for words like "actionable" "useful" "practical" in book reviews. The most useful book I've read about friendship is actually *How to Be Yourself: Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety* by Ellen Hendriksen. It's written by a clinical expert and it gives very specific and practical advice. The most useful book I've read about how to achieve a goal or aspiration (in any area) is *Tiny Habits* by BJ Fogg. It's a step by step process developed by an international expert on behaviour design. The advice is science-based and crowd-tested.
I hate books like that! So ridiculous. Itās run rampant in parenting books too, unfortunately. The authors put in so much fluff and anecdotes and ājokesā I hate it.
This is how I feel about many things, including the much lauded Atomic Habits. That can easily be distilled into five pages max. I once read a book by an old Navy commander or something called "Make your bed" which, instead of imparting any special wisdom or common wisdom in a captivating way, is basically just "If you make your bed at the start of the day you set yourself up for success. This is why this discipline is used in the armed forces as a base. Try it and it will work". Honestly, most of these books are such a scam.
You could try something like Giovanni Dienstmannās Mindful Self-Discipline book. He has seemed to distilled a whole library of self help books and advice into one volume. Nothing new under the Sun here but same goes for most of the other books. I wish I knew of other similar books. If just to get the same message in a different take. If anybody knows of one, let me know.
This reminds me of those medical scam videos I clicked on from ads that popped up from online news articles. I think you should avoid the self-help books and see some professionals. Especially as they can help you get information that would apply to yourself more.
blinkist and other content summation services is super useful for this.
There are a couple apps that might help.blinkist and 12 minutes.
Reads like one of those stupid websites that goes on and on and on just to get you to see more ads
Donāt read self help books. Reading more than two of them in your life is too much imo
This self-improvement genre is full of crap books with a scant amount of content and hundreds of pages of padding. Even popular, widely recommended books can be like this. You're best getting specific recommendations from people/sources that you trust.
I think a lot of people like the books because they give them big ideas and that wows them, but the books offer little in the way of practical advice. I feel this way when I am forced to attend talks for my career - people go nuts because someone created a clever analogy and they walk away feeling smart, but the person talked for 45 minutes tying big brands to their main idea. I went to a talk at a conference a few years ago and someone said āoh her talk was amazing. She covered so much,ā and I said āshe just pointed out things that were happening on the internet then sang from the little mermaid for a while.ā Btw, Iām not exaggerating. The talk could have been ārich person talks about things she likes.ā That said, what are you trying to improve?
This is what Blinkist is for
I completely agree. They talk about one tiny subject that isn't enough help at all. And most of it is a story of their life. Not applicable to the reader enough and if it helps then it's just one tiny tip. Now I do believe the ultimate self help is Neville Goddard books.
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I understand that. Many people feel the same way. I do have his books on my phone and I did read one book- feeling is the secret-- it was a very short read and easy but I mostly got my info from his YouTube videos, law of assumption coaches on YouTube and the subreddit taught me everything. The subreddit was the best place for info. r/NevilleGoddard
Try to briefly look up authors credentials before buying anything. I have a couple of self help books written by psychologists and researchers, and they are great, helped me a lot.
Experience with books shows how much fluff they can contain. I've personally been getting better at recognizing when the fluff hits so I can easily skip ahead until I see something that interests me. Now I can understand 80% of the book in only 20% of the time and go through books much faster.
I recently read half of Conversational Intelligence I forget the name of the author, but it was the biggest waste of time and quite literally repeated the same thing over 6 chapters. Needless to say it was thrown in the trash.
Just ask chat GPT for a summary... Usually, people who read sipmly enjoy it, they enjoy visualising things and it's a moment of calm, a way to be isolated of the world and chill If you want to find new informations, reading is over rated, if you take no pleasure doing it, then there is indeed no point.
Yeah most of them are scams and if you notice they are trying to sell you subscriptions to stuff like membership sites to "really" lean how to achieve X because the money is in the recurring charges, not a book sale). The self-help arena is largely a waste of time and money, like gardening and weight loss products. And BTW: A lot of these Kindle books you see are commissioned to be written by cheap ghost writers just to churn our books for $0.99 Kindle sales. There's a whole work-at-home industry centered around who to do this for max profit. The big profits come from the soft-pron/romance arena but I'm sure self-help is profitable if you know how to game it.
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You can get all you need from on some books from the back cover and table of contents. Like 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
This is one of the reasons why I watch YouTube videos explaining the jist of these books. Many of them are very well details and some even offer outlines. The people who actually change their lives from reading these books and watching these videos are the ones who allow themselves to really sit with and reflect upon the information theyāve received. They also make a point to put it to practice in some way.
I feel like most self-help books are like this. It might be more beneficial to think about what questions you're wanting to answer in terms of self-help and doing research that's more focused on answering those questions. Research specific practices that will help you overcome your specific challenges rather than sifting through these general "I'm some random person who has an idea" kinds of books.
maybe watch āWhy Your Favorite Self Help Book Sucksā by Mark Mason on youtube, it talks about the topic youāre talking about
Didnāt he write two of them though ?
Have you read 'the road less traveled' by Scott peck? Definitely won't feel that way
Just read book summaries then.
Please don't tell me you read "Plays well with others".. because I really loved that book but your summary sounds awfully fitting. But do tell which book you read so I can avoid it.
Sounds like you already know what to do. Get to it king/queen!
See that's how I feel after getting through a few pages of The 5am Club.... IDK if I should stick with it, when I know the punchline is in the title.
Youād have to do all the mind-numbing work, but I would absolutely read more of your book summaries. Very funny. Sam Harris taught me to appreciate the greatness of an excellent short book. People wonāt pay a lot of money for short books, so the pressure is on authors to make them long, just so publishers can charge more money. Itās the dirty little secret of the publishing industry, according to Sam.
This just happened to me with unfuck yourself
I like to read self help books because it makes me learn more about english and at the same time iām learning how to better myself.
How to win friends and influence people is good. Charisma on Command YT channel. Find your tribe.
A red flag for me is if an author is known for being a speaker or writer. Some people are good at oration but really donāt have much to addā¦ do you think Tesla would have Simon Sinek come speak? Lol no
I agree! This is why I have such a hard time reading. First of all, the time. Second, my focus is shite. Third, is it going to be worth it? Who knows
Authors and publishers make their money based on page count mostly so it makes sense that theyāll try to make it around 300 pages since less than that seems like it doesnāt have enough thickness to be a compelling read and more than that gets to be too intimidating.
It really annoys me. It's not that the information isn't out there. There's a ton of info on making friends. Its just that the author is too lazy and too greedy to spend time finding the info. It sucks.
That's why I use blinkist. I found most books (a) discuss the same topic as other books and (b) are overly long-winded. blinkist lets me figure that out real quick and not waste my time. For example, everyone is raving about Atomic Habits right now. The book can easily be summarized as "Plan your work; don't be an idiot".
i just stop when itās not worth my time. Why did you finish it?
LibGen - download the book for free. Buy it afterwards if it actually has value. Or the "ethical" version of this, a library
Personally, I find that all self-improvement books are the same time-honored techniques such as goal-setting, visualization, eliminating negative self-talk, and so on, wrapped up in new gimmicks. like Firewalking, Fancy cowboy boots and verbal abuse, Navy Seals, etc. If you've read one, you've read them all. Sometimes, the books are little more than come-ons to attend expensive seminars. The key is in seriously APPLYING these techniques rather than buying more books hoping for the magic bullet. There isn't one.
I'm sorry, but I can't help enjoying your summary.
you're better off reading sartre or jung than today's "self help" crap
I feel the same way. I'm actually writing a book now and the whole thing is less than 100 pages. Cause I've kept it straight forward. My editor wants it to be more story like so people can see how I came to the conclusions. I just want it to be straight facts. So, I'm encouraged to see this post! :P
I feel the same way. I started reading biographies of people I aspired go be like. Im enjoying it more.
Self help books are bedtime stories for adults. Iāve read them all. They tell the same story: follow this advice and your life will improve!!
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Bro wait for Hamza's self improvement book. It's coming in about 6months and it's definitely gonna be based. Hope you're doing good. šŖ
Summarize with ChatGPT before reading a book. Especially, if it's a self-help book.
Go to To Be Magnetic if you think youāre ready to change.
Stop buying them? Especially anything self published. I've read maybe three self help books that have actually been worth my time.
How do you decide which book you should read next and which books have you read until now? Books are a door opener for your mind, so you get started with the topic but no book on this planet will replace taking massive action. A lot of books are similar to what you wrote, just words put one by one so they form a sentence but have no real value, nothing to implement, nothing to understand. The reason is mostly that the people themself have no clue about the topic but just read studies, research, and copy things they read online but have no real experience on their own. There is just a bunch of books that are actually written by the author themself and just a bunch of authors who actually experienced all the struggle themself. That said, a lot of people also fail to understand what this journey is all about and are way too impatient and hope to get "the master key" in a book that doesn't even cost them 100$. No one who managed to succeed in life will ever give up their secrets for nothing. Not only because they want energetic compensation but also because money is a huge "ship" for the majority of people. If you want to change your life, you need to learn to let go of your old life. You can't build a new house if your old one is blocking the space. A huge motivator and sign of actual commitment is something that gives you some sort of pain if you would waste the opportunity. There is a good reason why Gyms have tons of subscribers but the majority of them never appear because the 20$ fee is nothing, no one is hurt if they burn 20$ instead of their calories. Try doing the same with 500$ or even with 5000$, suddenly you are the one that shouts "ONE MORE! C\`mon, just ONE MORE!" while training. So before you continue reading books, ask yourself: \- What is your actual goal? \- What books have you read? \- What learnings did you get from these books? \- What of them did you actually implement in your life? \- What secret do you expect from a book which you probably don't already know?
Self help speakersā¦
Try Blinkist it puts forth the main ideas of books in text or audio
If you want to make friends you need to know where to look for them.. the Internet is not a great place, the pub probably isn't the best place unless you are already sociable which you probably aren't because you are reading a self help book on making friends. So maybe a club that teaches something you are interested in that involves group interaction. The club idea is good because you see these people on a consistent basis and become more comfortable around them which helps is if social anxiety is an obstacle you face. Most self help books are made by people who are trying to help themselves financially.
Try The Surrender Experiment or The Four Agreements. Real books with a message vs. someone copying and pasting and running it through Grammerly.
I am convinced self-help books have no idea how hard it is to make friends in the current era. I would always hear the same people who backchat, gossip and so forth complain about nothing friends. I think most people are just 'bad' at being a decent friend, including you and me. There has to be a book that actively exposes these transgressions that people commit all the time - in the workplace, in school, and within families. These are the things that self-help books rarely, if ever, talk about.
this is why you read marc aurel, sartre, Tolstoy etc and not contemporary self-help bullshit
Get that app blinkist, Iāve wanted to kinda
I knowww lmaooo. Hate that about self improvement books too. Also the fact that they donāt delve into the main topic of the book without giving a bunch of examples which may or may not correlate with the topicš
Author Ryan Holiday will tell people that they should start a lot of books, but not finish them. It's the job of the author to keep you engaged all the way through to the end. If they fail to do so, put it down and move on. Regarding the self help genre, I feel like the majority of books will only get you so far before you're basically re reading the same ideas lol there are a few gems out there but I agree with you. Most only require a few pages to get the main points across
My bf bought the art of not giving a fuck and couldnāt read half of it. We ended it up giving it away to a bookstore. Months later we saw his brother in showing it off as his reading on instagram and had a good laugh about it. They always make the title so attractive and then the book is a dump.
Read the books by the authors that have some achievement. That write the books because they had something to say. The many authors who decide to write and then think about what to write are bad.
If you want to earn a million dollars, just write a book about becoming a millionaire. On the last chapter, you can just write they need to write a book about becoming a millionaire, and hope a million people buy it.
I will gladly recommend one book It's called "Beware Which Wolf You Feed" by Kenan CrnkiÄ. Exactly opposite of what pisses you off
It's driving me nuts too. Or those books which repeats the book title in every chapter (trying to convince you to keep reading to get to the real deal, forget the fact you already read 100 pages so far). Or those books with subliminal advertising, mentioning their online programs on every page ("My client in the money bootcamp manifested yadayada") And you also have the books which are written as attention seeking, to be heard, or as a revenge. ("I'm now a successful business, in your face Company X!") And of course we also have the books with links embedded to 'free content' which is actually a funnel system. Most of the books written by entrepreneurs these days are simply marketing for their other products. It's disturbing a lot of people are actually paying for what's secretly advertising. It's crazy when you think about it.
All self help books are like this šš
Thatās why I prefer fiction, at least Iām in a different universe
fair enough your example looks annoying but i think the more time and brain power you spend on a book the more you actually learn it. if you watched some short video or a long podcast you would learn so much more from the podcast and remember more.
I liked the subtle art of not giving a fuck (for learning confidence), the power of now (for learning meditation) the four agreements (for learning how to cultivate a great mindset). All short books. I think the four agreements is the best one because he doesn't waste time. Audiobooks are your friend, i listen to them at work, in the car, exercising, etc. and yeah you can probably find decent synopses on every book from someone that sacrificed their time to save yours. The subtle art was a one time read for me but i reread the four agreements often because I actually practice them as often as possible.