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Self-help books

Started by Capetan Mihali, August 21, 2012, 02:53:32 PM

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Capetan Mihali

Anybody ever read any worthwhile self-help books?  The genre is unfamiliar to me, and it gets trashed a lot, but there must be some good stuff out there. 

I picked up an audio CD of "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" that somebody was throwing away and started listening to it while doing the dishes.  It didn't seem great.
"The internet's completely over. [...] The internet's like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you."
-- Prince, 2010. (R.I.P.)

mongers

#1
Quote from: Capetan Mihali on August 21, 2012, 02:53:32 PM
Anybody ever read any worthwhile self-help books?  The genre is unfamiliar to me, and it gets trashed a lot, but there must be some good stuff out there. 

I picked up an audio CD of "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" that somebody was throwing away and started listening to it while doing the dishes.  It didn't seem great.

They're a great way for the author to help themselves.
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

MadImmortalMan

Mystery Method?

Just kidding.  :P

The whole genre seems awash with low-quality bilious crap. I mean, The Secret? Really.
"Stability is destabilizing." --Hyman Minsky

"Complacency can be a self-denying prophecy."
"We have nothing to fear but lack of fear itself." --Larry Summers

Admiral Yi

A long time ago a friend gave me a copy of What Color is Your Parachute.  I got to the part where it asks you to make a list of the things you enjoy doing most (around page 3) and chucked it.

Barrister

I found Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, to be helpful.  No, really.
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

Admiral Yi

Quote from: Barrister on August 21, 2012, 04:58:54 PM
I found Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, to be helpful.  No, really.

Me too.  But it's not a self help book.

Razgovory

I had a copy of "How to make friends and influence people".  I didn't get it.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

CountDeMoney

Quote from: Capetan Mihali on August 21, 2012, 02:53:32 PM
Anybody ever read any worthwhile self-help books?  The genre is unfamiliar to me, and it gets trashed a lot, but there must be some good stuff out there. 

What kind of "self-help" are you looking for?  Relationships?  Career?  Mazlowesque self-actualization?

Tonitrus

Quote from: CountDeMoney on August 21, 2012, 09:50:50 PM
Quote from: Capetan Mihali on August 21, 2012, 02:53:32 PM
Anybody ever read any worthwhile self-help books?  The genre is unfamiliar to me, and it gets trashed a lot, but there must be some good stuff out there. 

What kind of "self-help" are you looking for?  Relationships?  Career?  Mazlowesque self-actualization?

Careful CM...CdM probably thinks "50 Shades of Grey" was a self-help book.  :P

CountDeMoney

Quote from: Tonitrus on August 21, 2012, 09:59:09 PM
Careful CM...CdM probably thinks "50 Shades of Grey" was a self-help book.  :P

Oh, bullshit.

It's an instructional field manual.  You know that.

HVC

Quote from: Tonitrus on August 21, 2012, 09:59:09 PM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on August 21, 2012, 09:50:50 PM
Quote from: Capetan Mihali on August 21, 2012, 02:53:32 PM
Anybody ever read any worthwhile self-help books?  The genre is unfamiliar to me, and it gets trashed a lot, but there must be some good stuff out there. 

What kind of "self-help" are you looking for?  Relationships?  Career?  Mazlowesque self-actualization?

Careful CM...CdM probably thinks "50 Shades of Grey" was a self-help book.  :P
i was on the subway today and i saw some chick reading that. My first thought was what the reaction would be if a guy was "reading" a playboy on the train. my second thought was, do people still even buy playboys?
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

CountDeMoney

Quote from: HVC on August 21, 2012, 10:11:41 PM
i was on the subway today and i saw some chick reading that. My first thought was what the reaction would be if a guy was "reading" a playboy on the train. my second thought was, do people still even buy playboys?

Playboy isn't hardcore enough of an equivalent.

Should've asked her out.

HVC

Quote from: CountDeMoney on August 21, 2012, 10:40:13 PM
Quote from: HVC on August 21, 2012, 10:11:41 PM
i was on the subway today and i saw some chick reading that. My first thought was what the reaction would be if a guy was "reading" a playboy on the train. my second thought was, do people still even buy playboys?

Playboy isn't hardcore enough of an equivalent.

Should've asked her out.
yeah, she'd have a hard time finding someone to whip her, if you know what I mean.
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

Eddie Teach

Plus her "No Eggplants Allowed" shirt was off-putting.
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

jimmy olsen

Quote from: Razgovory on August 21, 2012, 05:33:57 PM
I had a copy of "How to make friends and influence people".  I didn't get it.

:lol:
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
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1 Karma Chameleon point