Those 567 blogs, taken together, have somewhere between 100,000 and 1,000,000 *new* visitors monthly, most of which are very happy to read and agree to the same stories again and again and again.

The current “wisdom” of the self-help industry is nothing but old philosophy remixed in a badly way. The sad thing however, is that most of the new Gurus in the field are so shameless that they remix the remixed version of the millionaire Gurus and people fall for it a second time. It’s funny that we blame governments and corporations and all sorts of other institutions but we never blame this rotten industry – at least not in large enough numbers.

Thanks for being real, Tom!

Those 567 blogs, taken together, have somewhere between 100,000 and 1,000,000 *new* visitors monthly, most of which are very happy to read and agree to the same stories again and again and again.

The current “wisdom” of the self-help industry is nothing but old philosophy remixed in a badly way. The sad thing however, is that most of the new Gurus in the field are so shameless that they remix the remixed version of the millionaire Gurus and people fall for it a second time. It’s funny that we blame governments and corporations and all sorts of other institutions but we never blame this rotten industry – at least not in large enough numbers.

Thanks for being real, Tom!

The solution? Perhaps some integrity from the authors would be a start and then maybe if we all opened up our critical thinking we could spot the snake oil before it became dangerous.

I’m glad to see that other people are growing sick of the hype.

Thanks

Tom

The solution? Perhaps some integrity from the authors would be a start and then maybe if we all opened up our critical thinking we could spot the snake oil before it became dangerous.

I’m glad to see that other people are growing sick of the hype.

Thanks

Tom

Now let’s analyze the counterpoints you present.

1. The accelerated results of the prepared people can be and at the same time cannot be attributed to the self-help industry, depending on the desire of each individual. We must realize that virtually nothing in this industry is new, all the information contained being a remixed version of old philosophies and ideas. The only merit this industry has consists in reminding us of those old things which we forget about – we don’t usually pay attention to them because they’re old.
I’m not arguing that prepared people don’t see accelerated results if they read some self-help books, but I do say that prepared people would see 10x that acceleration if they would go directly to the unspoiled source: philosophy and psychology. So yes, self-help books + prepared minds = fast success, but this success is of lesser quality than the success that results from the equation: philosophy + prepared minds. Success achieved by means of self-help is a sort of industrial success – and what a nasty expression that is.
What’s more, people usually forget even that which is reminded to them by the self-help industry – so the reminding doesn’t really work. The smashing majority of self-help books are only helping their authors and publishers, the very term itself being misunderstood by us. :) It’s not the self-help we think it is, it’s the self-help we’re afraid to think it is. :)

2. Our minds are clearly in a vegetation state. Otherwise, the mass embracing of false truths couldn’t be explained.
I agree with you that we should be enhancing our minds, but reading knowledge which has resulted from recycling wisdom doesn’t sound like the best idea to sharpen a mind. What would sharpen a mind more than any self-help book is the lecture of classical philosophy works. But the idea that enhancing a mind takes hard work isn’t something attractive and no industry could be built around it.
Accepting a dumb industry to do mind-sharpening work is a funny thing. :)

A general thing to note here is that I’ve been on all the sides of this game: neutral about it, defending it, “teaching” it and now attacking it.

One interesting article that I’ve stumbled upon today is The 48 Laws of Power. If anyone wants to become a self-help guru: start applying those rules. If anyone wants to know how self-help gurus think and act: read those rules carefully and exploit them.

As always, a worthy comment from John. Thanks mate!

Now let’s analyze the counterpoints you present.

1. The accelerated results of the prepared people can be and at the same time cannot be attributed to the self-help industry, depending on the desire of each individual. We must realize that virtually nothing in this industry is new, all the information contained being a remixed version of old philosophies and ideas. The only merit this industry has consists in reminding us of those old things which we forget about – we don’t usually pay attention to them because they’re old.
I’m not arguing that prepared people don’t see accelerated results if they read some self-help books, but I do say that prepared people would see 10x that acceleration if they would go directly to the unspoiled source: philosophy and psychology. So yes, self-help books + prepared minds = fast success, but this success is of lesser quality than the success that results from the equation: philosophy + prepared minds. Success achieved by means of self-help is a sort of industrial success – and what a nasty expression that is.
What’s more, people usually forget even that which is reminded to them by the self-help industry – so the reminding doesn’t really work. The smashing majority of self-help books are only helping their authors and publishers, the very term itself being misunderstood by us. :) It’s not the self-help we think it is, it’s the self-help we’re afraid to think it is. :)

2. Our minds are clearly in a vegetation state. Otherwise, the mass embracing of false truths couldn’t be explained.
I agree with you that we should be enhancing our minds, but reading knowledge which has resulted from recycling wisdom doesn’t sound like the best idea to sharpen a mind. What would sharpen a mind more than any self-help book is the lecture of classical philosophy works. But the idea that enhancing a mind takes hard work isn’t something attractive and no industry could be built around it.
Accepting a dumb industry to do mind-sharpening work is a funny thing. :)

A general thing to note here is that I’ve been on all the sides of this game: neutral about it, defending it, “teaching” it and now attacking it.

One interesting article that I’ve stumbled upon today is The 48 Laws of Power. If anyone wants to become a self-help guru: start applying those rules. If anyone wants to know how self-help gurus think and act: read those rules carefully and exploit them.

As always, a worthy comment from John. Thanks mate!

I, too, don’t like the vapid and empty stuff you find when you start looking at what’s been (and being published) in this arena. Quite often it’s just remixed fluff. I will, however, raise a couple of counter-points:

As you say, just about the only people who benefit are those who have the initial awareness and/or drive to get started and keep going. For those people, however, they see massively accelerated results.

Furthermore, while I don’t think I have what’s necessary to match the mental/physiological feats you mention, I do believe that most of us are as out-of-shape mentally as we are physically. Enhancing our minds is not to be frowned upon.

As always, a very insightful post. If people are actually thinking for themselves, they will know when a promise of becoming a human supercomputer isn’t feasible. More importantly, they will maximize what they do have.

I, too, don’t like the vapid and empty stuff you find when you start looking at what’s been (and being published) in this arena. Quite often it’s just remixed fluff. I will, however, raise a couple of counter-points:

As you say, just about the only people who benefit are those who have the initial awareness and/or drive to get started and keep going. For those people, however, they see massively accelerated results.

Furthermore, while I don’t think I have what’s necessary to match the mental/physiological feats you mention, I do believe that most of us are as out-of-shape mentally as we are physically. Enhancing our minds is not to be frowned upon.

As always, a very insightful post. If people are actually thinking for themselves, they will know when a promise of becoming a human supercomputer isn’t feasible. More importantly, they will maximize what they do have.