/lit/ - Literature

>>15153502
They're crabs in a bucket.

>>15153502
Self-help books generally fall into the category of "bullshit for bullshit people."
Not all self-help books are bad, but they are all grouped together and judged the same. So much of it is just fucking nonsense. My family members bought me quite a few of those books over the years because they thought I was depressed. The fucking books were horrible.

Most of them, at least every single one I have come across, are garbage.
It's all "hacks to improve your life" but truthfully just fluff to excuse the $29.99 price tag.
It's for people who want to improve their shit and are desperate, or for people who don't truly want to improve their shit but convince themselves they do, usually just to inflate their ego.

Self-help books are mega fucking pseud. If one helped you, then good for you. But the genre as a whole is a fucking scam. At least religion is a scam that rewards you with a club to belong to and guiding principles.

>>15153502
Thus Spake Zarathurstra is a nice self-help book.

>>15153502
Is anyone aware of a more Machiavellian Carnegie? Something like social skills for the enterprising autistic? Carnegie reeks of 1950s New England puritanism.

hasn't worked for them, ive read self help books and my life is amazing! just look up good ones not schlock

>>15153595
literally the 48 Laws of Power, my guy

>>15153600
what do you recommend?

>>15153531
this
self help is great

>>15153603
This seems like crap. I am perfectly able to study Julius Caesar, Goethe, Napoleon, etc. What I need is an explication of the overlooked, the granular elements of a single conversation.

>>15153632
Skill with people

can someone post a self help book that's actually good?

>>15153644
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>>15153644

>>15153644
Almost done with Epictetus' Discourses, it has been very helpful in reframing the way that I approach life and process emotions

>>15153502
Because the advice is obvious, can be summarized in a single page, and most people who read them are brainlets. You don't need to read 300 pages of anecdotes to know that you should wash your penis.

>>15153502
Because most self-help books are written by bugmen with the intention of making money out of people that want an easy and often fake recipe for happiness. It's a schemy way of making people happier so they can be more productive.

>>15153502
Probably a good thread to ask this question: anyone know the name of that classic book that satires self help books? I think it was written in the early 20th Century and some prominent author/intellectual included it in a list of books that every person should read.
It's meant to be brilliant.

>>15153595
The Prince
It's actually a classic work on statesmanship but has now become a meme due to Bodybuilding forums and pick-up shit.

I got a self-help book for my birthday last year.
This was a rude gesture. I cannot think of an occasion where that would not be.

>>15153779
Zen of motorcycle repair?

>>15153502
People are dismissive of self-help books, just for the same reason that people are dismissive of sermons, of philosophy, and of learning. It's simple, they don't believe that they can improve, instead they literally own being an NPC and think their whole life is fated to be a kind of dull robotic boredom.

>>15154121
Based

>>15153502
Capitalism

>>15153644
I'm about 2/3 through Seneca's Moral Epistles. Pretty good

>>15153502
All the substantive ‘self-help’ content a man genuinely needs is found in the classics. Anything else is vain tawdry onanistic tosh.

>>15153502
who is People Dale Carnegie? what type of a name is People?

>>15155929
Can you recommend some?

>>15154121
Did you just put self-help on the same level as sermons, philosophy, and "learning"?
Holy keks.

>>15153546
not even one argument. just all emotional drivel. feel sorry for you.

>>15153653
>>15153664
Those are not self-help books.

>>15153546
Religion is not a scam though. At least not the one I grew up with
Mom's part of the Church. Religous events allowed us to travel throughout the region at a reasonable price

>>15153644
only 2 have ever mattered

1. The Bible
2. Meditations

Everything else is just fucking heresy

>>15155972
Nicomachean Ethics, your own researched/collection of stoicism. Marcus Aurelis is a bit shallow/short for me. He has some good bits but most of it I found uninteresting. Some swear by him, which is why I say you should research for yourself.

Nicomachean Ethics is a good one because it puts everything into a frame of reference