Self help books are all garbage right?

>tfw

I guess that Preschool Math exercise booklet are are all garbage then.

Reading is a way of helping yourself to someones first grade shit

Thus Spake Zarathustra is good.

How come you're constantly ranting about self-help? Is there something terribly frightening about it to you?

You're missing out, lad.

Nope.

Undoing Yourself with Energised Meditation and Other Devices.

Not if they work.

Have you ever considered that the only thing "garbage" in the equation is you yourself?

Uh, ya, hence the need for self help. But really, almost all that I have come across seem like they were written by the same people who write yogurt commercials or an uppity business man business man profiting off the insecurity of single moms.

just download that big ass brian tracy audiobook torrent on demonoid, he's not too plebby i.e. he talks about the greeks and recommend everyone read every day, he has no mystical metaphysical "laws of attraction" shit, and basically just tells you to write down the shit you need to do, isolate the most important shit, do it, then do another list, not that mysterious, but if you listen to all the time you can sort of brainwash yourself into being productive, if you're already working or in school and just kind of stressed and overwhelmed just get "eat that frog", if you're a total neet stuck in ur mom's basement then start with "maximum achievement" which talks about how to stop being all resentful and excuse ridden

Oh, God, I remember those tapes...

Go back to Russia fag.

I assumed most people would say all self-help is snake oil garbage, but I actually think conscious thinking about how to live and how to better yourself is a pretty worthwhile endeavor.

Most will be full of platitudes and Dale Carnegie level idiocy, but if you can find some heuristics or motivation even by trial and error, and seeing what doesn't work, you're well on your way to living a happy and meaningful life.

So I guess they're good in that they force you to recognize a need for improvement and force you to engage in some contemplation.

actually dale carnegie is pretty good, stephen covey is the shit that sucks...how to win friends and influence people is mostly just don't be a god damn sperg so naturally internet argument masters will naturally dislike it but it is so fucking old it has some neat historical shit in it that literate people might find amusing like about the teapot dome scandal n shit

this is p gud despite looking retarded, it's really an autiobiographical narrative mixed with self-help shit, seems kinda wack especially the "hip-hop generation" marketing, but the dude was an exec at def jam so fair enough...after reading that i stopped being a lazy fuck at work, and holy shit, when you work hard, other people who work hard notice and help you advance

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"59 seconds" by Richard Wiseman

Yes, the Divine Comedy is garbage.

Depends on what your problem is. If it's depression and you have no friends you might need someone giving you sincere advice even if it's just from a self help book.

Thanks for that, I've sort of been doing that anyway but it definitely helped!

I picked up some mood disorder that sometimes kicks me into a hypomanic state of euphoria and arrogance. Can confirm that if you enter this state and run with it you will think and act like a jackass.

Nietzsche is quite good I heard

This is pure, pure ideology
To think that you could rule over your subconscious so fully, and to think it would be explicated from the decision to begin that process in the first place

By doing what that picture recommends, you will simply construct a more elaborate rationalization and ultimately a lie, and you will give it the pretense of finality and permanence too, which makes it all the more dangerous
act on your instincts

>dale carnegie is pretty good, stephen covey is the shit that sucks
wrong way around senpai.

Dale's is pretty simple to get, just don't sperg out to people and relate to them. I have no idea why how to win friends is suggested as "essential reading" except for severely autistic people.

I'm re-reading Stephen's "7 habits of highly effective people" now and I think the root of the idea is alright, but it is written in by a very stereotypical "american christian businessman" type of way.

infact I'm re-reading it now because I realised some things that I haven't been as proactive as I could've been, and it's re-affirming some of the things that I've been neglecting. the idea to have a personal "mission statement" and principles written down so you can mentally think about them in times of decision making is actually a very good thing to have in my opinion.

almost everyone I know just does things for no reasons, no goals, or goals that they have no plan to get to, and they live in that sort of mindless state where they just autopilot through things. - I want to autopilot aswel, but I want my autopilot to be something that I have decided through what I define as my principles and my mission.

if you guys want a shit book have a look at "force vs power" ( might be the other way around ) and turn to any random page. it's truly atrocious and I think I was given it as a gift simply because the original reader wanted to stop reading.

this is real simple stuff desu.

I know of two books that I sorta wanted to read but I havent. I only know of them through a podcast

Just listening to these two podcasts alone have helped me a decent amount, but I would imagine that the books would be much better if I were invested enough to get them.

Highly encouraged:

"how to have a rich (sic) life" (rich = rich experience) Rahmit
artofmanliness.com/2016/03/18/podcast-184-harnessing-behavioral-psychology-for-a-rich-life/

"procrastinate on purpose" Rory Vaden
artofmanliness.com/2015/07/23/podcast-124-self-discipline-personal-effectiveness-with-rory-vaden/

I read a book about body language and I found it very informative as someone who has a bit of trouble with picking up subtlety in conversations.

look at this edgy contrarian guys, the thing is popular so he doesn't use the thing!!!

So, based on this thread, I think we can finally answer OP's question.

Yes, all self-help is trash. Nothing more than motivation for businessmen and insecure normalfags. No matter how many "tips and tricks" you follow, you won't truly improve your life. It's artificial nonsense.

's idea seems a good application of the Socratic principle that when we only do evil out of ignorance, and if we really discover what's good through reason, we will be compelled to do it.

On the other hand, your post looks like a random mashup of newage terms, and I don't even understand what you are saying. Maybe "reason is bad"?

>we only do evil out of ignorance
I don't get this. How does someone's reasoning force them to take a cert
ain action? I can easily imagine a person who knows for certain what is good, but does something evil anyway.
I'm a pleb who hasn't read the Socratic dialogues, so please forgive my ignorance

no but they're not worth buying either. just read the wiki summary.

yes. and people who read self-help tend to be the kind of people too stupid and pathetic to ever help themselves other than by doing some weird LARPy shit to hide behind.

>I can easily imagine a person who knows for certain what is good, but does something evil anyway.

If you know for certain that something is poisonous, and you also know that you want to live, will you eat it?

The reply that most often is raised to this view is: what about addiction then? The alcoholic knows that alcohol is bad for him, but he still reaches for the bottle.

However, if you closely monitor your thought process in the moments before reaching for the bottle, you will notice that it is never an automatic act. You must, even only for a few second, convince yourself with a sophism that drinking this time is "good". Maybe "i feel like I'm dying, and what good is to quit drinking if I die?" or "it is better to drink now and then quit tomorrow with a well-thought plan" or "well, I have already proved to myself that I can quit by not drinking for a month, so the most reasonable thing to do is to be master of myself and allow me to drink a little for pleasure".

The idea is that if you are very thorough in exploring all the facets of the problem and you train yourself in using your reason skillfully, then you will always have a clear idea of what is good, and when you have a clear idea of what is good you do it (I mean, what do you think is the definition of good? It makes no sense to say "I know A is the best thing for me, but I will do B")

You've very obviously never been an addict. It's a need, almost instinctual

I have, and still am. Please just try to monitor your mental voice next time.

lol the absolute madman!

addiction doesn't exist. you're just an idiot 2bh. i've done every drug i've taken in excess and i just got bored with it and moved on to other things.

>It makes no sense to say "I know A is the best thing for me, but I will do B")

Humans don't always act rationally.

That's what I dispute, with Socrates. They use reason incorrectly / without awareness, but you cannot act without reasoning in some way. It is a block that cannot short circuited. Even if you are acting out of an emotion or an instinct, there will be a final phase where reason says "this feeling is important and it is good to act in accord to it".

I am not in your skull and maybe I'm just extrapolating from what I have observed in myself, but why not try it as an experiment? Monitor your thoughts - especially the thoughts that lead to an action - and expand your concept of "reasoning". There is a chance it will give you some useful ideas on how to act on yourself and others.

first ammendmant bro, don't tell me what to do

I don't know about self help books but I do know I was a scrawny self hating "smoke weed eary day" faggot. Then I started working out and forcing myself to go to the gym every morning and nothing has done me good like building that discipline. I don't smoke, I cook a lot now, I quite looking at porn, I hardly even drink anymore. I am way happier for it.

I don't like that definition of reason. If it is impossible to act against reason, then reason loses meaning.

The only real self help books learn you about some nihilism

See