What self-help books are legitimately good and useful?

this

A Thousand Plateaus

bullshit. the brain doesn't even fully develop till the age of 25.

If you want to read baby's first self-help, just go read the Stoics or Taoism, they all have pretty basic info about how not to be a bitch ass pussy.
Neetchee and Stirner are pretty good if you feel you are weak or that your life has been decided by others.
I think Jung has some merit as a self-help author, he does give answers to psychological issues you might have.
I'm personally reading Ouspensky's The Fourth Way since I like occultism and mysticism, and the self reflection part has been quite interesting and fruitful. I will probably keep reading Gurdjieff afterwards.
Actually, most occultism books are legit self-help books, unless you buy into the crazy mumbo jumbo and want to cast fireballs while becoming an aryan sexual beast and whatnot.

icy is that you?

isn't being a literal cuck the ultimate stoic fetish? why would anyone want to learn that?

None. Self-help is only for really basic stuff and if you're already failing that you're fucked. Life really isn't that fucking hard, just go clean your room and sort yourself out.

>Life really isn't that fucking hard, just go clean your room and sort yourself out.

Why has he got Kermit over his shoulder?

his voice sounds like kermit, also he panders to kekistan kids

Just because you are somewhat learned as a stoic, you are not stripped of your will and emotions, just have more discipline over them

>wahh im a victim of society you wouldn't understand redditor
Like thats any better

None. Self-help is a scam.

But assuming what you want is to "get ahead", what you want to read is Machiavelli, including what he translated: Sun Tzu's The Art of War and the Discourses of Livy. And of course, The Prince.

If you wanna go even more immoral, there's Alinsky's Rules for Radicals.

If you're a nihilist but don't want to be a pessimist because you're an insufferable faggot, Nietzsche is for you. He will have you try to reach perfection, kinda like self-help books want to do, except Nietzsche isn't trying to scam you. Read him in chronological order.

If what you want is to fuck bitches, pic related is enough.

underrated post

>projecting this hard
i am just tired of these catchphrase brainlets parroting the same shit endlessly. they are boring.

Just watch Jordan Peterson's Maps of Meaning lectures. I know people here don't like Peterson when it comes to philosophy, but when it comes to self help, it's literally his job. He seems to be helping thousands of people now, so give it a shot.

I'm not sure I understand how his lectures would help anyone. Not a peterson hater or anything, but he basically always goes *myth explanation* -> "sort yourself out". The only time I heard him give actual advice was when he told people to clean their room. And I guess you could call advice all the negative advice he gives like "don't do X", "don't be X" which is ok. But seriously, I mean, who the hell get helped by this? It's more like he's trying to prevent people from becoming SJWs rather than helping people who are in any sort of psychological predicament.

Argument by analogy is an effective means of communicating experiences and ideas.

Did you watch his lectures?
Anyway, I don't think they're helpful for everyone, but they are for people who have some sort of existential crisis or whatever.
Basically to me JP's message is that psychological health requires a certain way of thinking, which might appear arbitrary or non-intuitive at first. And I don't think his view is all that radical, it's probably shared by most psychologists. What's special about JP is how he integrates certain elements and current political issues into an interesting package.

>Sun Tzu's The Art of War
ask me i how i know you're an idiot

How

Yeah, I remembered after posting. I read them like 15 years ago, so I had them mixed up. Sue me.

Not necessarily self-help, but are there any recommendations for general healthy lifestyle books? Focusing on nutrition and fitness mostly. I know a lot of the stuff is common sense or on the Internet but I just want to have it in book format

From the perspective of people like Peterson and his fans, being a SJW is already the result of negative psychological ailments like resentment, ressentiment, excessive pity, poor self-esteem, etc.

With that said, his self-help lectures are indeed far better than his uninformed musings on philosophy.

yeah really all you have to do is clean your room

have you even tried cleaning your room?

wipe your but user

>or on the Internet
Watch out for that, there's a lot of bullshit on it, I used to do the same
>is common sense
Some of it is, such as vegetables being healthy, and some dishes are scientifically sound: they contain foods the interact and you gain more of it.

I suggest "How not to die" by Michael Greger, but note that it is about nutrition for longevity, obviously if your goal is fitness you could want other information

"self-help" is a horrible phrase, but I would recommend Brain Tracy- Eat That Frog if you're looking for a nice and easy to digest starter book.

print out the Veeky Forums sticky and bind it into a book?

Seriously though, the Veeky Forums sticky is probably some of the best health and fitness info I've ever come across. There's so much BS out there, it's rare to find good, basic info on that topic.

>Life really isn't that fucking hard
>reducing all human suffering to "just put more effort"
you're not really alive

People who are looking at reading self-help books aren't exactly experiencing profound human suffering

and why is that? are dumb people incapable of suffering?

>Stirner
>A nihilist German
>Helpful
Nitsche would be helpful. Contrary to popular belief, he wasn't a nihilist and he advocated against that destructive pattern of thought and degeneracy.

Oh, and with Evola, read "Man amongst the Ruins". Ride the Tiger starts going AWOL real quick, but I heard it's still 5/5 Breddy Gud

the "overcoming" series of books (as recommended by NHS psychology departments nationwide!)

they work and aren't based on some kind of off-shoot of new-age human-potential-movement mumbo jumbo or based on 80's style boost your ego and dominate your opposition nonsense.

Not very glamorous, not much tinsel and you get out what you put in

>over 600 page book for someone with depression

cheeky

I think thats an error. My copy has about 250 pages

The Greeks.

Nigga, Stirner tries to make you see that ideas posses you and you need to fight back to make use of them, not the other way around.
You can read books any way you want and give them any interpretation you want (even if those are bad or shortsighted), try reading Stirner as a critique of over-ideologization and as a way of man to overcome itself.
Nietzsche seems like diet Stirner at some points even, and many people agree on that.

can you give me more sociopathic or this kind of
literature?

(Serious answer).

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.

Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching

Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Autobiography of Malcolm X

The 48 Laws of Power

That's cool in all but where the pics at? Where the proof this guy gets pussy? Damn anyone can fraud on the internet.

>"How not to die" by Michael Greger,
Thanks, this actually looks closer to something I was originally looking for

Michael Greger is a loser

anything that's like a good updated version of how to win friends and influence people? I'd like to be more sociable and have more courage when it comes to talking to random people and connecting but most of the things in HTWFAIP have become cliche and seem ingenuine

"talking to random people" is a meme and is for weirdos. talking to new people in some logical context is better.

People cannot change. No-one has ever 'improved' or 'helped' themselves in the history of history. The best and only counsel to each and every man is this, embrace despair.

Yeah because we're all warriors who rule nations

Serious reply:

Read Norse mythology. The entire premise is that all of life is suffering, and the only redemption is through suffering heroically. All of the gods know they're going to die. Those swell bastards had no hope whatever. Made me feel good.

Accept your fate and brace for impact.

You use the war concepts of Machiavelli and Sun Tzu as equivalent to competition and leadership.

For example, let's take one point where Machiavelli and Sun Tzu agree: a general/prince must command respect and treat his soldiers as his own children, with a good balance of discipline and diversion/reward - if you were reading one of those self-help books about leadership, they'd try to fill 300 pages out of what Sun Tzu takes 2 or 3 50 word precepts. But if you're not absolutely retarded, you can see that this clearly applies to business too.

This book terrifies me, it's making me anxious and paranoid of other people.

this booklet is the dumbest thing i've read in my entire life, i've never seen a work so shamelessly contradict itself so many times

Nothing to worry about as long as you have a reasonable gauge for how sophisticated your friends and foes can be, i.e., know which levels of power somebody is operating on. Just don't underestimate the wrong people.

Real life contradicts itself. Not all heuristics are equally applicable. Not all human action is consistent. I'm not sure what you mean by shamelessly contradicting itself... it's not an instruction manual to be done in order.

>anything that's like a good updated version of how to win friends and influence people? I'd like to be more sociable and have more courage when it comes to talking to random people and connecting but most of the things in HTWFAIP have become cliche and seem ingenuine

Maybe you need to read several books, and by read I mean thoroughly digest, practice, review, and repeat. The key to social skills is building connections with other people, which means you need to build rapport, find common ground, and share new experiences together. This is both an exercise in developing practical skills and overcoming psychological hurdles.

Improve Your Social Skills by Daniel Wendler will give you all the basics you need to know. Then go out and talk with people. Get a firm grasp on the basics while observing your strongpoints and weakpoints. Write them down, think about how to improve, and then practice again. Maybe you're not that funny or spontaneous (try learning about improv), maybe you're nervous about other people's opinions (try cognitive behavioral therapy), maybe you don't give off a friendly impression (try learning about body language and practicing), maybe you're too naive to read between the lines (try The Games People Play by Eric Berne), or maybe you're too wishy-washy to be respected (try No More Mr. Nice Guy by Robert Glover). HTWFAIP isn't a bad book, but you're right that a lot of tips have been cliche, and the best advice from that book is to become a better listener and to genuinely learn to appreciate other people.

Just learn the basics, practice, find out what you really lack, and then set your mind to work solving that issue. One last warning: don't fall into the trap of reading, reading, reading, without any practice. Start with Daniel Wendler, and don't move on until you've mastered everything he has to offer. As long as you PRACTICE extensively after reading, you'll grow into your own shoes and achieve some sort of mastery over yourself.

Reposting some more of the relevant reasoning behind the book list and an additional resource in case you find it useful.

>I've thought about this quite a lot, and after trying to break down rapport in an autistic fashion, I've concluded that there's really no single book you can read to be interesting to most other people. What kind of topic is going to be interesting to most other people? What kind of behavior or skill is going to be influential or relevant to most other people? What kind of humor is going to be funny to most other people? There's no such thing, and approaching "being interesting" as "stamp collecting of interesting subjects" is going to doom you to failure unless you are targeting a specific group of people with specific mannerisms. And even at this rate, without the basics of rapport down, then any attempt to do this kind of targeted approach is doomed to failure.

>What is the best general approach then to have interesting things to say? "Being yourself", except instead of being a cryptic faggot about it, we'll come up with a working definition: being at ease with yourself and others enough so that you can bond over common experiences, feelings, and interests. What is going to help you? Asking the right questions to get other people to open up and share information, practicing charismatic and relaxed body language, being observant, spontaneous, and vulnerable to encourage wit based off of what you both know, maintaining social awareness and following up after encounters, etc. Once you establish a connection with another person, then the topics will flow naturally, and eventually you'll discover whether you share enough in common with somebody else to be interesting, or simply have too many differences (and that's okay too).

-- --

>Now that I'm thinking about it, I would also recommend A Primer in Positive Psychology - Christopher Peterson for reference purposes. But don't get caught up on reading when you could be practicing skills and integrating experiences.

>2017
>Still believing in the brain meme

This post reminds me of the stupid fucking myspace blogs I used to write when I was 14. Thanks for the trip down nostalgia lane, user.

All these posts and all these people in full denial about self-help books. OP just read some well known self help books Like Dale Carnegie and Napoleon Hill. This "Start with the greeks" is general life guidance however self-help can be much more fine tuned to your situation. Right now Im reading
" No Excuses!: The Power of Self-Discipline "
its bretty gud.
Self-Help can offer you great methods to help tackle your situation.

I found this helpful. Thank you, user.

bump for useful information

>Real life contradicts itself
wrong, contradictions are only possible in the realm of concepts

>still hasn't cited how 48 laws of power contradicts itself
Friend, you don't have to operate under all the laws at once. Politics is an art, not a science, when practiced.

>>still hasn't cited how 48 laws of power contradicts itself
why would anyone join in on literary discussions without having read the work in question

>you don't have to operate under all the laws at once
do you even know what a law is

>why would anyone join in on literary discussions without having read the work in question
idk, you'd think the critic would be able to cite the obvious contradictions at least once

>do you even know what a law is
quibbling over artistic license and semantics is the sign of NO ARGUMENT

>idk, you'd think the critic would be able to cite the obvious contradictions at least once
if you actually read it and have an iq over 80 then you should know exactly what i'm talking about, feigning ignorance and deliberately asking me to cite something you already know just because you feel you have the moral right to request this of me and i can't refuse without violating some unwritten rule of argumentation etiquette by not proving what is already axiomatically excepted by both parties because i'm under the burden of proof is extremely autismal my man.

but ok, i'll play your sick game, rules 6 and 16, 17 and 21, 38 and 27, respectively contradict each other. i'm just skimming through it to quickly give a few examples, if you're really intent on defending this pile of garbage i can articulate a more concentrated attack.

This is pretty much true, nobody can really "change themselves", it's a marketing scam.

>but ok, i'll play your sick game, rules 6 and 16, 17 and 21, 38 and 27, respectively contradict each other. i'm just skimming through it to quickly give a few examples, if you're really intent on defending this pile of garbage i can articulate a more concentrated attack.
pray tell me, how do they contradict each other? you do realize that not every law is applicable if the social context does not make it applicable. if you don't have a master-apprentice dynamic, then you don't have to worry about outshining the master, for example.

>you do realize that not every law is applicable if the social context does not make it applicable
the laws are phrased in abstract form, as general statements. when read as such, they contradict each other. whether or not the reader has the good sense to selectively ignore the bad advice is irrelevant to this fact.

it doesn't matter if they're abstract. that's the point. they're abstract so its easy to extrapolate to one social situation or another provided the right conditions are met. like I said before, not all 48 laws are applicable at the same time because much of them are highly situational

Feel free to give a real argument by explaining one example of a contradiction, like I've asked you for the fifth time

>it doesn't matter if they're abstract. that's the point.
it precisely the fact that they're abstract that creates the contradiction. i have given you the real examples, you just don't like them. saying that being inconspicuous is a generally good thing contradicts saying that being charismatic and attracting attention is a generally good thing. the contradiction can only be solved when you're talking about specifics, but the booklet doesn't do this.

i understand what you mean by this:
>not all 48 laws are applicable at the same time because much of them are highly situational
but it's not in the pamphlet, it's not even implicit in it, and even if it was, it would do it no good. if a carpenter tries to teach an apprentice and says "sometimes use the hammer, other times use the saw", he has imparted no useful information.

You didn't give any examples. You just cited laws that you think contradict without giving any evidence. Imagine if I wrote a book called "48 laws of putting on clothes", and in writing my abstract guide, gave two conflicting laws "rising sun shorts" and "falling dusk shorts", one commanding you to take off shorts, the other to put them on. They conflict, unless you realize that one law is only applicable for the morning, and the other is for evening. I don't know how else to explain this to you except repeating the master apprentice dynamic I said earlier.

>he has imparted no useful information.
You've now been made aware of several prominent situations. It's like complaining about reading a book on literary devices and then getting mad when not every book you read as a synecdoche.

Yeah, read this, and then listen Swans - Filth and realize you're a massive posturing faggot whose going to wither away into nothing regardless

so when i gave only examples without description you said lol no argument and when i purely describe a contradiction without saying which law it represents you say lol no evidence, you're impossible my man
your fashion guide explains when to apply each rule, but the 48 rules of power doesn't. i never listen the first law as an example

the whole point of general rules is that they work as heuristics, so even if it's not always true, it works in at least the majority of the time, but if you give two general rules that say conflicting shit you're just confusing your readers. i'm not expecting to be told what to do, but if he said "most of the time you should stay calm low key, except for when you need to make an example out of someone", i at least have some idea of what the advice is that's being given, but reading the book as it is only gives off the idea that you should simultaneously present yourself, as this enigmatic, unpredictable, dangerous cult leader, but also make sure to befriend your enemies and make sure they think they're smarter than you and you're just an average guy, unless you live a double life it's not possible

>so when i gave only examples without description you said lol no argument and when i purely describe a contradiction without saying which law it represents you say lol no evidence, you're impossible my man
Is it impossible for you to be anything more than vague? All I asked was for you to pick two laws and then argue how they both contradict each other in a fundamental way. You've been dodging around the point in a way that makes me think you've never read the book.

>your fashion guide explains when to apply each rule, but the 48 rules of power doesn't. i never listen the first law as an example
I meant to come up with an example that is more implicit than explicit. Sorry that I couldn't. But like I said before, it depends on the context. If you were in the position, and you learned from the book, then you would know how it could help you stay on top. i.e., outshining the master isn't a concern if there's no master-apprentice dynamic, but if there is, it will be a major psychological tension between the two that has to be addressed somehow.

>the whole point of general rules is that they work as heuristics, so even if it's not always true, it works in at least the majority of the time, but if you give two general rules that say conflicting shit you're just confusing your readers.
Power dynamics are far more complicated than that. We're talking about trying to describe the various social forces that press upon people and how to describe them. If anything, Greene is talking about literary theory but applied to real life in a way that allows you to visualize the ebb and flow of human desires its connection to leverage.

>but reading the book as it is only gives off the idea that you should simultaneously present yourself, as this enigmatic, unpredictable, dangerous cult leader, but also make sure to befriend your enemies and make sure they think they're smarter than you and you're just an average guy, unless you live a double life it's not possible
That is extremely possible, depending on how it is exactly implemented. Primary example: Donald fucking Trump. Makes everybody think he's unpredictable and followed by cultish fanatic, and yet everybody thinks he's a total moron. Well, all I can say is that gives him plenty of breathing space to make his next move since people are constantly underestimating him and unable to defend themselves from his moves. Love him or hate him, there's a reason he's president, and it's not because he's lucky.

Gtfo with your bullshit. I'm not OP, but even if you don't agree with the sentiment that's not a meme list. Idiot

Good stuff. Never thought of replacing How to Win Friends and Influence People with some other books that are more focused on social skills in general. Thanks for the advice!

what should i read from this list?

Almost none of these books are self-help.

Don't listen to all of the blackpills in this thread, Seven Habits is a fairly good self-help book (the only one I've read though).

For social/general anxiety "Panic Attacks workbook" is the way to go, don't even bother looking for other books most of what I found are a glorified version of "get over it"

No you should listen to this "redpill". How to Win Friends is an okay book but it is dated and cliche.

Marcus Aurelius gave us everything we need to lift ourselves up and improve ourselves back in the day. Everything since the Meditations has been an unnecessary, superfluous waste of money.

All this Chad "advice" on women is bullshit. The only thing you need to do to get a girl is to BE NICE TO HER. Just think. Why would a rational human being not want someone who is nice to them? That's all. Be nice. Smile, say compliments, buy her flowers. She gonna love you for the rest of her life. It worked for me. I dated over 10 women in my life and I'm only 32.

None.

If self help books worked there'd be fewer of them.

I once read a how to on writing self help books.

how long have you been browsing Veeky Forums? not trying to be offensive.

>I dated over 10 women in my life and I'm only 32.

Gee I wonder why all the other relationships didn't last that long. What a mystery.