4 ms·

honest question, has anyone ever improved their lives by reading articles of this flavor ? (e.g 10 things successfully ceo's do, 10 ways to increase your chance

honest question, has anyone ever improved their lives by reading articles of this flavor ? (e.g 10 things successfully ceo's do, 10 ways to increase your chances of building a successful company)

newsbinator 8y ago
Not necessarily directly. But perhaps indirectly, like how reading a useful novel or non-fiction book can help channel your thinking later. In other words, reading the piece might not alter your behavior today and you might forget 98% of it if quizzed later, but next time you're presented with a decision to which it applies, you find yourself behaving somewhat more wisely than you would have if you hadn't consumed these articles. Maybe. Or maybe these articles are no more useful than reading the backs of shampoo bottles. Tough to measure.
jimmy1 8y ago
Maybe not one particular article but reading the same messaging over and over again until it eventually sticks with me and then my brain is the one that reminds me of it rather than the article. Articles on a subject also lead me to the books and videos on the subject as well.
projectramo 8y ago
No, you are right: generic advice is garbage.
- coldtea 8y ago
  There are no silver bullets or precise instructions to life. Most things must be dealt with generic advice (and it's still surprising how many get generic advice wrong, and do the opposite). And most of what we do as people are not that unique anyway, to require any non-generic advice. The hard part is sticking to the generic advice and making it work. But there are no, or very few, shortcuts and precise step-by-steps procedures to success.
  - projectramo 8y ago
    The alternative to generic advice isn't "precise instructions", it is specific advice. Generic advice: if you want your startup to succeed, work had and focus. Specific advice has to do with a situation. "I have trouble meeting my sales targets." Advice: "Hire a sales person." Q: "I don't know how?" Advice: "Do you have an HR network?" etc. The hardest part is definitely not sticking to generic advice. Generic advice is contradictory, obvious or both. (Stay focused on the big picture, vs. be detail oriented. They are both true at different times).
    - coldtea 8y ago
      >Generic advice: if you want your startup to succeed, work had and focus. Specific advice has to do with a situation. "I have trouble meeting my sales targets." Advice: "Hire a sales person." Q: "I don't know how?" Advice: "Do you have an HR network?" etc. The second advice is only useful if you've learned (or naturally follow) the first generic kind. If you can't sit down and wort hard when its needed (but e.g. instead expect success to come easy once you've launched your startup) or if you can't focus (but instead try to do everything at once, or you're over the place, easily distracted, etc), whichever "specific" advice you're told to meet sales targets wont make much difference. >The hardest part is definitely not sticking to generic advice. Generic advice is contradictory, obvious or both. It being obvious doesn't preclude it being extremely important or it being hard. The best advice for diet can be summarized as "eat food, not too much, mostly plants". All obvious parts, all very beneficial if followed. And yet, tons of people fail to follow through, and want magic "specific advice" ("do the avocado detox", "eat 80% protein and less of 50 grams of carbs each day" etc).
Brigadirk 8y ago
Skimming the list in the article and then reading the reactions here on HN have been pretty helpful for me in identifying some of my own problems. E.g. annoyance with diplomacy.
thisisit 8y ago
It depends really. Personally, I find that explaining/reading doesn't work for me until I experience it. So, if you tell "sugar is bad", I don't get it. But then once I experience I will come back to you for advice. So, most of the time I tend to save these article (pocket archive) and refer it back once the realization hits. And it most of the times it happens within a week.
criddell 8y ago
Yes. It's often a short article that piques my interest enough to do a deeper diver on a subject. It was articles like these that introduced me to meditation and fasting and machine learning. Almost 20 years ago articles about David Allen and his Getting Thins Done book were popping up in my feed. That led to me reading the book and it has had a big impact on me.
analog31 8y ago
I once heard a saying: "All self help methods work." The reason is that they all make you more conscious of your own behavior, at least temporarily.
allenu 8y ago
Often, they act as jumping points to look at things differently and get the ball rolling. If you see enough of the same theme, you might start changing your behavior or at least looking into it. This article reminded me of some of my weaknesses that I need to work on. It's like advertising. A single ad probably isn't going to get you to go and take action, but lots of ads over time sway your opinion.
alexandercrohde 8y ago
I disagree lumping this type of article with "10 things successful CEO's do." I don't think you can reject all lists because of the majority are garbage "listicles." Personally, I think there's a lot of actionable information in this article, for example about intelligent people having greater difficulty handling situations when they feel threatened than non-intelligent people.
nathanasmith 8y ago
I first heard about spaced repetition and Anki from some "Best Study Habits" listicle a few years ago and it has had a profound impact on my ability to retain information.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
leonroy 8y ago
I'd say that what you get out of these pieces is what you're willing to put in. For example with this HBR article (which is pretty good) there are some actions you could take and if you wrote them down, re-read the piece periodically and practised its recommendations then sure you'll get a lot out of it. Some of those '10 habits of successful CEOs' fluff pieces don't really have many actionable insights so you're not going to get much out of them no matter how hard you try. But a good book like 7 Habits, GTD, Richest Man In Babylon, etc. - you re-read those and study even one and you'll probably get a lot.

honest question, has anyone ever improved their lives by reading articles of this flavor ? (e.g 10 things successfully ceo's do, 10 ways to increase your chances of building a successful company)

newsbinator 8y ago

Not necessarily directly. But perhaps indirectly, like how reading a useful novel or non-fiction book can help channel your thinking later. In other words, reading the piece might not alter your behavior today and you might forget 98% of it if quizzed later, but next time you're presented with a decision to which it applies, you find yourself behaving somewhat more wisely than you would have if you hadn't consumed these articles. Maybe. Or maybe these articles are no more useful than reading the backs of shampoo bottles. Tough to measure.

jimmy1 8y ago

Maybe not one particular article but reading the same messaging over and over again until it eventually sticks with me and then my brain is the one that reminds me of it rather than the article. Articles on a subject also lead me to the books and videos on the subject as well.

projectramo 8y ago

No, you are right: generic advice is garbage.

coldtea 8y ago
There are no silver bullets or precise instructions to life. Most things must be dealt with generic advice (and it's still surprising how many get generic advice wrong, and do the opposite). And most of what we do as people are not that unique anyway, to require any non-generic advice. The hard part is sticking to the generic advice and making it work. But there are no, or very few, shortcuts and precise step-by-steps procedures to success.
- projectramo 8y ago
  The alternative to generic advice isn't "precise instructions", it is specific advice. Generic advice: if you want your startup to succeed, work had and focus. Specific advice has to do with a situation. "I have trouble meeting my sales targets." Advice: "Hire a sales person." Q: "I don't know how?" Advice: "Do you have an HR network?" etc. The hardest part is definitely not sticking to generic advice. Generic advice is contradictory, obvious or both. (Stay focused on the big picture, vs. be detail oriented. They are both true at different times).
  - coldtea 8y ago
    >Generic advice: if you want your startup to succeed, work had and focus. Specific advice has to do with a situation. "I have trouble meeting my sales targets." Advice: "Hire a sales person." Q: "I don't know how?" Advice: "Do you have an HR network?" etc. The second advice is only useful if you've learned (or naturally follow) the first generic kind. If you can't sit down and wort hard when its needed (but e.g. instead expect success to come easy once you've launched your startup) or if you can't focus (but instead try to do everything at once, or you're over the place, easily distracted, etc), whichever "specific" advice you're told to meet sales targets wont make much difference. >The hardest part is definitely not sticking to generic advice. Generic advice is contradictory, obvious or both. It being obvious doesn't preclude it being extremely important or it being hard. The best advice for diet can be summarized as "eat food, not too much, mostly plants". All obvious parts, all very beneficial if followed. And yet, tons of people fail to follow through, and want magic "specific advice" ("do the avocado detox", "eat 80% protein and less of 50 grams of carbs each day" etc).

Brigadirk 8y ago

Skimming the list in the article and then reading the reactions here on HN have been pretty helpful for me in identifying some of my own problems. E.g. annoyance with diplomacy.

thisisit 8y ago

It depends really. Personally, I find that explaining/reading doesn't work for me until I experience it. So, if you tell "sugar is bad", I don't get it. But then once I experience I will come back to you for advice. So, most of the time I tend to save these article (pocket archive) and refer it back once the realization hits. And it most of the times it happens within a week.

criddell 8y ago

Yes. It's often a short article that piques my interest enough to do a deeper diver on a subject. It was articles like these that introduced me to meditation and fasting and machine learning. Almost 20 years ago articles about David Allen and his Getting Thins Done book were popping up in my feed. That led to me reading the book and it has had a big impact on me.

analog31 8y ago

I once heard a saying: "All self help methods work." The reason is that they all make you more conscious of your own behavior, at least temporarily.

allenu 8y ago

Often, they act as jumping points to look at things differently and get the ball rolling. If you see enough of the same theme, you might start changing your behavior or at least looking into it. This article reminded me of some of my weaknesses that I need to work on. It's like advertising. A single ad probably isn't going to get you to go and take action, but lots of ads over time sway your opinion.

alexandercrohde 8y ago

I disagree lumping this type of article with "10 things successful CEO's do." I don't think you can reject all lists because of the majority are garbage "listicles." Personally, I think there's a lot of actionable information in this article, for example about intelligent people having greater difficulty handling situations when they feel threatened than non-intelligent people.

nathanasmith 8y ago

I first heard about spaced repetition and Anki from some "Best Study Habits" listicle a few years ago and it has had a profound impact on my ability to retain information.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

leonroy 8y ago

I'd say that what you get out of these pieces is what you're willing to put in. For example with this HBR article (which is pretty good) there are some actions you could take and if you wrote them down, re-read the piece periodically and practised its recommendations then sure you'll get a lot out of it. Some of those '10 habits of successful CEOs' fluff pieces don't really have many actionable insights so you're not going to get much out of them no matter how hard you try. But a good book like 7 Habits, GTD, Richest Man In Babylon, etc. - you re-read those and study even one and you'll probably get a lot.