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This is why self help books keep selling. Because we keep hearing the same wisdom over and over again, but we just do not _understand_ it. All these simple fort

This is why self help books keep selling. Because we keep hearing the same wisdom over and over again, but we just do not _understand_ it. All these simple fortune cookie wisdoms, they mean nothing when you read them casually. But when something big happens to you and you really _understand_ what is meant, then it's like opening a new door and discovering magic behind it. I finally get it. It may be stupid to everyone else, it may be obvious, but only now do I really really understand what is meant, and only now have I been able to apply what I learnt to make a fair amount of money and be happy while doing it.

aaronblohowiak 18y ago
yea, it is hard to stop finger gazing and bask in the moonlight. it is also very hard to give up the belief in the Great Reward (Tao of Pooh fans?)
nazgulnarsil 18y ago
self-help books are generally watered down philosophy. instead of presenting the arguments of different philosophers, the author tells you that this one works and to do it. people don't like choice, so they buy a guide they can follow rather than a text they have to think about.
rbanffy 18y ago
Self help books sell well because they tell people whose lives are not all right that it is all right, that it's really not their fault and that, if they really want it, they can still fix them. People want hope. In a time when religious belief looks suspiciously like superstition (which it is) some people crave for tools to deceive themselves that do not involve burning bushes or flying zombies (a thought curiously appropriate today).
johnyzee 18y ago
Kierkegaard nailed this long ago, when he said that everything is subjective, and that no wisdom can be transferred from one person to another, except through directly living and experiencing it. (Kierkegaard wanted his gravestone to say 'A person', because after all, who would understand what Kierkegaard was anyway.)

aaronblohowiak 18y ago

yea, it is hard to stop finger gazing and bask in the moonlight. it is also very hard to give up the belief in the Great Reward (Tao of Pooh fans?)

nazgulnarsil 18y ago

self-help books are generally watered down philosophy. instead of presenting the arguments of different philosophers, the author tells you that this one works and to do it. people don't like choice, so they buy a guide they can follow rather than a text they have to think about.

rbanffy 18y ago

Self help books sell well because they tell people whose lives are not all right that it is all right, that it's really not their fault and that, if they really want it, they can still fix them. People want hope. In a time when religious belief looks suspiciously like superstition (which it is) some people crave for tools to deceive themselves that do not involve burning bushes or flying zombies (a thought curiously appropriate today).

johnyzee 18y ago

Kierkegaard nailed this long ago, when he said that everything is subjective, and that no wisdom can be transferred from one person to another, except through directly living and experiencing it. (Kierkegaard wanted his gravestone to say 'A person', because after all, who would understand what Kierkegaard was anyway.)