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Reading self help materials has been one of the major turning points in my life. Without self-help materials I would still have been a somewhat gifted kid but

by itmag 15y ago

Reading self help materials has been one of the major turning points in my life. Without self-help materials I would still have been a somewhat gifted kid but also a total mess of a human being. Thanks to self help I am becoming more and more self-realized every day. I am not going to downvote you, because I am genuinely curious what you have against Ferriss. Care to tell me more?

TheCapn 15y ago
I'm not jumping on the hate-train necessarily, I've read the book a few years ago but I honestly didn't really feel anything from it. To me it was just a stack of papers that were confirming what I already knew. To me the book and its "teachings" can be somewhat helpful to a person who doesn't have any financial history or were not brought up to understand the value of money and investments. For someone that was brought up and taught these lessons like me the book is a circlejerk that goes "look, someone agrees with my views!" The book doesn't provide a whole lot more than financial common sense. To someone that hasn't had that sort of information before it might be interesting/revealing but to those who have it comes off as really dumb and get the sense of "well, no shit sherlock, I could've written a book like that". Its the same thing for people who look at social networks and go "I thought of that five years ago! I should be rich too!" Don't get caught up if someone doesn't like the self-help books. I know nothing about you but it really depends on what kind of upbringing you had. To me I learned about money early, to others things like the time value of money are foreign and don't really learn of them until post-high school education. Reading books and learning of these topics isn't bad, it puts you in line with others who share their stories of success and the general principles they followed to achieve it.
georgieporgie 15y ago
What self-help materials do you recommend?
- itmag 15y ago
  There's a lot of different ones of course... off the top of my head: No more Mr Nice Guy by Robert Glover. I also like Personal development for smart people by Steve Pavlina. Tom Butler-Bowdon has a series of books that summarize all the major works in psychology/self help/prosperity/success/etc. Those are a good way to get up to speed and learn what's out there in the genre.
  - georgieporgie 15y ago
    Thanks, I'll look into them.

by itmag 15y ago

TheCapn 15y ago

I'm not jumping on the hate-train necessarily, I've read the book a few years ago but I honestly didn't really feel anything from it. To me it was just a stack of papers that were confirming what I already knew. To me the book and its "teachings" can be somewhat helpful to a person who doesn't have any financial history or were not brought up to understand the value of money and investments. For someone that was brought up and taught these lessons like me the book is a circlejerk that goes "look, someone agrees with my views!" The book doesn't provide a whole lot more than financial common sense. To someone that hasn't had that sort of information before it might be interesting/revealing but to those who have it comes off as really dumb and get the sense of "well, no shit sherlock, I could've written a book like that". Its the same thing for people who look at social networks and go "I thought of that five years ago! I should be rich too!" Don't get caught up if someone doesn't like the self-help books. I know nothing about you but it really depends on what kind of upbringing you had. To me I learned about money early, to others things like the time value of money are foreign and don't really learn of them until post-high school education. Reading books and learning of these topics isn't bad, it puts you in line with others who share their stories of success and the general principles they followed to achieve it.

georgieporgie 15y ago

What self-help materials do you recommend?

itmag 15y ago
There's a lot of different ones of course... off the top of my head: No more Mr Nice Guy by Robert Glover. I also like Personal development for smart people by Steve Pavlina. Tom Butler-Bowdon has a series of books that summarize all the major works in psychology/self help/prosperity/success/etc. Those are a good way to get up to speed and learn what's out there in the genre.
- georgieporgie 15y ago
  Thanks, I'll look into them.