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Chesterton is railing against exchorational books, some of which are useless. However, this deeply conservative man seems to be focused entirely on the action a
by triplesec 14y ago
Chesterton is railing against exchorational books, some of which are useless. However, this deeply conservative man seems to be focused entirely on the action and ignored meta problems which are just as useful, and if solved often enabling by huge multipliers. Chesterton ignores the mind, the problems of concentration, focus, mental health and so forth. We are nothing without good process, and self-help books or the actions they describe are hugely useful with that, if we heed their advice. This piece is a deeply anachronistic and flawed essay, a sunday paper kind of opinion piece, and part of the unworthy section of any great person'w oeuvre.
- degobah 14y ago> Chesterton ignores the mind, the problems of concentration, focus, mental health and so forth Just how friggin' much is he supposed to do in one short essay?
- degobah 14y ago> We are nothing without good process, and self-help books or the actions they describe are hugely useful with that... His FIRST criticism is that the books and articles about success are vague (i.e. lacking in specific actions) and ineffective (not actually useful). > This piece is a deeply anachronistic You are aware this is an essay from around 1908?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- triplesec 14y agoChesterton's one of the UK's most famous essayists and my dad grew up with his Father Brown stories. The age of the piece is precisely why I said it was anachronistic! It's possible that the obvious issue of its age could have been clearer, both in the posting, and in my comment, although its presence on gutenberg.org is a good enough clue for most HN readers. This is clearly not his best work. I suspect he had a hangover, just as Beethoven clearly did during some of his more inane piano writing. Even the greats have off days!