(author here)

one of my favorite classes at Wharton was Richard Shell's the Literature of Success (https://apps.wharton.upenn.edu/syllabi/2016A/LGST227001/) where we, no joke, studied The Secret as a way to understand the "Think and Grow Rich"/manifestation philosophy of success

my favorite joke of his about the topic is "when two sports teams compete against one another, if both manifest their desire really hard, only one can win"