Ask HN: For those who read self-help, Reading the book vs. Reading summaries | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: For those who read self-help, Reading the book vs. Reading summaries

1 pointL0in1 comment

How do you decide if you are going to read the book versus reading summaries on the internet?

I used to dislike the self-help genre, thinking every singe book was just a BS scheme like "how to become rich", when the real answer is by writing a book about it, but these two posts[0][1] along with reading a few self-help books that helped with some difficulties in my life made me change my attitude towards the genre.

Of course i still believe the majority of the genre is deceiving crap, quick get-rich schemes. Endless articles riffing on the same points, courses, mailing-lists, few good ideas buried in 200-250 pages of fluff because the author and publisher needs it to become a book instead of a blog series, false promises, etc. But i believe there are good books out there even if they are the minority.

[0] https://blog.tjcx.me/p/how-to-read-self-help

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQB3viVFhPA Note: I'm aware the creator of this video has written a successfully sold self-help book, but i haven't read it.

First I take responsibility for most of the failings listed here. Second self-help is a broad subject and I only pursue scrubbing some memories, getting a few frustrating tasks done and increasing some focus/concentration.

I've tried reading Amazon sample portions, borrowing library books, buying cheap used copies, reading summaries, trying to read the book from the beginning and skimming through the book hoping to find the relevant paragraph or page. All seem to be roughly equally unsatisfying and unproductive for me.

Some books, from the title and description, seem like they would be applied self-help, but on reading turn out to be more abstract popularized general descriptions than intense applied instruction. Other books are more applied, but then turn out to describe a daily process that they say must be practiced for months to accomplish what they claim and it isn't even clear to me exactly what specific concrete benefit I would get if I invested that time. I don't have, and I suspect many or most people don't have, the motivation to practice something for months with no immediate demonstration that there will be actual benefit that I want after that investment. Example: think "mindfulness." What specific concrete benefit that you need and want NOW are you certain to get out of that after how much time you invest in that?

There are lots of little surprising example effects in psychology that can be clearly demonstrated in a minute. I'm not talking about turning your life upside down, I'm talking about spending a minute or two followed by "WOW! I actually SAW that happen!" If there were self-help books, particularly on the areas that I am interested in, that would begin with such a relevant exercise and follow that with a bit more explanation, followed by a slightly larger and slightly more impressive exercise, followed by ... repeat until end of book ... then I think that would give me the motivation, and I suspect give others the motivation, to buy the book and read every sentence and do every exercise and see every effect and maybe even by the end of the book be motivated to spend months doing the prescription and get the complete benefit promised by the book and see if the author has done this in any other books and buy all those books and tell everyone I know about these books and urge them to buy the books...

If anyone is aware of anything like that for the areas that I'm interested in then please find a way to let me know about that. Thanks

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