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The Secret and self-help in general

RedEyedAbyssRedEyedAbyss
edited 2014-11-12 01:38:06 in Media

Believe in something hard enough, and you can get anything you want. If you didn't get it, well, sucks to be you. You didn't believe hard enough.


Funny how The American Dream is based on nearly the same principle.


UPDATE: Decided to make this thread open to self-help stupidity in general, one of the worst excesses of a highly individualistic culture. From pseudo-positive advertisements making you feel like shit unless you buy their product or service to empty self-esteem platitudes that encourage falling flat on one's face chasing unrealistic goals, it's everywhere. And it's motivated by the misguided sense of pride people have in rejecting outside help.

Comments

  • InsanityAddictInsanityAddict
    Diet NEET

    *Anything that uses miscited evopsych to back up their method(whether it's PUA dating market crap or Sex At Dawn nonsense).


    *Stuff that doesn't take a holistic approach to life improvement.


    *All books that don't emphasize how effective habit creation takes time. 


    *Anything that doesn't come with a big honking "see a shrink if X". 

  • KrakenKraken
    edited 2015-10-09 07:05:14

    [user deleted]

  • Naas_HumanNaas_Human

    I was reminded of an episode of The Simpsons. Which apparently references this book.

  • fourteenwingsfourteenwings
    edited 2014-11-12 08:31:01
    There is love everywhere, I already know

    I thought The Secret was a best-selling fantasy novel for some reason.



    Judging by the cover how is it not.


    Judging by the description I'm surprised anything that sounds so culty could become a bestseller.


    I've seen it before, but I assumed it was some book on religion.

  • NyktosNyktos
    edited 2014-11-12 09:08:20
    a little muffled
    This takes me back. I remember first hearing about this stuff from an IJBM 1.0 thread.
  • RedEyedAbyssRedEyedAbyss

    fourteenwings wrote:
    Judging by the description I'm surprised anything that sounds so culty could become a bestseller.


    Like I said, my theory is that it's essentially the American Dream with less effort. At least the American Dream implies you need to work at your goals.

  • NoimportaNoimporta

    Stuff that doesn't take a holistic approach to life improvement.



    Hollistic approaches and systemic thinking is all fine and dandy, but making any sort of improvement is usually a pretty big undertaking for most, and lack of focus certainly won't make it easier. Unless you mean stuff like mean-end-chains.

  • InsanityAddictInsanityAddict
    Diet NEET

    I'd say hollistic approaches that take into account sleep and eating habits and the like actually make it a tad easier to chart improvement("yay, I went to bed on time!"), especially since the big turning points are far more difficult to pinpoint. People who turn that into neurtoic micro-management or an endless supply of sticks to beat themselves with are probably of a higher paygrade than self-help anyway.  

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