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Comment by paavokoya | Hacker News Reader

  Success is a big word which lacks information .. Even the failures are wins as those failures carry information.

Exactly. This is why "self-help" books don't work. You're listening to someone else's path which has no application to yours. Yes, certain motives may be similar but the method and journey are always unique. Make your own path and never stop moving. Life teaches better than any book.

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I dunno, there's a lot of wisdom in books. The bigger issue as I see it is essentially that talk is cheap, and getting results takes action. The problem is when you read a self-help book you get a little dopamine boost which makes it feel like you're making progress when you aren't (at least not yet, not until you put the information into practice). I think a lot of people get stuck on these little micro-dopamine hits and never get beyond that.

  a lot of wisdom in books

I specifically said self-help books.

I used to dismiss and mock self-help advice and books. Certainly there's lots of crap out there, but someone I care about has actually been helped by a few. Not all are created equal, not all are authored by people that wants to cheat people with low self-esteem, some people actually care and has the knowledge to do it.

I'm not buying this uniqueness argument. There are 7 billion people on the planet, surely we have a lot in common with at least a few of them.

If listening to someone else's path had no application to our own there'd be no pointing hanging out on HN, or talking to anyone in general.

To the contrary, in my experience a lot can be gleaned from hearing other people's stories.

  Yes, certain motives may be similar but the method and journey are always unique

This has nothing to do with "conversing" and everything to do with advice-driven self-help books which use vague terms to supersede wisdom similar to astrology.

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