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Comment by mziel | Hacker News Reader

There's a lot of very bad pop-sci books on this topic. Do you mind sharing the ones you read and recommend?

It's not "self help", but anything by Alan Watts will help you think of "self" in a very different way.

And again, not self-help, but I love recommending Shop Class as Soulcraft, by Matthew B Crawford, for reconsidering your relationship with work and finding joy in your career. The full book is worth reading, but this essay link gets the gist of it.

https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/shop-class-as-so...

I'll offer a dissenting opinion on the book. I read it, enjoyed it, but thought "this should just be an essay". Then I found the essay and feel it communicates the essential point.

I mostly stopped reading non-fiction books because of this. You have to wrestle through seven chapters of introductory bullshit because the author gets to the point, just because a blog post doesn't sell for $20.

I wish there was a culture where good essays would actually sell for $20. Something with a "perceived value per word" review score maybe.

I find the same thing even with critically acclaimed "Thinking Fast and Slow" or "Power of habit". On the other hand sometimes blogposts may not be exhaustive enough. IMO roughly 60-100 pages is the perfect format – you don't need to overly simplify the topic (like in blogpost, newspaper article) but you don't need to repeat yourself 10 times over (like in 300-400 page book).

"How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie - It's a classic in that genre. https://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/0...

Charisma on Command channel for social skills. https://www.youtube.com/user/charismaoncommand

Personally I also really like a lot of the talks from Tony Robbins when it comes to emotional intelligence and personal psychology. I listen to them on youtube while I'm cleaning fairly often. He can be a bit over the top and rambly for some people though and I do disagree with some things. But it's a good starting point on what to think about.

"Full catastrophe living" by John Kabat Zinn is pretty good.

Without doubt I would start with:

'No more Mr. nice guy' -- Robert Glover

Thanks man! I just bought this audiobook based on your recommendation and started listening to it tonight. It sounds good so far.

I've heard this book recommended a few times but your comment made me pull the trigger and buy it.

Recommending this book is somehow my way to thank the author.

While most self help books try to motivate you, this one explains with clarity why a large amount of people are stuck in life despite being smart and hard working individuals.

Very Buddhist in nature, but I've really enjoyed everything I've read from Jack Kornfield. "A Path with Heart" is a good place to start.

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