That's probably how self-help books started. Short and to the point. But it's hard for people to take the steps necessary to change, so I can imagine a lot of people simply stop doing the steps laid out in the original pamphlet, thinking there's a 'better way', that's less inconvenient.

And so we get Self Help Book 2.0, now with a lengthy introduction describing all kinds of relatable issues that convinces you that this is the right book that seems to 'get' you as an individual. But beyond the motivational first chapter, the book still contains those hard-to-do-regularly steps and insists that you must change if your habits are to. So we end up dropping that as well, choosing instead to wait for the next book that makes all the right promises.