[HN Gopher] The grandfather of modern self-help
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The grandfather of modern self-help
Author : flummox
Score : 24 points
Date : 2021-09-25 04:52 UTC (18 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (3quarksdaily.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (3quarksdaily.com)
| jcrben wrote:
| Nichomachean Ethics by Aristotle comes to mind. Everything in
| moderation
| pessimizer wrote:
| Might be more accurate to say that he's the grandfather of modern
| business productivity/sales advice works. I'd say that the secret
| grandfathers of modern self-help are Jose Silva and his Silva
| Mind Control, along with Werner Erhard of est and Hubbard's
| Scientology. It was of course highly influenced by that sort of
| productivity advice through Holiday Magic/Leadership Dynamics,
| but was also very influenced by Theosophy through a science
| fiction lens that turned everything once supernatural psychic.
|
| That's how we end up with all of these mind-training, success-
| mindset works that make up most of self-help now. It's a weird
| culty stew.
|
| edit: Mill is a more noble origin for modern self-help than it
| deserves. His descendant is _How to Win Friends and Influence
| People_ which is altogether more wholesome, more akin to Scouting
| (note Carnegie 's constant advocacy of Toastmasters.) Modern
| self-help is trying to convince you that you can hypnotize
| people, memorize books, learn languages in a month, build billion
| dollar businesses, and bend probability through sheer
| concentration and adherence to miracle systems and new
| psychologies explained in listicles.
| Torwald wrote:
| The works you cite are all comparatively late. Even the
| theosophists came earlier. If the title is "granfather of
| modern self-help" we cannot be later than 1920s.
| pessimizer wrote:
| What I'm saying is that modern self-help doesn't resemble
| Mill's _Self-Help._ And that it 's a comparatively far more
| recent development.
| markhollis wrote:
| I remember the documentary 'The Century of the Self' where Adam
| Curtis talked about the origins of personal development and self-
| help.
| bennysomething wrote:
| Stopped reading after there's a lot to cristise: "white males" or
| something like that. For heaven's sake it's western Europe a few
| hundred years ago. How is that relavent!? Suppose they needed to
| get some virtue signalling in there some how.
| Voloskaya wrote:
| The article's author isn't saying the book is morally wrong for
| only taking about white european males, they are only saying
| that might be a contributing factor to explain why this book is
| not often read, namely that few people can relate to the
| characters of the book, which is pretty important for self-
| help.
|
| Seems to be me you are a bit too quick at signalling virtue
| signalling.
| [deleted]
| cubano wrote:
| In my opinion, the first self-help book was the Bible.
| johnchristopher wrote:
| Would you elaborate ? And highlight what makes the Bible a
| self-help book and why similar and older written texts don't
| qualify ?
|
| Not getting into a theological debate but in the context of the
| Bible help is usually considered to come from outside the self.
| (although there are interesting conversations to have about
| that)
| eitland wrote:
| I enjoy the Bible myself but I don't think it fits in this
| context.
|
| One might possibly make an exception for the Proverbs: it is a
| gold mine for productivity, but it is still not written in the
| (often) annoying form of modern self help.
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(page generated 2021-09-25 23:01 UTC)