/shb/ - Self-Help Books general.

File: IMG_8442.jpg (97KB, 493x290px) Image search: [Google]

97KB, 493x290px

Pic related is a great book- from the guy that did the original 10,000 hour expert performer study. He explains how Malcolm Gladwell misinterpreted his study.

It's like The Tipping Point but not for retards.

File: IMG_8444.jpg (30KB, 240x240px) Image search: [Google]

30KB, 240x240px

I love self help books from the 19th century. This is one of my favourites. Every page has a few quotable passages, I've rarely highlighted a book as much as this.

It's all about persistence and self discipline, the importance of being able to execute on a plan.

Anyone who says "oh I'm smart but lazy" needs to read this book.

>"One talent with a will behind it will accomplish more than ten without it, as a thimbleful of powder in a rifle, the bore of whose barrel will give it direction, will do greater execution than a carload burned in the open air."

>>9364795
>"He who is silent is forgotten; he who does not advance falls back; he who stops is overwhelmed, distanced, crushed; he who ceases to become greater, becomes smaller; he who leaves off gives up; the stationary is the beginning of the end--it precedes death; to live is to achieve, to will without ceasing."

>"It is," says Professor Mathews, "only by continued, strenuous efforts, repeated again and again, day after day, week after week, and month after month, that the ability can be acquired to fasten the mind to one subject, however abstract or knotty, to the exclusion of everything else. The process of obtaining this self-mastery--this complete command of one's mental powers--is a gradual one, its length varying with the mental constitution of each person; but its acquisition is worth infinitely more than the utmost labor it ever costs." "Perhaps the most valuable result of all education," it was said by Professor Huxley, "is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson which ought to be learned, and, however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson which he learns thoroughly."

>>9364795
>>9364801
This looks great. Any more old self-help books?

>>9364752
The New Psychology by William Walker Atkinson is my favorite. Using psychology to improve oneself is something we just start to consider in the mainstream with positive psychology.

File: as-a-man-thinketh-by-james-allen.jpg (30KB, 324x460px) Image search: [Google]

30KB, 324x460px

as a man thinketh

the self-help meme trilogy, meditations/letters to a stoic/tao te ching

i like listening to eckhart tolle talks on youtube

medard boss, psychoanalysis & daseinsanalysis

>>9365340
The Courtier
Galateo

those are Renaissance etiquette books

>>9365361
I love William Walker Atkinson. My favorite two things he wrote is The Power Of Concentration under the pen name Theron Q. Dumont, and of course The Kybalion, which is /x/'s favorite book.

>>9365366
Absolutely great. I also recommend a more obscure book he wrote that deserves to be way more popular, "From Poverty To Power." In it he explains a technique for morning meditation - in 1901!

Meditations is great, I never read the other two.

Eckhart Tolle I wanna like but I don't really get it. It's kind of Oprah New Agey.

>>9364752
kill yourself
>>9364763
kill yourself
>>9364795
kill yourself
>>9364801
kill yourself
>>9365340
kill yourself
>>9365361
kill yourself
>>9365366
kill yourself
>>9365390
kill yourself
>>9365391
kill yourself

>>9365390
The Art Of War by Machiavelli is seriously underrated. Nobody ever talks about it. I like it better than The Nest-Leader's Manual, which is /pol/'s favorite.

>>9365340
Self-Help by Samuel Smiles (the first modern self help book from the 19th century, although more political in nature)

Think And Grow Rich (from the 1930s, but the best one of all time, and most influential)

The Majesty Of Calmness by William George Jordan

The Kingship Of Self-Control by William George Jordan - both 1898 - how to be disciplined rather than motivated.

Everything Orison Swett Marden ever wrote, but I recommend in particular An Iron Will, Making Of A Man, The Optimistic Life, and Pushing To The Front. He wrote dozens of fucking books, over lots of topics.

William Walker Atkinson - The Power Of Concentration

>>9365395
I agree. Pseudointellectuals abound.

>>9365395
Thanks edgy 15 year old for contributing to this discussion.
Obviously you are greater than the rest of /lit/

Reading this now: Get Your Shit Together, by Sarah Knight. No, it's not a joke, she just likes to cuss; decent advice, some gems.

>>9365395
What do you suppose he meant when he said this?

I also recommend The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, and most of Ralph Waldo Emerson's essays.

Actually, you know what's a great source for old self-help books? The fucking appendix for the first edition of the boy scout's manual. Let me find my copy.

Is there any point to reading these "old" self-help books other than for the motivational aphorisms and the by-now obvious tip "don't be lazy"?

Might be good if you're in a rut, I guess.

>>9365451
They give you good techniques for achieving your goals, simple as that.

>>9365431
Ok, I couldn't find my old copy of Scouting For Boys, but I did find a similar list online from the 1911 edition:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29558/29558-h/29558-h.htm

It's a huge list. I can recommend the following books that I read and liked from this list:

Control of body and mind by Jewett, Frances Gulick, 1908

Adaptability - Ellen E. Kenyon Warner

An Iron Will - Orison Swett Marden

Aspiration and Achievement - Frederick A. Atkins

Aspirations and Influence - H. Clay Trumbull

Character Shaping and Character Working - H. Clay Trumbull

Character the Grandest Thing
Orison Swett Marden

Cheerfulness as a Life Power
Orison Swett Marden

Every Man a King
Orison Swett Marden

Getting One's Bearings
Alexander McKenzie

He Can Who Thinks He Can
Orison Swett Marden

Making the Most of Ourselves
Calvin Dill Wilson

Moral Muscle
Frederick A. Atkins

Practical Paradoxes
Orison Swett Marden

Royal Manhood
James I. Vance

Pushing to the Front
Orison Swett Marden

Self Control and Its Kingship and Majesty
Wm. Coe Jordan

The Christian Gentleman
Louis Albert Banks

True Manhood
James, Cardinal Gibbons

A Message to Garcia
Hubbard

Get A Financial Life by Beth Kobliner (no joke)

I weirdly consider the Paris Review Interviews series "self-help" in a way.

>>9365513
Although I do want to point out that I think I like this stuff so much because I always wanted to be a boy scout. :(

>>9365516
Never read that, but the best personal finance book I've read is The Millionaire Next Door.

Oh, and I also wanna recommedn Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willinck for modern self-help books.

all (((self help))) books are a waste of time
read literature and philosophy instead, pseuds

>>9365548
What led you to that conclusion?