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lil  ·  3964 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Ask Hubski: Are Self-Help Books Helpful?

Thanks for your thoughts and welcome to Hubski. Let's Eat it Right was the Bible of food back in the 1970s. Dare I suspect that some older "mates" have joined hubski? I recall measuring out tablespoons of brewer's yeast and wheat germ and bone marrow (?) for the nutritional booster of raw egg and fruit juice in my first blender back in the day.

I posed this question last week because

1) I've had some transformational insights due to "self-help" books. Particularly Co-Dependent No More which helped me see that the particular life situation I was in was typical of many people and not unique to me. Difficult Conversations helped me see my own responsibility in all the difficult conversations I found myself in. This had the powerful impact of reducing anger. Getting to Yes was also valuable in helping me understand good and bad ways of approaching conflict.

2) I ask my students to read a communication or leadership book and teach one concept to the class in an interactive workshop format. I was interested in seeing what books hubski might recommend. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team has been a very useful book for anyone working in groups. The key message of that book is that trust is essential for teams to be effective. The other four dysfunctions follow from absence of trust.

mk says

    life is too interesting and too complex for self-help to be worthwhile
I would say the opposite - life is too interesting and complex for self-help and any other kind of help not to be worthwhile. As you and other writers here have said, there is no one answer -- there are many answers and the right book at the right time can sometimes be just what we need. At least it was for me.