Wow. What you've said is absolutely spot on. I'm interested in what you think about raptitude.com. I've started following this guys blog recently and most of what he's said is really interesting. I feel it's less self help and more him carrying out experiments to improve the quality of his life. I guess my point is that is it good to read stuff like that or will it eventually have negative effects?
I've read a few raptitude posts. From the tone of his writing, it seems that he is mostly just sharing his own. However, the subtitle of Cain's blog: getting better at being human could be read as instructional. It could also be read as simply reflective, so I guess it depends on the reader's perspective. Since Cain promotes a minimalist, conscious-raising, zen-like approach to self-improvement, I find it much less offensive than those with instructions for fame and fortune. Even so, I just reponded to a raptitude post here (which made me remember this question), and in this case I think the strategy could work for some, but not others, although Cain doesn't suggest it. IMHO I suppose if you approach Raptitude as a source of new perspectives, it could be helpful. But there does seem to be an implicit buy-in there. In short, I guess it always depends on the reader.