Reading self help materials has been one of the major turning points in my life.

Without self-help materials I would still have been a somewhat gifted kid but also a total mess of a human being. Thanks to self help I am becoming more and more self-realized every day.

I am not going to downvote you, because I am genuinely curious what you have against Ferriss. Care to tell me more?

What self-help materials do you recommend?

There's a lot of different ones of course... off the top of my head: No more Mr Nice Guy by Robert Glover.

I also like Personal development for smart people by Steve Pavlina.

Tom Butler-Bowdon has a series of books that summarize all the major works in psychology/self help/prosperity/success/etc. Those are a good way to get up to speed and learn what's out there in the genre.

Thanks, I'll look into them.

Why scammy? It's pretty common sense that these books do not offer any recipes for wealth creation, but they do offer something very important: the correct mindset for wealth creation. That is something that many many people lack and need.

Finally, if you find it useless, why do you assume that everybody else does so as well?

> these books do not offer any recipes for wealth creation

Oh but they do: for the authors.

The problem with them is that there is little of substance and lots of feel-good hand waving. The good bits could usually be summed up on a page. Compare and contrast, with, say "Founders at Work" where each story is different, unique and interesting in its own way.

Don't forget the ever-present promise that if you give him just twenty more dollars, he'll reveal the secrets to his success.

Unfortunately, the secret to his success IS the act of giving him twenty more dollars.

Didn't Tim Ferris found and run a supplement company years before publishing his first 4-hour book?

Tim Ferris founded and ran a Multi-Level Marketing company that sold supplements.

I have no use for anyone or anything that comes from a MLM background.

Before you dismiss Tim Ferris out of hand for his background, you should consider dismissing him on the merits of his methods of holding your breath longer than Houdini or eating ginger and sauerkraut to gain muscle.

Doing it my way cuts down on time wasted by at least 60 seconds.

I agree that Founders at Work is a far superior book as far as useful, actionable information goes.

However, I probably would never have read Founders at Work if I hadn't been inspired to get into entrepreneurship by Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

I suppose we have different definitions of "scammy". RDPD and the 4-hour series both package up common-sense recommendations in a way that resonates with a lot of people. There might not be a whole lot of substance there, but I don't think that's the point. The people who buy (and enjoy) those books, are the ones who just want to find someone else saying what they're thinking. It's a bit of extra motivation towards their goal.

There's not a whole lot of value there beyond confirmation of common-sense ideas, but I don't think that's a scam.

The 4-hour series borders on sociopathic behavior at times. I'd hardly call it common sense. I think Dwight Garner's review of 4-Hour Body in the New York Times summed up exactly how I felt about 4-Hour Workweek: "“The 4-Hour Body” reads as if The New England Journal of Medicine had been hijacked by the editors of the SkyMall catalog."

Ferris borders on the extravagant when talking about his personal experimentation. He portrays the image of a guy who has tried a million different things to keep the reader from having to. It's extreme, but the actual "advice" is all fairly common sense.

He advocates a slow-carb diet, which has been shown to effectively help people reach a healthy and sustainable weight. He also advocates that people do complex exercises rather than over-focusing on specific muscle groups. That makes up the majority of his health advice, and is not especially controversial and is all fairly common sense. He's basically saying to eat healthy food and to workout regularly if you want to be healthy.

He does throw some stuff in the "love" section that's just meant to sell books, and it's pretty much filler material, but I still wouldn't consider it scammy or bad advice. He's not advocating that people go to extremes like he did.

Nothings perfect, not even you, or I.

But, just because something isn't perfect, means it's no good. This mindset too, is troubling.

I think it's troubling to over-trivialize or generalize what any book can offer.

At the end of the day, it's up to us as individuals to take the good in everything. I found some things helpful in this book.

It's not at the core of my dominant world viewpoint, but helped me understand how to better (not perfectly, or completely) frame what I wanted in my future. It certainly didn't teach me how to get there.

I like the RDPD book*, but I couldn't even stomach the 4-hour work day. From page one, it screamed 100% false. Felt like I'd have to be retarded to believe any of it. Strangely, I haven't heard others say the same.

It's "4-hour work WEEK" :-)

I loved it. It's a motivational book, but as a disclaimer, I had my "muse" (business with passive income) already running before I read that book. I also had a day job, which I have quit now (actually, by the end of next week). The 4HWW gave me a strong impulse to do the step and quit my job.

And someone else mentioned here already: 4HWW is to give you a mindset. It worked pretty well for me.

Self-help books are like placebos, they really don't do anything for you but if you read one you'll believe that you can be successful even though most of them are full of platitudes and not much actual content.

But on the other hand I think this is the most important part about them, they give people the feeling that they can succeed which is a necessary ingredient to taking risks to making yourself successful.

I would think even placebos provide value...

Like a rough economic cycle, picking up a new skill, or learning to program, sometimes I have to slog through something difficult that does not seem to be getting me anywhere before the light bulb goes on and I realize "oh, THAT'S why this whatever is done that way."

What's that other adage? Fake it till you make it?