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I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, 'Where's the self-help section?' She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.

"If you're getting assistance from someone else that's not self-help, that's help. If you did it yourself you didn't need help." ~George Carlin

it's so important to gain knowledge through reading AND first hand experience. Books are awesome! But remember to go out and execute those practices.

my product placement sense is tingling

Currently reading '' The subtle art of not giving a fuck"

Because many are money grabs

The problem with self help is that it's often cheap, cash grab literature. "10 steps to be happy" "7 steps to make her orgasm" "5 things rich people do"; this kind of read is utter bullshit, but when it gets philosophical it can get quite interesting.

The arguments exposed are in favour of starting seeing literary classics as self-help books, and learning from them. but the video does not make any point for reading what we currently call self-help books.

Because reading anything makes you smarter? Well, except KZfaq comments...

"Purchase The Book of Life to find out more!"

I think self help books can be really tricky. The ones that ask you questions and make you reflect, do excersizes and experiments and maybe tell you to work Out(proven to lower anxiety and depression and make you happier and also healthier) Are good. But those that just give hope. Tell you to change who you are. Are like. "Look at my success" are counterproductive.

Read it, incorporate to your life the best teaching or the most relatables, see if they work, find when they don't work, analyze which ones are good and stick them into you.

The problem with self help books is that as they are so ridiculed, no good authors write them and they are not expected to be academicly rigorous. Because of that, most self help writers are buffoons or charlatans that confirm this self-fulfilling prophecy. In a nutshell: Low expectations -> Poor writing -> lower expectations.

Actually, I'm pretty sure the Young Adult Romance Novel genre still gets more criticism than Self-Help books. :p

Any book can be a self-help book as long as you grow from it. People might think Tony Robbins' books are self-helpful, but Charles Dickens taught me a lot too. The key is to find ways to implement what you learned from books in real life so that it makes you a better person. But self-help books sometime over-promise its readers with life altering or game changing strategies that really aren't realistic or generalisable. For some, reaching for a self-help book reflects a desperate attempt to remedy a dire situation in which a self-help book alone is unlikely to be sufficient. Yet, people who are content with their lives wouldn't bother read self-help books anyways. This forms a strange catch-22 which further devalues the entire genre. Most dangerously however is that self-help books sometime give us a false sense of security so much so that we risk getting caught up in the advice without actualizing what we learned. My advice is to approach any book with a healthy dose of skepticism, but also to discuss what you learned with a trusted and learned friend to gain perspective. Sometimes, the latter is way more helpful than the former.

When these books are philosophical such as the ones made by the stoics (marcus arelius and seneca) then yes they do work. However when its money grabbers with cheesy titles like (10 steps to become succesful) are stupid and they just want your money

We have to admit that self-help books are the introduction for common people to start reading more serious philosophical books. PD : Reason > emotion

This is weird, because Alain de Botton often talks about how self-help books can be damaging. Books like "you can do it, look how I succeed" and, in the video, he mentions what we consider to be fictional literature, which I think it's the best way to find self-help too (to look at other people's "life"). But that could have been clearer...

In fact I've always thought that they're so important before we'll start our major, maybe before our classical education. It's another tool to improve our personality which is very important for any activity to do.

What makes the author more qualified to educate emotions. It is something we are expected to know because truly no one knows how to live.

That's not the reason. They are ridiculed because they tend to be money grabs that really don't teach you anything special you didn't come up with once in your life or that you couldn't come up with when thinking for a few minutes. The REAL reason modern self help books have a point, is that they deliver a ton of motivation via examples. Even if a lot of them are made up.

I've been out of college for a while, but I recently read a book about how to do well in college. There were a lot of moments where the author described something where I wondered if I could do something that way, and if I'd read that book, I'd hav had more confidence. There was also stuff like asking questions without seeming like a teacher's pet. I think one reason self help books get such a bad rap is that the bad ones are really bad. They give flat out wrong information how to live, or they are pro-greed. While you can laugh at a bad novel and be done with it, the "if you failed, you didn't try hard enough" message TSoL has had problems with is very prominent. It may not be right, but it's simple.

“They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.” ― Tom Bodett

"That's not self help, that's help!" -George Carlin

This is the equivalent to saying "Why you should buy my mixtape?"

I'm a psychology student & NO, you should never read or rely on self-help books, at all. They encourage us to be something we're not, and if we become as instructed, we fuel this effort with willpower. Except, willpower is a scarce resource, and it's never pragmatic to use it for such short-term gain. Eventually, you'll revert back to your older selves, change has to be inspired from within, and it has to follow a certain natural progression. Self-help books allows us to introspect & gain wisdom, but they also come with the pressure of expectations. Reading a philosophy book for insight can serve as a disguised form of a self-help book, which would be the healthier alternative. This is coming from my own personal experience. However, this is not the case for everybody, as everyone has their own unique reaction to certain stimuli.

Two books that changed my life are: "Letters to a Young Poet" by Rilke and "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl. These books challenged how I view and interact with the world, and even how I approach my own life. However, I never saw them as self help books until now. It makes me want to write such a book one day as well!

I'm dealing with constant rude remarks from my partner when I even try to look at any self-help book. He's one of these people saying "you should already know how to live". Well, then teach me, you genius human being.

is it right that we should always depend ourselves to self help book? l think its addictive because when ever you face a problem so how could you solve it without a self help book?

Osho's self-help books transformed my life drastically while I was on therapy during my teenage years. I completely agree with this video. If people were more emotionally healthy, the world would be SO different.

I am really enjoying everyone's comments on this where they are sharing their favourite self-help books. Lovely reaction to this video. I have occasionally had the experience of a book that is not self-help being quite life changing, perhaps even more effectively than books intended to be self-help. The one that comes to mind was Mists of Avalon when I was in my early 20's. I had been raised catholic and had some limited views about sex and women's potential. I don't remember any specifics, but reading MoA was like an awakening.

I'm very glad you made this video...

4 minutes of a SOL video feels so long compared to most KZfaq videos, in a good way. Packed with meaning.

I got a chill down my spine from this. I often wonder why the self-help genre is so harshly criticized. The books are not judged separately, but instead by category. It always struck me as odd that this would be the case.

Good video and I agree. I started really reading them last year and my life has become considerably better because of it.

Completely agree that emotional education should be more important. I read nothing but psychology, self-help, biography and memoir; can't swallow fiction. I am the only member of my immediate family who isn't alcoholic and/or personality-disordered. Self help and psychology books have helped me vastly more than any shrink or counselor, and for free. Thanks for your videos--the animation cracks me up and the colors are beautiful.

Philosophy books are great for this too. Reading Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals taught me to accept emotions I deemed "bad" and to stop running away from life.

If Neil Gaiman writes self-help books, I would totally read them. Coraline is sort of self-help. And Yuval Harari's two books are quite enlightening too. Helped me to find my purpose and meaning in life. Waiting for his third one.

I love self-help books because I love psychology.

Your Euro-Centrism is stunning. Philosophy books of India (Chanakya Niti, Arthshastra, Vedas, Mahabharata, Bhagvad Gita, Ramayana), China (Confucius etc.), Egypt, Persia and Japan are not mentioned at all. Everything is Rome or Greece with you guys.

thank you guys for this... very underrated! self help is important

Hi from Brazil! Love this channel 🇧🇷😄

I don't seek out these books but I was actually given a copy of The Nerdist Way from a secret santa this christmas. He grabbed it for me as it helped him personally and I seemed to have been the target demographic for it, artistic and nerdy. So far I've been enjoying these tips and writing in my journal every day to keep up with these practices. Didn't think they were universally shat on by people.

I need a self-help book to help myself get into self-help books!

The four agreements ❤️

Amen Todays age has a good amount of people who read self help. Especially Americans. I encourage all. I myself am a reader of Tim Ferriss, a self pronounced student and advocate of Seneca's Stoicism and a major pusher for Marcus Aurelius writings. Happy New Years all. This video completed my year's reading list.

The first Alain de Botton I've read 20 years ago was "How Proust can change your life", it didn't, but I loved the way it teased my brain and I keep looking to get the same feeling since then... Also since then I try to have breakfast with beer... Oh wait, I guess Proust kinda changed my life.

Gratefulness is the secret to happiness. Once we all realize how incredibly lucky we are to even be alive on this planet and stop comparing ourselves to others, true happiness will find us. The one thing that helped me so much to become more grateful was Forwago.

This video really give me power to move on. Thanks.

that's not true. you can "self-help" someone with a good fiction book. emotionally educate them through humane stories.

Can't find the self-help Book on your website.

I totally agree with you TSoL books and literature have ultimately an ambitious and immensely precious purpose: to help ourselves live a better life. No matter if it's a Self-help book, a novel or an essay. Books can help you and teach you a lot. If you want to lead a better happier and fulfilled life, books are a great tool for that.

I'm typically pretty critical of the school of life, but I think you guys nailed it with this one.

Simple but effective tips!

I love school of life’s self help books and videos. It’s realistic and kind.

The school of life you guys always have good topics , i mean topics i tought unconciusly

why am i seeing this? i have adblocker turned on

I read Emotional Intelligence a while back. It was interesting. These days learning to survive in the deep woods is of utmost importance.

"Get out of your mind and into your life" by Steven Hayes is my recommendation to you all (as if giving a gift). Its a mindfulness based cognitive behavioral therapy book with a big emphasis on values, has science support not only wisdom. Read it and afterwards apply it in your life. You've just created a path...

okay but who else wanted to hug that cute little self-help book cos it looked so sad

Ok but really the running sound at 3:19 is the cutest

I agree with this to an extent. I think we have to acknowledge that the current "self-help" section deserves its reputation to a large extent. Most of them are fancy vocabularies for nothing more than this: 1. The placebo effect 2. The basic fact that trying to improve yourself--however you do it--leads to a sense of purpose and is preferable to letting yourself waste away 3. The novelty effect (the sensation of hope that this will work, before it's been given a fair try) 4. The basic fact that it is possible to think of virtually any situation in a positive or a negative way. These things can all leads to improvements in one's immediate situations, but that doesn't justify delivering them to you inside a house built on a foundation of pure pseudoscience, as most of these are. Additionally, many of them also critically leave out these other basic facts about self-improvement 1. That you don't learn how to be better, you *train* yourself to be better. That means that, while following the advice of these books seems easy while you are reading them, without some expectation-setting, instructions for long-term practice, and methods of remaining accountable and evaluating your progress, then the effect lasts as long as it takes to read the book. 2. That there is no route to the solution of your problems that does not go through both an honest acknowledgement of the reality of your problems and the flaws that cause them, and a vulnerable experience of your feelings. You can't skip this, but many of these books make it seem like solving your problem is mechanical: do the steps and after that you'll be fixed, and that no actual unpleasant experience is necessary. Maybe this is the cause of why self-help is poorly regarded. Or, maybe if self-help were well-regarded, we would have higher standards and wouldn't let them get away with so much nonsense.

i just finished "how to win friends and influence people" and going through " think and grow rich" the second time over

I have been writing self-help non-fiction spiritual books since I was 18. Now I'm 30. So I'm a Greek marketing manager bringing emotional thing

Ok so seneca's on anger opens some blaring misconceptions about infatuation with antagonistic behaviors and disturbingly references things we take for granted today.I think it closes alot of gaps of knowledge for things like bullying behavior. The main thought I came up with to consolidate the book is "Is good, good enough", not in a passive contentive way but as a question you might ask your self if you are "wanting for check". It's a must read, be it translated from Italian and using long lost words :).

In my opinion, I think the reason the genre is not viewed the best is due to the fact that there are a lot of poor works/non-qualified authors. If there were a stricter barrier to entry when it came to being a "guru" or educator in the space, I believe it would innately be held much higher

Why is it called self-help? Its just HELP.

Since Emperor Marcus Aurelius never intended the Meditations to be published, you could reasonably argue that he didn't write a self-help book. Unless you want to argue that any adult who's kept a diary that went beyond "this is how I spent my time today and who I spent it with" has written a self-help book.

Can someone help me, I find that when trying to read self-help books, (or any book for that matter) I find it very hard to process the information, my eyes are going over the words but my brain is not. Also I find them incredibly boring, I have never read a book where I don't need a vast amount of willpower to turn the page, it's like "here's another 5 minutes of staring at a page and wasting my time" and after reading Think and grow rich I've come away from that with practically nothing, I just can't understand a book, and I can't seem to enjoy a book.

More philosophy, please

Wow, really nice animations.

Excellent!

This video did not get the rep it deserves

as the great George Carlin said "That's not self help... That's help!"

They tend to peddle quick-fixes, the type that convinces people they don't have a problem and any of failure they've experienced, or any personal shortcomings they have is the fault of society (or at least somebody else). However, if there are self-help books that aren't what I described above, i would be grateful for people to provide titles along with their opinion.

I believe we've still got a long way to go in teaching the world that emotional intelligence - and therefore emotional education - is just as vital as any other form of intelligence.

The little books in this video were adorable! X)

Academics probably won´t support the idea but I agree. But, of course, we should know the difference between good self help books and bad ones. That´s the most important

Yes true. Here's a funny experience, once my librarian said me... Read more

The self-help book character they animated is so cute

It is similar in visual arts. In my experience, one wouldn't be taken seriously if their work was overtly spiritually meaningful. (I use the word 'spiritually' rather loosely). Though to be fair, a lot of the more woo-woo work is heavy on the woo-woo but light on the technical skill within the chosen medium.

Do I need to be a reader in order to be a good word user?

It seems to me, that the problem with most self-help books today is that they offer individual solutions to structural/ societal issues.

My favourite self-help books are the power of now, you were not born to suffer, a return to love, transform your life: a blissful journey, and the power

I thought the main reason self help books were ridiculed was due to how they often use emotional manipulation in an attempt to make their reader feel inadequate unless they use their product i.e reading another book that they've wrote or using a product they are trying to sell. In this regard it is in fact doing the exact opposite of it desired effect similar to how magazines will often target a young insecure audience.

One of my favorite videos

Gente, por que o título do vídeo está em português e ninguém teve o trabalho de traduzir o conteúdo? Por acaso o Inglês já se tornou universal?! Quem é brasileiro tem obrigação de saber inglês como se fosse a língua mãe? Vamos colaborar, né?

I was shocked by the intro bec its not how its viewed today then i saw 5 yrs ago damn it really changed

I love school of life but sort of laughed hard how the video was very precise and elegant and then at the end, the image of the self-help book school of life sells .. . . :P

My favourite book ever is the picture of dorian gray by Oscar wilde. It left me speechless at how intricate every line was, whats your favourite book?

Very good way to present this topic. Myself i dont read self help books based on the fact that a self help book is infact a lie in its self. By reading one you are gaining outside help and not "self helping" yourself.....

Any great self-help books suggestions?

Any recommendations?

I go to a bookshop looking for some philsophy and history books and all that I can see is shelves full of Self-help books.

How is it “self” help if one seeks help from a book written by someone else?

At least the reason I read is to know myself better. Sometimes through literature and sometimes through self-help.

Comment Below, Your Top 5 Self-learning books

Always been my favorite genre

...i fuckijg love selfhelp books, its like tje keys for a great life are all lying there for people to pick up... keys to open up so many new world. Kawledge man!!!