Self Help That Works...

Linda is a highly functioning autistic woman who loses her only child in a car accident. The cold and emotionally distant stranger who was driving the car comes to apologise and stays until after the funeral. As he watches Linda's different approach to life he lets himself relax more until, by the time he leaves her, he has “thawed”. That is a brief synopsis of the movie Snow Cake . I watched it last night and enjoyed it. I've been thinking about it today and considering what, if anything, I can learn from the story. As I have said on this blog before I am a voracious consumer of self help books but lately I've been thinking about other sources of wisdom and “lifehacks”. Movies are such a source. This is most obvious in children's movies. The lessons in a film like Cars are laid out for all to see, requiring little work from a young mind. Adults usually have to work a little harder when they watch their own films. But the work pays off when you find something

I buy a lot of self help books. I spend lunchtimes browsing the self-help section of Borders and I get a tingle when I see a new one that looks promising. I pick them up knowing how I should examine them; read the index, read about the author to establish their credentials, look for chapter headings and diagrams, read the back cover for testimonials. And sometimes that's exactly what I do. But sometimes the title or the promise ("Transform Your Life", "Find Your Purpose")creates such a positive emotion that I am going to buy it no matter what my examination reveals. Sometimes the emotional reaction leads to a good purchase. Mostly it doesn't and I end up reading the same tired self-help cliches for a few chapters before I throw it aside. And it's then that I get buyer's remorse a horrible feeling for someone who prides himself on making rational choices. I don't want to feel that emotion very often in the future but I suspect I will. Most

It's rare that a book nags away at me.  Most self help books are instantly forgettable when you put them back on the shelf. Having now read Tim Ferriss' "Four Hour Work Week" at least 4 times in total (that's not including all the dipping  into read throughs) I can safely say that it won't be going back on  my shelf for quite some time. I'm not going to review it because others have done it better than I would hope to (I'll add some links to reviews and stuff shortly) but I wanted to point out that you need this book.  Whoever you are and whatever you want from your life - you need this book. So if it's that good why is it ruining my life? Here's the first bunch of reasons: 1.  Most of the ideas Tim presents are simple yet pretty profound and I find myself thinking "Damn, why didn't I think of that before!" 2.  I am constantly looking at my own life and wondering how I can get from where I am to where I could be with a little help