Interesting quote about self improvement

[Cron]

I recently got finished reading the book "Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood.

Atwood is a feminist novelist who makes occasional and GOOD forays into science fiction. Though her stories are not innovative for the science fiction genre she writes well, and infuses new life into old stories.

In Atwood's book the main character studies literature while he is in school. He develops an interest in reading very old self help books. When he graduates he ends up getting a job as a promotions person for a company that makes self improvement products. I found this quote from the job interview scene to be provocative:


(approximately page 245, the chapter titled "Vulturing")

What had impressed them, said the interviewers -- there were two of them, a woman and a man -- was his senior dissertation on self-help books of the twentieth century. One of their core products, they told him, was the improvement items -- not books any more, of course, but the DVDs, the CD-ROMs, the Web sites, and so forth.

...

(page 246 )

"You showed great insight into the process", the woman said. "In your dissertation. We found it very mature."

"If you know one century, you know them all," said the man.

"But the adjectives change", said Jimmy. "Nothing's worse than last year's adjectives"

"Exactly!" said the man, as if Jimmy had just solved the riddle of the universe in one blinding flashbulb of light.

This quote really struck me for several reasons. One reason is that I have seen several people on this board make the same observation that I have had. That observation is that many PD systems don't say anything new, they just rephrase and recompile existing PD knowledge.

Stephen Covey in his 7 Habits wrote that people who are successful have the capacity to do things of their own accord when they do not feel like doing them.

Perhaps one of the reasons that PD knowledge keeps getting reinterpreted is that consumers are looking for a way around this fact and new materials give that illusion with "new adjectives"?

I'm not dissing PD. There are legitimate reasons for recompiling and presenting existing knowledge in new ways. I and other people have benefited in legitimate ways from that.

[Andrew Brunelle]

Self-improvement is masturbation. How's that for a PD quote?

[Mark Lapierre]

I agree Cron, I've no doubt that all of the fundamentals of PD that I've come across have been around for a long time. And even during the same period the same message may be told in different ways. Some are coated in language which makes them more appealing to some (new age style books for example), but less appealing to others, however those others will undoubtedly find the same message told with different words (computer metaphors for example) that they will find more appealing.

For example I find Phillip J. Eby's essays on the distinction between self and ego more digestable than anything by Eckhart Tolle. And while they both superficially appear to be presenting a different message, the result of assimilating that message would be the same; vast personal development.

(The Multiple Self is the first article of Phillip's that I read, and my favourite of all PD articles I've read in the last few months)

Originally Posted by Andrew Brunelle

Self-improvement is masturbation. How's that for a PD quote?

Obviously I'm missing something. How is self-improvement masturbation? That makes it seem all about immediate and transient pleasure, and while pleasurable, self-improvement is neither immediate nor transient.

[songwriter]

"PD" itself is one of those adjectives too. That's why I don't like to call it that way... Call it be wise, be happy, be better or whatever... Learning to live. Three "old" words.

[Christian223]

I would gladly consume older material on anything (i do actually), i find it sad that people pay attention to things only because they seem new, but its a thing of this century i guess , older things are evil!!

[Will Edwards]

I too agree with the premise. There are very few really good works out there, but from time to time, you get something that gives insight.

For me, these are the works that really 'said' something ...

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey
The 7 Spiritual Laws of Success - Deepak Chopra
The Science of Getting Rich - Wallace D Wattles
The Master Key System - Charles F Haanel
How to Find Your Real Self - Mildred Mann

Even within this short list, there is substantial overlap, but I personally feel they each add something unique.

Sadly, there are few books of this calibre.