Pre-order Personal Development for Smart People (Blog)

[justin]

For all you Kindle lovers out there, I just noticed that Steve's book now has a Kindle version in the Amazon store!

Steve, I presume this will be released on the same day as the hardcopy?

[Steve Pavlina]

Originally Posted by justin

For all you Kindle lovers out there, I just noticed that Steve's book now has a Kindle version in the Amazon store!

Steve, I presume this will be released on the same day as the hardcopy?

Most likely the Kindle version will be released the same day (or at least the same week), but that decision is ultimately up to Amazon.

[Keith]

BTW, I meant to comment:

What arises from this model is a new definition of human intelligence: Intelligence is one's degree of alignment with truth, love, and power.

Hopefully the book will elaborate, but on the face of it this just seems confusing - why create a new definition for a common-use english word?

If the existing word doesn't mean what you want, wouldn't it be better to find a better word or coin a new one?

[Keith]

Hey, belated thought:

Given that the key principles are Truth, Love and Power, and the intersection of all those principles are Intelligence - wouldn't a more fitting name for the book be "Personal Development for Intelligent People"?

[Tuumble]

Originally Posted by Keith

Hey, belated thought:

Given that the key principles are Truth, Love and Power, and the intersection of all those principles are Intelligence - wouldn't a more fitting name for the book be "Personal Development for Intelligent People"?

I kinda like 'smart' because it implies both intelligence and streetwise to me. By saying 'intelligent' I have a feeling that some will automatically let limiting beliefs get in the way.

[supertom]

what other books is steve thinking about, i remember polarity, some ebooks would be cool

[Bruce Achterberg]

Steve,

If I search for your book using the Amazon.com search, the result for your book links me to this page:

Amazon.com: Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth: Steve Pavlina: Books

It doesn't have a buy option, unless I go to the "hardcover" copy of your book.

Seems like an inefficiency you may want to get rid of. You want the buy option and general info about the book to be nice and clear, I'd think.

But then, perhaps this is secretly good, since it acts as a nice filter for the smart people. (But then, smart people aren't the only people who need your book. And we need non-smart people to buy your book, become outraged by it, and sell it cheap second hand so the broke smart people can buy a copy. <--- that was too much fun.)

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by Keith

Hey, belated thought:

Given that the key principles are Truth, Love and Power, and the intersection of all those principles are Intelligence - wouldn't a more fitting name for the book be "Personal Development for Intelligent People"?

You can be intelligent without being smart.

I know lots of intelligent people who spend hours of their day working in jobs just for the money, or doing university degrees without any idea of what they're doing after they get their degree.

Doesn't seem too smart to me. To me, smart is more of a holistic sense of intelligence, which is the definition Steve uses for intelligence. Most people associated intelligence as lots of knowledge or mental skills, but that's a pretty fragmented, incomplete model of intelligence (what about emotional intelligence? Social intelligence? [Insert other intelligences here that I can't think of a decent name for]?).

Consequently, most people throw around words without being able to define them consciously and intelligently. Here's a good one: love. Another good one: friendship. And another: talent. If you want a fun field experiment, go ask people to define each of those terms. Be sure to carry around bits of paper with a link to Steve's blog, Steve's book, and some of Marcus Buckingham's work.

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by Keith

BTW, I meant to comment:

Hopefully the book will elaborate, but on the face of it this just seems confusing - why create a new definition for a common-use english word?

If the existing word doesn't mean what you want, wouldn't it be better to find a better word or coin a new one?

If you go that route it's pretty easy to start attracting people who want to guru-ize you and create a sort of cult status around your work. You want to avoid that--at least, Steve does, I'd say.

Note how almost all religions have their own custom terms (either words, or words strung together in a certain way).

The difference between religion and Steve's model is that Steve's model is more about concepts and ideas, where religion is kind of a world view that you have to accept. You can take ideas and concepts from religion as well, but it's usually uncommon. In PD, if you take some ideas and use them, you're not doomed to hell. You're free to do what you wish. But in most religions, there is a sense of "this is more right than that" and "you have to make a choice." To me, that isn't compatible with oneness. It feels wrong and unnecessarily limiting. I don't think that's a good way to experience authenticity and alignment.

I think Steve made a big attempt to *not* say that "this is the only model there is", instead trying to intelligently make people consider what is true for them. Religion kind of does that in a way through the various practices. We're really talking about spirituality now, but in my experience, religion always tacks on a paradigm and if you don't accept that, you're kind of excluded. Perhaps that's a bit blanket statement-y, but it seems to apply generally enough.

Personal development tends to be more inclusive than that, and while you could say that PD is just another religion, but PD doesn't really have anyone at the top delegating or passing down teachings to the masses. I'm sure people would argue that, but I think PD is more about charting your own course. There are experts, but nobody really claims to have all the answers (although I'm sure some people will argue that, too, heh). Some people might treat PD as a religion. They just need some more PD. Specifically, a bit more truth. I think people who might do that would be not feeling good and then would attach to PD as a solution, like many do with religion. People do this with many things: sex, alcohol, habits, etc. I think what's not so great about religion is that it kind of has this self-reinforcing system that doesn't really get the participants to question the assumed paradigm that much. Not considering leaving the possibility open that there are other possibilities out there, and not considering other possibilities at all, seems not-good to me.

But as you can see, I'm not great at eloquently describing this. Someone else can take the ball and run with it if they want.

[Adrienne]

I was just curious.
I went onto amazon and typed in smart people under books and i got steves book.. but it was a different page
Amazon.com: Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth: Steve Pavlina: Books
at the time i write this, this says this book does not have a release date but it is an English hard cover version. You cant order it.

Here is the actual one you can order.. Amazon.com: Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth: Steve Pavlina: Books and even this has a link to it for the "hardcover" version which is the page i listed above that does not give the ability to order it.. i was just wondering if anyone know what was up with this? i had not seen it before.

Adrienne

[supertom]

theres a pdf on chap 1, if anybody got the email.

One question i have to ask about the truth, say when im lifting weights i pretend that i have rock arms, it helps me lift heavier weights, is this falsehood??

[Keith]

Question re this diagram:

Why are Oneness, Authority and Courage outside the triangle separated from intelligence rather than being inside the triangle - ie. approaching intelligence rather than going the opposite direction?

[EDIT] In fact, would this be better as a Venn Diagram? Something like:




Or am I misunderstanding what the triangle diagram is trying to say?

[Malazan]

Originally Posted by Keith

[EDIT] In fact, would this be better as a Venn Diagram? Something like:




Or am I misunderstanding what the triangle diagram is trying to say?

The Venn diagram is pretty good and maybe clearer in showing the links between the principles. But I feel like the triangle is a simpler approach and looks more organized, but that's just my take on it.

[nhaasch]

Many religions say that God is:
1. All Knowing (Truth)
2. All Loving (Love)
3. All Powerful (Power)

I was ecstatic when I made the connection between Steve's core principles and that traditionally assigned to God. Is it mere coincidence that Steve came up with these three? The principles are an approach to get a closer to God(Intelligence). The better we understand the three, the better we follow the three, the closer we get to becoming God. *giggles* I suppose it should be no surprise that we should try to emulate that which we revere?

It was a joy to read the first chapter of the book today! I look forward to reading the rest of the book when it is released in October.