I was reading a review of Self-Help Without the Hype and the reviewer mentioned he was a bit jealous of the author. It turned out the reviewer was Adam Khan who wrote Self-Help Stuff that Works. I enjoyed his review and decided I’d read both books and see for myself how “Without the Hype” and “Stuff that Works” compare.

Self-Help Without the Hype is presented as a story wherein a young man goes to an older man to learn how to help himself solve his problems. The older man, “Uncle Fred,” teaches “the young man” the three secrets of helping one’s self. There’s no hype, just solid behavioral psychology but I felt the presentation got a bit hokey after awhile and I started to feel condescended to rather than entertained or instructed.

Self-Help Stuff that Works is divided into three parts covering, Attitude, Work and People. Each part has little straightforward vignettes, each covering a “stuff” idea, which works. For example, the part about Work contains ideas with titles like, “Zoning Out,” Time Management Made Simple,” “Law of Return,” “Getting Paid to Meditate,” and “Burn Your Own BTUs.” I liked the freedom this book gave; allowing one to flip to an idea whose title catches the reader’s eye and read at will. At the end of each idea is a bolded, summary sentence. After reading awhile though, I noticed the reader is not taught how to apply the ideas; they’re only presented as good ideas. The summary sentence became the entire idea for me and I wondered why read the material? The idea titled, “Maybe it’s Good,” for example, has the summary thought, “No matter what happens, assume it’s good.” My response to that is, “Okay.” I was disappointed that the author didn’t engage me more and only presented the basis for why the summary sentence “works” for helping one’s self.

I’m glad I read both books together. The three behavioral principles taught “without the hype” can be practiced using the “stuff that works.” The books compliment one another well. Epstein (non-hype author) reiterated many times the adage, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” I think he would find Khan’s (stuff) book to be primarily fishes that have been given. However, it is my feeling that “You gotta eat while you learn.”

Categories: SelfHelp, ClientReviews