Member-only story
Why Most Self-Help Advice Is Useless
On the absurdity of following other people’s footsteps
Imagine Arnold Schwarzenegger in his testosterone-pumped prime taking Hillary Clinton under his wing. Imagine him stuffing fistfuls of steroids into Hillary, throwing her onto a bench, dropping a half-ton barbell onto her, and then yelling “Push! PUUUUUUSH!!!”
Makes total sense, doesn’t it? That’s how Arnold became a popular politician. So it’s gotta work for Hillary too, right?
Well, no. And yet, there’s a whole industry that’s all about telling others what to do and how to live their lives, as if what works for one person is going to work for another. It’s an industry made up of life coaches, self-help bloggers, and popular podcast hosts. They all pretend they’ve got it all figured out. They pretend life advice can be boiled down to a bulleted list of seven items on a listicle that’s universal and applicable to everyone.
And maybe some of them actually believe their own platitudes. Maybe they’re like Arnold, thinking that the best way to make it into politics is by becoming a beefcake and movie star first, without ever realizing that just because it worked for them doesn’t mean it will work for anyone else. That, however, only excuses them. It doesn’t excuse us for eating up their bullpoop.
