Hearty Approbation and Lavish Praise
Book Review: Dale Carnegie, "How to Win Friends and Influence People", Vermilion, 2006. Like many people, I tend to have a certain skepticism toward self-help books. These books typically repackage clichéd conventional wisdom, lack rigorous academic research, and have sensationalistic titles that over-promise on their content. However, Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People (henceforth abbreviated HtWF&IP) is not a merely average self-help book; it is arguably the most popular and influential self-help book of all time. Before reading it, I had heard it mentioned by so many people on so many occasions that I thought, "Okay, I have to see what this is about." The book was originally published in 1936 and revised in 1981, so it has been around for a while. While reading HtWF&IP you may, as I did, experience a sense of déjà vu regarding its advice: Smile? Use the other person's name in conversation? Let them do most of the tal...