Self-help or Psuedo-Crap?

So I am perving on Lifehacker again. I can't help it. I love the site to bits - though my productivity goes to zero when I'm in the middle of lovingly perusing its archives.

And I find this excerpt of a book I feel I MUST HAVE. Scott Berkun's Making Things Happen. It's a book about project management.

David Lian says I remind him of a friend of his who loves self-help books.

Well, I like some of those things.

Brain Rules, for instance, RULES.

Another friend of mine, who I shall refer to as My Favourite Monkey or MFM, hates the things.

MFM says: "They're all common sense wan!"

Well, some people just need telling.

Of course, some self-help books are merely stinking masses of psychobabble-ish crap.

But I can't name the books because

1. I could get into trouble. I really don't feel like dealing with the legions of cultists who will leave long, ranty comments on my blog.
2. Some of my friends swear by some of the titles I detest.

I don't read the books about making money or getting to the top.

But I do read books like Rabbi Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People.

Sometimes you need reminders that you aren't the only one hurting. And sometimes, the best people to talk to when you're in a dark place is someone who knows what it's like. Who can say, with truth, that they sat in the long darkness and waited for the light to come.

And it came. You know it's true, because they've seen the end of the dark tunnel. So now that they can see, they can reach a hand out for you to hold on to until that day you can see too.