Why all those self-help books aren’t helping you
Want to help yourself? Stop obsessing over self-improvement
“I felt a twinge of nervousness when I popped the large white pill out of its aluminum strip. Shortly after swallowing it, I thought I could feel something, but the effect was subtle, hard to describe. I was feeling alert and awake, as though I had downed five coffees.”
In 2016, business school professors Carl Cederström and André Spicer spent an entire year test-driving self-improvement techniques for their book, Desperately Seeking Self-Improvement: A Year Inside the Optimization Movement.
The excerpt above describes Cederström’s experience with a so-called smart drug:
“When trying to read a book, the words and sentences passed me by, like speeding cars on a highway,” he said, “and whenever I tried to write something down, the words kept disappearing.”
The authors spent thousands of hours experimenting with productivity drugs, sex toys, and plastic surgery.
They talked to psychics and life coaches, attended motivational seminars, and participated in…
