Comments on: Pavlina’s book review: Personal Development for Smart People

By: personalspecialties

personalspecialties — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 14:53:00 +0000

protectionspecialties…

Academic Productivity » Pavlina’s book review: Personal Development for Smart People…

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 19:44:13 +0000

Martin… I think you should take care in labeling any group as having a “cookie-cutter” form. You’re generalizing by doing so and making yourself sound as judgmental as you are claiming academics are. I do agree with your bit on creative thinkers. However, I think those who will profit most will be a combination of the two: creative, free thinkers who seek out new ideas that branch from the old information they’ve heard “regurgitated.” Isn’t that how the greatest thinkers of our time have evolved? By having a solid base of core academics and then thinking outside the box?

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:12:55 +0000

Although academics might be known for accuracy and scientific validity, academia evolves slowly. The leading-edge of new ideas will be driven by creative free thinkers – the personality type that academia despises because they do not fit in their cookie-cutter form.

When these people find an idea that works, they are the first, and they profit it from it. Academics, with their lack of creativity and free will, will always be regurgitating old information.

By: Goal Setting College

Goal Setting College — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:59:03 +0000

Jose, thanks for this. I’ve been reading reviews from various personal development related blogs on Steve Pavlina’s book and yours have given a pretty unique dimension to it you’re brutally honest! It’s refreshing to hear from a different side of the camp

Cheers,
Ellesse

By: Conn Stell

Conn Stell — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 07:17:38 +0000

I think this domain of practical psychology (personal development, self help, self improvement, etc.) is by its nature somewhere between social science and mysticism. It depends on the author of a book or a blog, in this area, if he have science as model then his writing will more precise, clear and argumentative, but if incline towards mystical views of the life and world in general then his writings will be more metaphorical and interpretative.

Cheers.

By: Hiphop

Hiphop — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:17:48 +0000

Nice, very nice for any personal development.

By: Andrew Murray

Andrew Murray — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:02:38 +0000

I find Part I most use full then II. Get on to Part I, it explains the seven core principles, one chapter per principle. This part of the book is intended to give you a new “big picture” model for understanding what it means to grow as a conscious human being. And on other hand, Part II is all about the practical application. After you learn how the principles work, you’ll receive an abundance of instruction on how to apply each of the seven principles to improve your results in six major areas of your life: habits, career, money, health, relationships, and spirituality.

I recommend recommend
I recommend recommend recommend
and I highly recommend.

By: marie torres

marie torres — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:13:08 +0000

I see ….
People figuring out their own beliefs around truth, love and power is exactly the point I was trying to make – not so much being dependent on what Steve believes, but rather because this is the case, just wondering how he then is able to describe these as essential principles people will follow to achieve personal growth. I think if Iâ€™m wearing my NLP hat Iâ€™m always interested in modelling how people do x, y or z and the more subjective something is, I guess the more difficult that becomes! Even itâ€™s a valuable book to think for opening up another point of view, however of course if youâ€™re uncertain perhaps you can look through it in the bookstores first to observe if itâ€™s incredible youâ€™d forfeit for.

By: NLP Books

NLP Books — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 03:47:23 +0000

Although Pavlina’s methods and books sound like there would be little to gain from them, I don’t think we can toss out all books that don’t have references. When I’m reading for pleasure and I’ve chosen a good book, I sometimes don’t want to deal with the references.

Also, there are a lot of good self help books and methods out there, and it sounds like you want to throw the whole thing out. Maybe 80% are nonuseful and 13% are pretty good, and the remaining 7% are insightful or very insightful. Take “The Structure of Delight” for instance from Nelson Zink. It’s a book of stories written to stimulate the subconscious mind and allow you to grow as a person and it’s all just a story of metaphors.

By: Professor Zero

Professor Zero — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 04:26:22 +0000

I love your blog!