Self-help books

Well, /adv/ and /lit/ are useless. I'm looking for some good self-help books, preferably those based on actual research. No pick-up artist nonsense or miracle quick fixes written by quacks.

Any suggestions?

that shit doesn't exists.

How to win friends and influence people by dale carnegie
Past that, nothing really that I know of.

Except that Carnegie's "method" is crap and never has worked for anybody ever in the history of time. Other than that, totally.

But think about that. Why wouldn't it work? Well, Carnegie offers zero contingencies for obvious circumstances. In his world there are no hustlers, bosses are gee golly cornball, and women like flowers.

Good luck with that one!!!

As for PUA stuff, well, that stuff is just the usual barber shop talk. Commercialized. It's not substantially better, but it has two things of use (these are conservative values): 1. experience (try this. Hey, maybe it will work for you). 2. An illustration of the dearth of venues for heterosexual males to have mere conversation. Believe it or not that's a cultural affliction, not a genetic one. In many countries it's very common for men to socialize in all-male groups.

Something else? Learn a form of meditation called "focusing." There are other names. The basic idea is to just focus on a sensation that coexists with a worry or an unpleasant thought or feeling. Merely focusing on it should help it go away. More complex variations exist, but really this is the only

BTW, one problem is that you're requesting a "scientific" solution to a problem science has nowhere near solved. Consider a vastly more simple problem: the Turing test. I mean in contexts where the agent is actually attempting to fit a role other than "imbecilic chatter." A good variation is "perform as well as human applicants for a fast-food job interview conducted by text."

Well, we can't do that. So if we can't scientifically engineer the elements of substandard speech I don't think you're going to find solutions for genuinely sophisticated speech.

Having said that, you should really look into hypnosis in its ready substance (watch Fox News) and in its efficacy (tell a Democrat that Clinton is a rapist. Watch face glow. Ask why they give a darn. Tell them their sister is ugly. No response? Interesting).

Windy. My thoughts. What have you waded through so far?

Remember, your mother taught you to speak, but she didn't have scientific proof of her method.

>>4
Except that Carnegie's "method" is crap and never has worked for anybody ever in the history of time
Somebody's butthurt. It may be a little old and it won't make you into an expert in human relations, but it provides a good basis.

Try The Freedom Manifesto by Tom Hodgkinson.

>>4

Dunno. My Grandfather swore by it, and he was an extremely successful motherfucker.

Eckhart Tolle's Power of Now is a great book.

It's not backed up by any research, but anecdotal evidence suggests it makes a difference.

Take it or leave it.