Cliché, Platitudes, Bromide, Truism: The Heart of Self-Help
You won’t learn anything new on Medium. Here is why:
Do you want to focus?
Eliminate all distractions.
Do you want to have a good sleep?
Go to bed early.
Do you want to earn more money?
Work harder.
Stop it!
These statements are correct in their truth content,
but what do they tell us other than what we already know?
I mentioned this some time ago in the article below. At the time, I thought it was because of the length of the articles. Finally, you ask yourself: what great ideas can you learn in such a short article? So one should read a book instead.
But even that does not solve the problem….
The problem is not Medium per se, but the self-help niche:
Obvious truths are sold as great wisdom and hidden secrets.
After all and all, these are not things that will give us the great insights, but they are marketed as if they would.
And that is a problem…
It would seem that if we continue to read these articles and books, we are spending our time wisely. Instead, perhaps we should ask ourselves whether we should continue to do so…
In that article above, I have asked myself exactly this question. And we should always ask this question, especially when we read articles and books by famous and popular authors. The popular opinion might be wrong…
We think we are dealing with great wisdom, but in the end we are not learning anything new. We recognise it because it is easy for us to understand these things.
This is not because we are so intelligent, but because we have read something we already know. New things are often very difficult to understand and grasp. It therefore requires a little effort.
This is where the saying
“Nothing worth having comes easy”
comes from.
Conclusion
- Read stuff that is not obviously easy to grasp
- Learn more things that you have absolutely no clue about (you won’t find it in the self-help niche)
- Question the popular opinion
And if you are a writer on Medium:
- Please stop the truism!
🔥 Genius Mastermind is a persona that is still being developed. More things need to be learned, more books need to be written. Follow for more articles on Book Writing and how to write your own book.
📚 Books:
📕 The Secrets to Learn Any Language
📘 Speed Reading Genius
📗 Why Everything You Know About Making Money Is Wrong
