Dale CarnegiesHow to Win Friends & Influence Peopleis one of the best selling self-help books of all time.
The book has influenced a wide range of people over the years, fromWarren BuffetttoCharles Manson.
Lets dig into it.
This is part of Lifehackersbook reviewseries.
Which route you take can change how you feel about the book, yourself, and your relationships.
Be a good listener.
Encourage others to talk about themselves.
Talk in terms of the other persons interest.
Make the other person feel importantand do it sincerely.
Its all pretty simple.
First, force yourself to smile.
If you are alone, force yourself to whistle or hum a tune or sing.
Act as if you were already happy, and that will tend to make you happy.
Regardless, the whole thing seems to rely a little too much onoptimismfor my liking.
Still, thats not to say a lot ofHow to Win Friendsisnt good stuff.
Despite the lack of sophistication in some of these suggestions, its all pretty harmless.
The worst example of this comes from Chapter Seven, which is the chapterCharles Manson used the most.
In fact, according to Manson biographerJeff Guinn, Manson used many of Carnegies techniques word-for-word.
She had wanted to make this trip for several years.
But we couldnt obviously make both trips.
I asked her how she would like to visit the places she had learned about on our next vacation.
She said she would love to.
Maybe Im the wholesome one in this case, but the tactic sounds manipulative to me.
How you incorporate Carnegies lessons into your life is totally up you.
There are manipulation tactics here meant to persuade people to your way of thinking.
Personally, I find a lot of Carnegies suggestions either too simplistic or insincere.
