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"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff) LATEST POSTS:
- Dennis Prager v Cedars-Sinai Lawsuit
- Dennis Prager Through Randall Collins: Interaction Ritual Chains
- What is a ‘Received Idea’?
- Jordan Bardella: The Manufacture of Normality
- Everyone Became Television: Bourdieu’s Warning and the 2026 Iran War
- Marine Le Pen
- The Coalition-Proximity Rule
- Nigel Farage
- Bernard Haykel: A Life Between the Text and the Gun
- Walker Connor (1926-2017)
- Benedict Anderson and the Nation as Imagination
- Anthony D. Smith: The Student Who Kept the Question and Rejected the Answer
- Ernest Gellner
- Eric Kaufmann: The Man Who Made the Majority Visible
- Dominic Cummings: A Biography
- Steve Lopez: The Last City Columnist
- California Historian Kevin Starr
- Stephen Kotkin: A Life in Power
- William T. Vollmann: An American Life in Excess
- Rod Dreher: A Life in Exile
BEST POSTS:
- * The Enlightenment Wasn’t Enlightened (6-23-26)
* Mr. Burge Draws The Line (6-23-26)
* 'Improving on Democracy' (6-17-26)
* People Leak To People Who Are Fun (6-11-26)
* Why Does Australia Produce So Many Great Journalists? (6-11-26)
* Steve Wynn and the Press: Power, Litigation, and the Contest Over Las Vegas (6-3-26)
* Sheldon Adelson and the Journalists (6-3-26)
* The Vigilant Animal: Thinkers Who Reject the Myth of Human Gullibility (6-2-26)
* The Cost of Refusing the Misunderstanding Myth (6-2-26)
* Show Me How It Travels (6-2-26)
* The Norm Explainers (6-2-26)
* Centering Marginalized Voices (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Washington Post put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Financial Times put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for the Los Angeles Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for The New York Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* Why Wembanyama Lives on the Perimeter (5-31-26)
* The Emotional Palettes Of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco & Sacramento (5-27-26)
* The Administrative Capital: Sacramento Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* San Diego - The Quiet Republic (5-27-26)
* The Quiet Bar: San Diego Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* SF v LA Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* Why Talent Travels Poorly Between San Francisco and Los Angeles (5-27-26)
* San Francisco and Los Angeles as Rival Models of Urban Access (5-27-26)
* Social Cliques in New York, 2026 (5-25-26)
* Social Cliques in San Francisco, 2026 (5-25-26)
* The Rival Courts of Washington (5-25-26)
* The City of Private Rooms (5-25-26)
Category Archives: Self Help
The Jurisdictional Wars: Alliance Theory and the Battle for Self-Help Authority
Gurus, coaches, authors, and influencers in the self-help industry do not compete for authority by saying they want power. They compete by invoking transformational and empowerment languages that frame their claims as fidelity to personal growth, loyalty to mindset mastery, … Continue reading
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Why Doesn’t Self-Help Help?
Self-help sells because it promises something people desperately want: a shortcut to becoming a better version of themselves. The problem is that the very mechanism that makes self-help appealing also makes it ineffective. Reading a book about discipline feels productive. … Continue reading
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Eat, Pray, Profit
David Pinsof writes: Advice is rarely focused on the goals we actually have. For example, here’s what the self-help section might look like if it was focused on our real goals: Zen and the Art of Social Climbing Echo-Friendly: 10 … Continue reading
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What would Matthew McConaughey’s True Detective character think of his self-help venture?
That’s a great question I hear on this edition of Decoding The Gurus. Grok says: Rust Cohle, Matthew McConaughey’s character from True Detective Season 1, would likely view McConaughey’s self-help venture with a mix of disdain and philosophical skepticism. Cohle’s … Continue reading
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How To Avoid Getting Conned
When I moved to Los Angeles in 1994 and pursued work in acting, I was taken for about $10,000 by various cons that appealed to my vanity. At the time I was handing over my money (and I was living … Continue reading
I’m Dysfunctional, You’re Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help
From the New York Times review: Ms. Kaminer’s antipathy has little to do with whether these techniques work or not. She avoids questioning the experience of people who say they have been helped, cured or even had their lives saved … Continue reading
Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless
I’ve spent thousands of hours of my life reading self-help books and listening to self-help lectures. Overall, I’m ambivalent about the industry and the time I spent there. I think self-help helps some people and hurts other people. I do … Continue reading