Two Days of Hard Work, Down the Cosmic Drain

The End of My Self-Help Career
I once read a mountain of self-help books—not because I needed them, but because I wanted to attack them. Out of that spite came The Circle of Awareness, my attempt to expose the genre.

But then, in a moment of weakness (ok, more like unrealistic greed), I decided to see if I could actually write one of those things. A spacey, New Age, self-help book under a pen name. I went full “anonymous professor on the brink of tenure” and dished out cosmic wisdom I didn’t believe for a second. I used AI to ladle it on extra thick.

I was completely cynical, just goofing. Imagine writing horoscopes after two beers—that’s about the level of sincerity involved.

And here’s the kicker: people liked it. Four-point-six stars. Strangers thanking the professor for “profound wisdom.” The book sells every month. There's an audiobook version with a Virtual Voice. I didn't remember what it said, so I went back and listened to it. I thought:  This is %^$#@$. It's so vague you can make any interpretation that you want, maybe that's the secret sauce.

So yes, I am technically a self-help author.  But this, dear readers, is the official end of my career in that genre. If you want guidance on calm reflection, there are other books that mean it. Me? I’m back to writing thrillers right now.

By the way, I will not disclose the name of the Self-Help book. You're free to search for it. There's somewhere between 400 to 600 thousand titles about self-helpiness on Amazon. Happy Hunting!

​But The Circle of Awareness, the expose of self-help. written under my name, might just teach you a few things about the cynical nature of  people cashing in by writing basically the same book over and over.

If you think The Self-Help Industrial Complex is just maybe a bunch of phonies, you might want to look at The Circle of Awareness. I was sincere in The Circle. Here's part of a review:
Here, Jim Flynn once again injects his acerbic humor - and often unique perspective - into, this time, an unlikely topic. And who would have imagined that even the history of self-help might itself be in need of such assistance?

So, before you give in to plunging into an ice bath, one of the current trends in Stoic Self-Help, you might want to read The Circle of Awareness.

link: www.amazon.com/dp/B0CMXB5NQK


​any comments? please email to: [email protected]

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