Social Skills And Self-Help Advice I'm Not Crazy About

Here are some types of advice that I'm not crazy about. When I was working through my own social issues I found they didn't help all that much. I've heard other people claim they weren't that useful either. Hopefully by telling you about them you can avoid some detours of your own. You'll notice a lot of the points below promise a fast or effortless solution.

Simple, profound insights or motivational snippets

I mean things like, "Imagine today was your last day on Earth, how would you act?", or "You just have to not care what other people think!", or "How would you live if you had no fear of failure?"

The issue I have with this type of advice is not that what it's saying is flawed, but that it's often implied that it will instantly solve your problems, which it won't. For example, in the long term if you can cultivate an attitude where you don't care what people think of you you'll be better off for it. But you can't just read, "Don't care what people think!", suddenly have everything fall into place, and walk away a new person. Not every author presents it like this, but I've read my share of articles where some simple insight is presented as the 'key' to fixing a complex problem.

When people read advice like this they can sometimes get a cheap, fleeting boost in confidence and motivation. Going too far with chasing that feeling can lead to something I informally call epiphany addiction.

Vague advice like "Be yourself" or "Just be confident" or "Just have fun"

The difference here is that this type of advice doesn't give you that short-lived jolt of power and self-esteem. Well in some cases you may get that temporary high from it, but it's more meant to be a straight-forward guideline to follow. I find this stuff doesn't work too well because it's either too vague or too 'easier said than done'. You can interpret "Be Yourself" in two dozen different ways, some of them more helpful than others. And you can't just hit a switch in a your brain and be confident, it takes time.

This advice is sometimes given by people who can't think of anything better to say. Another factor is that many people who are socially savvy aren't very aware of exactly what it is they're doing to make themselves that way. It comes so naturally to them, and they've been doing it for so long, that they can't articulate it or break it down. They've never really thought about it, so if they do have to describe how they're so successful, they're likely to say something like, "Well, I don't know. I-I'm just confident. I have faith in myself, that's all... Yeah, that's it. Just be more confident."

Affirmations

You know, tell yourself that you're worthy, likable, awesome, handsome, etc. several times a day. In time, it goes, you'll mobilize your internal resources and make your dreams come to life. This is pretty classic advice. Personally, affirmations did nothing for me. When I first read about affirmations in high-school I decided to give them a shot. I said several affirmations to myself, many times a day. I felt good, and psyched-up naturally. I kept it up for a few days before I started to neglect the odd self-affirmation here and there. Within a week I wasn't doing them at all anymore.

Later on I started learning about affirmations more, and came to the conclusion that they're not very useful. How does telling yourself something make it so? How can you make something from nothing? Does it really work to tell yourself something you don't believe deep down? More importantly, I've seen many other people say they've had no results from them. My hunch is that this is the kind of advice that has been repeated and regurgitated for so long that no one questions it anymore. It's kind of like how grade school science textbooks have a reputation for being slow to catch up with current knowledge, because each new edition is mostly copied from the old one, without checking for new research.

Self-hypnosis

Yep, I've dipped my fingers in all kinds of places. I first learned about hypnosis in a university course and researched it more in my own time. When I read the claims of how I could effortlessly reprogram my mind, my interest perked up. I learned how to lie somewhere quiet and talk myself down into a state of deep relaxation. Once I felt fully self-hypnotized I repeated a few commands to myself. "I was confident. I wasn't insecure around people. I felt no fear of talking to strangers", and so on. I did this every night for a month or so.

Can you guess what happened? You win if you said I felt psyched up for a few days, and like my problems were solved, before the feeling subsided without me actually accomplishing anything. You know what really ruined hypnotism for me? I read that it only works if you believe it will work. After that it was never the same.

Mirroring people to get rapport with them

I've read a lot of accounts of people saying this hasn't worked for them, or if it did, the effect was very minor. My opinion on this is the same as how I feel about affirmations: This advice never really did much, but it's been around so long that lots of writers use it to pad out their, "Five Easy Ways To Get Along With People Better" articles without really thinking.

Being a good listener and being interested in other people

This piece of advice is everywhere. I don't think it's totally useless, but it's definitely over-hyped. I talk about it more in this article:

Listening And Being Interested In People Isn't A Conversational Cure-All