[mrgreenfur]

Totally agree. I also think this is mostly what religion is. "Wisdom" with some powerful rituals and family/social re-enforcement that tickles the same spot of the brain: tricks to get ahead from wiser people that know whats up.

[xwolfi]

Well it depends. Those self-help gurus are also finance-driven, while religion is often, especially at the start, more like a focused group-building exercise.

You reject all attempt at explaining the world so you don't get stuck in awe on the beach looking at the sky, and start instead the long work of cultivating fields, building monuments, joining armies, things like that. Islam was a tool to unite then conquer, Judaism possibly an emancipation/union initiative for slave, and Christianity a very soft society transformer in Rome. They all served group-building exercise.

Self-help instead does a bit the opposite, it focuses on you as an individual, is very transactional (you pay to read advice), and has very little to show for (or it's very hard to measure), unlike say Christianity arriving in a slave colony.