[michaelbuckbee]

I avoided reading "How to win friends and influence people" for way too long based purely on my revulsion with the title - which just seemed nakedly manipulative.

However, when I finally brought myself to read it, I found it's a treatise on changing your attitude towards other people.

The core thought is that if you want to be interesting that you should be honestly interested in other people.

This really struck me as a humble and approachable way to do better with my communications and as you better understand people you'll just naturally be more persuasive.

[derstander]

I was in the same boat! But your description summarizes things both more succinctly and eloquently than I could have managed.

If you’re holding off on reading Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” because of the title (like we were), please give it a shot.

I almost wonder if the title is made to appeal to people more ruthlessly ambitious than I and maybe nudge them to be a little more understanding of others and make them more socially successful to boot.

I found Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” to be somewhat similar in that the title seems to be targeting highly ambitious people while the subject matter is useful to a broader audience. But I think that book only has a couple sections of interest to the OP. There are also some faint religious undertones to the 7 Habits that may escape the notice of or not bother most that I am unfortunately predisposed against.