[degobah]

> We are nothing without good process, and self-help books or the actions they describe are hugely useful with that...

His FIRST criticism is that the books and articles about success are vague (i.e. lacking in specific actions) and ineffective (not actually useful).

> This piece is a deeply anachronistic

You are aware this is an essay from around 1908?

[triplesec]

Chesterton's one of the UK's most famous essayists and my dad grew up with his Father Brown stories. The age of the piece is precisely why I said it was anachronistic! It's possible that the obvious issue of its age could have been clearer, both in the posting, and in my comment, although its presence on gutenberg.org is a good enough clue for most HN readers.

This is clearly not his best work. I suspect he had a hangover, just as Beethoven clearly did during some of his more inane piano writing. Even the greats have off days!