Ask HN: How to win friends – 70 years later

[itry]

How to win friends and influence people is 70 years old now. Shouldn't there be some updates on this topic meanwhile? Have any other books on the topic been released that are highly popular?

[ggchappell]

> How to win friends and influence people is 70 years old now.

Actually, it's 78 years old (2014-1936 = 78).

In any case, the book has been revised significantly. If you buy a new copy today, then you're not getting the 1936 text. Wikipedia[1] indicates that the most recent major update was in 1981.

> Have any other books on the topic been released that are highly popular?

That seems likely, although I doubt that any single book has had anything like the popularity of HtWFaIP (if only because HtWFaIP was published in a time when bookstore shelves were not overflowing with self-help books).

I'd be interested in an answer to this question, too.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influen...

[32faction]

Make sure you get a copy from the 1930s! Everything else has been edited from the original text.

On another note, get a copy! I read it and was surprised a book nearly 80 years old is still highly relevant. It was actually pleasing to read the way people "spoke in books" back then as to today's book.

[ponyous]

I think much better question is, which self-improvement books do HN recommend? I haven't read a lot of them but I'm planning on reading 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

[_RPM]

Has anyone actually read this book? Is it effective?

[hackerboos]

I've read it and didn't care for it.

The entire book boils down to basically listening to people instead of waiting for your turn to talk. Carnegie gets this point across using a bunch of questionable anecdotal stories. He then linked this trait to success which is the prime motive for people to buy the book.

It reminds me a lot of 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' in that it falsifies stories as 'evidence' to reinforce what a reader already believes.

[OGiR]

Yes and yes. I am not a fan of "self-help" books, though this book could or could not be labeled as such. As someone who has for most of my life been quite socially inept, have found it very useful.

After reading this book, I try to make every conversation I have into a little game, where the goal is to get the other person to talk more, and about themselves, than I do. I tend to love to talk about myself, and think almost everything I say is very important.

[ponyous]

It definitely is, but I guess if you are already "cool" person you are doing most of the stuff described in book. I would still recommend reading it.