As I see it, “self-help” is short-term/object-level, and “rationality” is long-term/meta-level.
If you want to improve your life, here and now, there is a lot of good specific advice you can follow.
Rationality is the level beyond that. If you get contradictory self-help advice, how will you choose? If you have already fixed the obvious mistakes, and you follow the standard good advice, what next?
There are two kinds of mistakes you want to avoid. One is focusing on insight porn, and neglecting your real life. The other is following the practical advice that seems good, and then stumbling upon advice that is actually really bad, and following it blindly off the cliff.
So I think the optimal approach would start with the specific good advice, but also keep explaining why.
As I see it, “self-help” is short-term/object-level, and “rationality” is long-term/meta-level.
If you want to improve your life, here and now, there is a lot of good specific advice you can follow.
Rationality is the level beyond that. If you get contradictory self-help advice, how will you choose? If you have already fixed the obvious mistakes, and you follow the standard good advice, what next?
There are two kinds of mistakes you want to avoid. One is focusing on insight porn, and neglecting your real life. The other is following the practical advice that seems good, and then stumbling upon advice that is actually really bad, and following it blindly off the cliff.
So I think the optimal approach would start with the specific good advice, but also keep explaining why.