Books I love and hate: Dale Carnegie's “How to Win Friends and Influence People”

I tend to think books and stories that raise controversy are probably the best books and stories of all. This is my quick and insightful comments on one of the most popular business books of all time.

Can a book actually do something for you? The book starts with "Twelve Things This Book Will Do For You."

 1. Get you out of a mental rut, give you new thoughts, new visions, new ambitions.
 2. Enable you to make friends quickly and easily.
 3. Increase your popularity.
 4. Help you to win people to your way of thinking.
 5. Increase your influence, your prestige, your ability to get things done.
 6. Enable you to win new clients, new customers.
 7. Increase your earning power.
 8. Make you a better salesman, a better executive.
 9. Help you to handle complaints, avoid arguments, keep your human contacts smooth and pleasant.
 10. Make you a better speaker, a more entertaining conversationalist.
 11. Make the principles of psychology easy for you to apply in your daily contacts.
 12. Help you to arouse enthusiasm among your associates.

Dale Carnegie's book is certainly one of those literary works that I’ve always seen as important. I used many of its lessons to successful conclusions when I was younger so I viewed it as incredibly useful too. As I gained knowledge about the bigger picture, I initially started to despise it for the deceptive nature but eventually realized it’s just exposing the game and for that it again is very useful. So, I don’t really “hate” the book but I do see the traps it sets for people to fall into. In that regard I dislike that it takes advantage of human weaknesses.

I would still recommend that everyone take the time to read it for themselves.

So let me outline the Bad issues I see with this book.

One, propaganda. If you notice this problem in this book, you’ll probably notice it with many of the business and leadership books out there. This is one that demonstrated it with such success… that it’s become an industry.

How to Win Friends and Influence People (HtWFaIP) was written in the early 1930’s. Industrial monopolists and bankers had had a heyday utilizing the government to gain an incredible foothold in a robust and wealthy nation. However, their plan had its weak points, one of those, crashing the economy had to be explained away as a result of capitalism. At the same time the individual characters, the oil barons, the monopolists, the politicians had to improve their PR as well. Thus, through HtWFaIP they got what they wanted. Much like corporations use the news today… the bad elements were able to use the book to influence the public into believing these people were the nice guys. Was Dale involved in a conspiracy, an opportunist or just a useful idiot? That, I can only speculate on... but I do see the technique clearly being used to this day.

Two. 1981 changes. In 1981 the book was revised and two sections were dropped. Letters that Produce Miraculous Results and Seven Rules for Making your Home a Happier Place were deleted. When a well known book is altered one should certainly take note. A red flag should go up. This book may still be paying dividends to the powers that be.

Now the Good ones.

One, If you look at the underlying lessons without the emphasized characters inserted, the lessons are amazingly helpful and useful. I think most Anarchist and Voluntaryists would agree that a society practicing the lessons taught would be a very livable one.

Two, there are some particularly powerful parts that point to the better person within. One is Father Forgets by W.Livingston Larned.

Three, as I pointed out at the beginning, this book demonstrates something very useful about the methods the ruling class use to steer the masses. They use truths but then cloud reality by tying them with emotion to unsavory characters they control. A savvy individual will take note of this method… it’s everywhere.

In conclusion, HtWFaIP is a very useful and interesting book. It’s much more than it appears. But be careful. Don’t get what’s useful confused with what isn’t.