Podcaster/journalist Michael Hobbes (@rottenindenmark) asked on Twitter yesterday,
What do you think is the most harmful "airport book" (pithy pop nonfiction) of the last 50 years?
The list of books in the responses is a who's who (or what's what) of bestsellers with bad advice and pop culture analysis. I've read almost none of them, and heard of almost all of them.
These are in order more or less of how often they were mentioned:
- The Secret
- Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
- Freakonomics
- 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (or one of its descendants)
- Hillbilly Elegy
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad
- The Art of the Deal
- Lean In
- 12 Rules for Life (Jordan Peterson, enough said)
- Grit
- The World Is Flat
Several people listed Who Moved My Cheese, which I have barely heard of. Sounds like I should be grateful for that.
The Bell Curve was disqualified for not being an airport book. A few others were disqualified for not being in the last 50 years.
A number of people listed anything by Malcolm Gladwell and a few Steven Pinker, but others thought their books didn't make the grade: "just because [they're] a low-information grift doesn't make [them] harmful."
I thought about reading Hillbilly Elegy soon after it came out, but was soon glad I didn't. Other than that, the only one of these I've read is Freakonomics (and its sequel). And, of course, a few Steven Pinker books. (I can't tell you how much my Twitter feed improved after I stopped following him.)
1 comment:
Given the list, I question the term “non-fiction.” : )
In light of the damage its non-writer has done, maybe The Art of the Deal. But that book alone didn’t build his public image. Given the damage to children and the education system, maybe Grit. (I believe in resilience in the face of difficulty and failure, but it doesn’t work if you don’t have breakfast, heat, enough desks, a quiet place to do homework, and so on, and so on.)
That they’re airport books might mean that people skim, toss, and forget, so maybe their effects are not always deeply, lastingly pernicious. In the spirit of The Secret, I will think that, and it will be so.
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