How To Win Friends And Influence People

06 Feb 2019

One of the most famous ‘self-help’ books of all time, How To Win Friends And Influence People is a book that provides advice on how to interact with people. It does have a heavy sales/business focus, but most of the guidance given can be applied more generally.

The book is split into different sections, each with 6-12 specific pieces of advice. Each piece of advice is described in a similar fashion, generally with a small introduction, some examples of people applying the advice, and then a conclusion. I found myself agreeing with the advice given, but the formulaic approach made me increasingly bored as I read through it.

There are definitely sections that I didn’t resonate with. A largely obsolete section is one that focuses on the art of letter writing, although it could be applied to emails. Another section was about marital life. This section had alright but obvious advice. One of the points: ‘Don’t Nag’ is such common sense, and the 3 examples that are given were women nagging their husbands to death, literally!

My recommendation would be to read the summary of the book. If the summary doesn’t fill your appetite, grab the book.

Rating: 2/5

View book on Goodreads