Self-help for those who don’t believe in it

Before Greg Gutfeld established himself as the nemesis of liberal US media, he was, for years, a (self-avowedly clueless) self-help writer for health magazines. In his just published book The Plus (Threshold Editions, $24, or around ₹1,800), he distils his learnings from that time to draw up a template of Self-help For People Who Hate Self-help. Instead of instant gratification and short-term happiness, the staples for quick-fix self-help gurus, Gutfeld advocates the long perspective. It’s not enough to think positively in the moment, he argues, we have to cultivate an attitude that helps us make this state of mind a long-term reality. Typically Gutfeld, the tips and tricks are delivered with witty punch lines and a fair bit of political incorrectness.

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The Plus