

Ask HN: How to win friends – 70 years later - itry

How to win friends and influence people is 70 years old now. Shouldn&#x27;t there be some updates on this topic meanwhile? Have any other books on the topic been released that are highly popular?
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ggchappell
> How to win friends and influence people is 70 years old now.

Actually, it's 78 years old (2014-1936 = 78).

In any case, the book has been revised significantly. If you buy a new copy
today, then you're not getting the 1936 text. Wikipedia[1] indicates that the
most recent major update was in 1981.

> Have any other books on the topic been released that are highly popular?

That seems likely, although I doubt that any single book has had anything like
the popularity of HtWFaIP (if only because HtWFaIP was published in a time
when bookstore shelves were _not_ overflowing with self-help books).

I'd be interested in an answer to this question, too.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influen...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People)

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32faction
Make sure you get a copy from the 1930s! Everything else has been edited from
the original text.

On another note, get a copy! I read it and was surprised a book nearly 80
years old is still highly relevant. It was actually pleasing to read the way
people "spoke in books" back then as to today's book.

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ponyous
I think much better question is, which self-improvement books do HN recommend?
I haven't read a lot of them but I'm planning on reading 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People.

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_RPM
Has anyone actually read this book? Is it effective?

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hackerboos
I've read it and didn't care for it.

The entire book boils down to basically listening to people instead of waiting
for your turn to talk. Carnegie gets this point across using a bunch of
questionable anecdotal stories. He then linked this trait to success which is
the prime motive for people to buy the book.

It reminds me a lot of 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' in that it falsifies stories as
'evidence' to reinforce what a reader already believes.

