Review and Analysis of How to Win Friends and Influence People
Hello, my name is Charlie Hechler and I will be reviewing and analyzing the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. This book is very popular and well known for its insights on how to work your way up through a company, how to function in a business setting in general, and even gives some tips on everyday life.
The book is split up into four parts each with a different set of lessons. Each of those parts is split into chapters that cover a specific lesson. The book is very formulaic, each chapter starts off with the lesson at hand presenting the moral at hand only briefly. That is followed by a series of stories that support the claim that Carnegie makes. For example, one of the lessons on how to make people like you stated that you must focus on what that person wants and give it to them rather than give something you want. The lesson is very simple and seems incredibly obvious, but with the stories and anecdotes, Carnegie presents he always emphasizes how it is not easy to realize that. By making his point harder to reach, it elevates the author's perceived intellect and making the lesson more memorable.
The book is very well written and includes lots of insight into what makes a person who can benevolently manipulate others for their own gain. Looking back at the book it seems as though all of the lessons are relatively easy to learn by talking to others. The book just explains how to be a nice person, even irregularly nice. As I thought more about the book and the principles it explains, the more it made me think of how a character from a TV show I am currently watching acts. The TV show White Collar about Neil Caffrey a former conman who now is a consultant for the FBI. Neil only can travel within a 2-mile radius of where he lives and he must first find a better place to live. Neil perfectly implements the same principles in the book to find himself a better place to live, and his people skills come in handy when catching the bad guys.
Overall, How to Win Friends and Influence People is a very good book that will definitely help in many situations in life. The book is well written and makes everything as easy to understand as possible, while still incorporating many different anecdotes and stories, that are said to be true and not manipulated, that all share the same core principle of the chapter. I definitely recommend reading this book. The only problem I have with this book is that it can seem very repetitive at times. Considering all the qualities and flaws of this book I would rate it a 9/10.
The book is split up into four parts each with a different set of lessons. Each of those parts is split into chapters that cover a specific lesson. The book is very formulaic, each chapter starts off with the lesson at hand presenting the moral at hand only briefly. That is followed by a series of stories that support the claim that Carnegie makes. For example, one of the lessons on how to make people like you stated that you must focus on what that person wants and give it to them rather than give something you want. The lesson is very simple and seems incredibly obvious, but with the stories and anecdotes, Carnegie presents he always emphasizes how it is not easy to realize that. By making his point harder to reach, it elevates the author's perceived intellect and making the lesson more memorable.
The book is very well written and includes lots of insight into what makes a person who can benevolently manipulate others for their own gain. Looking back at the book it seems as though all of the lessons are relatively easy to learn by talking to others. The book just explains how to be a nice person, even irregularly nice. As I thought more about the book and the principles it explains, the more it made me think of how a character from a TV show I am currently watching acts. The TV show White Collar about Neil Caffrey a former conman who now is a consultant for the FBI. Neil only can travel within a 2-mile radius of where he lives and he must first find a better place to live. Neil perfectly implements the same principles in the book to find himself a better place to live, and his people skills come in handy when catching the bad guys.
Overall, How to Win Friends and Influence People is a very good book that will definitely help in many situations in life. The book is well written and makes everything as easy to understand as possible, while still incorporating many different anecdotes and stories, that are said to be true and not manipulated, that all share the same core principle of the chapter. I definitely recommend reading this book. The only problem I have with this book is that it can seem very repetitive at times. Considering all the qualities and flaws of this book I would rate it a 9/10.
I've never read this book, and I don't think I will any time soon, but it still sounds interesting from your review. I liked how you gave examples about how the book is beneficial and entertaining simultaneously. This seems like a nice book for life advice. Good job.
ReplyDeleteObviously this isn't like a usual novel, but this book still seems interesting and really useful. I get how a lot of the time, these books can sound repetitive and almost unnecessary at times. It was interesting to see how you connected the ideas of the book to real examples like TV show characters.
ReplyDeleteInteresting review! This book seems like it could be really useful for some people, although I don't think that I'll be reading it anytime soon, and I'm not sure how useful this book is during quarantine, since there is less in-person interaction. I also liked how you connected the book to a show you were watching.
ReplyDeleteGreat review! I liked how you broke down the structure of the book and gave a basic idea of general format and content. When I went to Taiwan to visit family last summer, my cousins did a Dale Carnegie leadership program (or something like that), and it's interesting to see Dale Carnegie show up again. I thought the phrase "benevolently manipulate" that you used was interesting since I'd never really thought of how you can manipulate someone benevolently.
ReplyDeleteNice review! this book seems very unique and interesting and while I probably won't end up reading it, I like how you broke down the main ideas of the book and gave their merits as well as their downsides. This was a well-developed and engaging review!
ReplyDeleteCool review! This book seems very interesting and helpful. I might have to find this book and I might have to "benevolently" manipulate some people. Your review was pretty concise but you still gave your opinion and was informative about the book. May many bolognas rain on you!
ReplyDelete