Thanks for writing this. I must admit that I always dismissed 7 Habits as yet another business self-help book full of platitudes. (Without reading it, of course.)
Based on the reaction to his death here on HN however I'll give it a shot.
I had similarly dismissed it until a computer science professor allowed us to read and write about it to test out of a (boring) final. I had already been taught the 7 principles from a high school class, but the book itself far exceeded my expectations with its specific advice, anecdotes, and perspectives. I now own a copy for future reference.
David Allen's "Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity" is a good companion to The Seven Habits. GTD focuses a little more on the geeky mechanics of self-organization/prioritization.
They are totally complimentary. 7 Habits concentrates on "What to do" and GTD concentrates on "How to do it."
There are two other excellent "self-help" books that should be part of everyone's bookshelf. They are:
* "Getting to Yes" which I think is the greatest book on negotiation. "How to deal"
* "Sources of Power" by Gary Kline talks about how people make decisions. "How to decide"
Give me these four books, and a firm place to stand, and I will move the world.
Are you moving the world right now? Because these books sure make you feel like you can but there is that small matter of actually doing it. (Not being snarky, I sincerely hope you are doing great things).
Yeah. One of the distinguishing features of 7 Habits is how old it is. While I'm not familiar enough with the market to verify this claim, I believe it was the first of its kind.
As a result, most of the things it talks about are common parlance these days, because the people who read it 20 years ago have internalized it, remixed what they learned, mentored others, and otherwise disseminated its gems. That said, it remains on my list of books to generically recommend to anyone.
I'm not sure what "its kind" is, but self-help books go back a long way. Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People", recommended by PG, was written in 1936. "The Power of Positive Thinking" dates from 1952, etc.
But I certainly agree that 7 Habits is an excellent book.
I've actually never read either of those, which makes it hard for me to decide if they count as the same kind. If you think they do, that's enough for me. I amend my statement to merely indicate that it's really old.
Have you actually read the book? I think it's a bit insulting to relate his death to Michael Jackson's (or Whitney Houston's) death and the excessive ridiculousness that followed. This booked has helped a lot of people including myself, and no one should be deterred from reading it.
I use a random alias whenever I am not using my real name. The habit comes from a combination of laziness, paranoia, and dissatisfaction with various aliases I have past used. The downside is difficulty to login from other machines, though I could use something like lastpass.
I just finished reading 7 Habits last week. A lot of it seems "intuitive and common sense"... it's just so much more powerful when read and "forced" to think about what's being said!
I also just finished "It's Okay To Be The Boss" (different author)... I think one of the main takeaways from both books is: Focus. You need to focus and think about what you are trying to accomplish and manage yourself and others properly and proactively.
Based on the reaction to his death here on HN however I'll give it a shot.