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Rating self-help & productivity books

2026-05-15 · Short · Ali · recording, 0:59 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books and reading · mode: Review and recommendation · tags: Lesson from a book

In a Short, Ali rates nine self-help and productivity books out of 10: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and The 4-Hour Workweek get 10, The Psychology of Money 9, Atomic Habits and Deep Work 8, the spiritual books The Untethered Soul and The Power of Now depend on the reader, The Secret gets zero and his own Feel-Good Productivity a joking five.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Nine self-help and productivity books rated out of 10

  • ★★ Ali rates Atomic Habits 8 out of 10: a really good book, very good for building habits. — 00:00:00 · Atomic Habits
  • ★★ Ali rates The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People 10 out of 10 and calls it really, really good. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Ali rates The Psychology of Money 9 out of 10: not massively practically useful in most people's lives, but very interesting. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Ali gives The 4-Hour Workweek 10 out of 10 because it completely changed his life when he read it, though today he would probably give it 8 as it is quite out of date on tools. (hedged) — 00:00:00 · The 4-Hour Workweek
  • ★★ Ali rates The Untethered Soul 10 out of 10 for readers on the spiritual journey and zero for those who have no idea what he means. — 00:00:30
  • ★★ Ali rates Deep Work probably 8 out of 10, very useful for building habits of focus. (hedged) — 00:00:30
  • ★★ Ali rates The Power of Now zero for readers not into spiritual matters and 11 out of 10 for those who are. (overstated) — 00:00:30
  • ★★ Ali rates The Secret zero out of 10 in every context imaginable. — 00:00:30
  • ★ Ali jokingly gives his own book Feel-Good Productivity five out of 10, calling it pretty average. (playful) — 00:00:30 · Feel-Good Productivity (book)

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Works: Atomic Habits · Deep Work (book) · Feel-Good Productivity (book) · The 4-Hour Workweek · The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People · The Power of Now · The Psychology of Money · The Secret · The Untethered Soul

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