Althouse: The (really) big stuff.

December 16, 2006

The (really) big stuff.

The author of "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" dies.

7 comments:

Headline Junky said...: Damn, Ann. That's cold.; 12/16/06, 1:47 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: I guess he did in spite of his own book title- he was only 45 years old.

At what age do the majority of us stop reading those advice books anyway? I used to but around age 35- 39 or so, I realized it was same old stuff.; 12/16/06, 2:01 PM
Anonymous said...: I figured out those things were bs around my 18th birthday.; 12/16/06, 2:28 PM
Tim said...: Yep. The easiest way to make a million bucks is probably to publish a book titled "The Easiest Way to Make a Million Bucks."; 12/16/06, 3:12 PM
Ruth Anne Adams said...: He died wearing a sweat suit. I guess he shoulda seen it coming.; 12/16/06, 10:15 PM
KCFleming said...: I had something unusually mean to say, maybe even funny. I apologize for that.

I never understood the book's appeal. It was taking part of Stephen Covey's silly stuff and putting it in even simpler language. OK, so it's "small stuff", but if I don't attend to the forces of entropy every day, and sweat them, they become big stuff. I figured it was how and why (I mean: for whom) I approached the necessary evil of torrents of small stuff is what made meaning.

Anyway, dying at 45 is awful enough. he doesn't need me bitching about it.; 12/17/06, 7:56 AM
gbarto said...: Most self-help books are indeed filled with the same old stuff. That's because most human problems are caused by the same old stuff. In an age before self-help gurus, most people went to church every week. That doesn't mean the pastor really came up with 520 new things you needed to know about every decade. Instead, he hit the same 10 or 12 themes nearly 50 times. And still had people nodding in recognition every week because they'd gone and messed up again.

Carlson was like the old time country preacher. He may not have told us much we didn't already know. But he reminded us of things we forget about in the hustle and bustle of life. This is not without importance.; 12/17/06, 4:34 PM