Finding good articles on personal development

January 26, 2014 5:51 AM

Unfortunately the internet is flooded with articles like “The top 7 ways to be more productive”. These articles are helpful for someone who hasn’t read many of these articles before, but after a while you want to be able to locate articles that provide deeper insights. For this reason, I have given up on using sub-reddits, such as /r/decidingtobebetter. Recently, I discovered that Medium has some pretty good articles on personal development with only a small minority being of the vague and wishy-washy type that you tend to see elsewhere. Where else can I find good articles on personal development, where good is defined as specific, original and in-depth?
posted by casebash to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Best answer: I like Psychology Today.

Also, I find that the deeper insights make their way into books, and the authors of those books often write articles or give talks that summarize or explore aspects of their ideas. So if you hear of a book that sounds intriguing, do a web search for the author. Here are some good ones:

Article on "Flow" by Mihaly Cskiszentmihalyi
TED talk by Susan Cain on the power of introversion (she's the author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking)
The Power of Self-Compassion versus Self-Esteem by Kristen Neff
posted by chickenmagazine at 6:37 AM on January 26, 2014 [2 favorites]

Not an article but did you see Brene Brown's TED talk on shame?
posted by tanktop at 9:46 AM on January 26, 2014

I've been reading Olivia Fox Cabane's book on charisma, which is great. She takes a nebulous, hard-to-quantify trait and breaks it down with very specific actions, instructions and exercises. If looking for web content, here's a related youtube talk.
posted by prex at 10:31 AM on January 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Brain Pickings
Steve Pavlina
Study Hacks Blog
Farnham Street
Josh Kaufman
posted by Bron at 12:51 PM on January 26, 2014 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks for the answers so far. I guess my question wasn't quite clear enough. I'm not looking for particular articles or a blog of just one person's views, I'm looking for a good way of finding other articles or resources. I really like Farnham Street, for example, because it mainly seems to summarise other people's points of view
posted by casebash at 4:55 PM on January 26, 2014

Good bloggers often engage, review and post about other material. So if you find someone you like, follow their blog, Twitter feed or Facebook page, because they will often share relevant material.

You might like these two:

Tiny Buddha: Wisdom Quotes, Letting Go, Letting Happiness In

zenhabits
posted by barnone at 10:16 AM on January 27, 2014 [1 favorite]