Self-help is no new idea. God knows, the self-help section at Barnes & Noble is bigger than the poetry section and, about 30 percent of both mine and half my friends’ conversations begin with the phrase (go ahead, roll your eyes), “So, I was talking to my therapist about this the other day and she said…” Yet while I admit to therapy, I haven’t been brave enough yet to show my face in the self-help section of a bookstore. There’s more of a stigma there in my head that probably stems from the idea that “self-help is not real literature. I would only ever go to a bookstore to investigate real literature! Harumph!” Thus, since I am not truly above self-help literature (only in theory!), I ventured online where the self-helping could be researched in secret, or privacy (aren’t they often the same thing, really?).
I would say that the Dumb Little Man blog qualifies as self-help. But self-help in the most practical, non-touchy-feely sense, which earns the site major points. It’s all about the “how tos,” the tips, and the reasons to do something; it’s about inspiring its readers to start doing something about whatever it is they have been loudly complaining about to their friends, boyfriends, parents, therapists, bosses, baristas, whatever, be those complaints about their fat office asses (“5 Reasons to Write Down Everything You Eat for a Week”), bringing work home with them (“How to Shut Off Your Job for a Weekend [or a vacation]”), or time management (“7 Steps to Completing Your Projects on Time”).
The site also goes further than personal development. It also covers do-it-yourself décor projects, technology hints and financial planning help. If you looked long enough, it could probably give you “7 Ways to Become an Elf.”