The Charisma Myth by Olivia Fox Cabane

Demonstrates how to improve one's persuasive abilities, sharing tools originally developed for Harvard and MIT to explain the fundamental components of charisma, what it really is, and how it works.

I stopped reading after a section on relieving uncertainty said to “imagine lifting all the weight of your problems on to God or the universe.”

I'm a humanist and there is no God. So this lousy solution solves nothing.

This book could best be summarized as: Don't be a jerk and pay attention.

It's all in your head.

Im sure there's some solid advice in here. A lot of the beginning chapters read like self-help cliches wrapped in a thin veneer of “if you feel good you're more charismatic”.

I do appreciate finally being able to notice why so many people in business feel like slimy sociopaths. Its because they read stuff like this and imitate it poorly, which makes them far less likable than just being a weird nerd.