I share your surprise at how simplistic self-help bromides consistently bubble to the top of this site.

I dunno that it's surprising. Every time the subject of books comes up here, everyone's like yeah I read non-fiction. And it's never anything interesting, it's all self-helpy fluff with titles like Business Warrior: Brain Mindset.

I find the opposite, I find myself saying “I like this format”, because he boiled it down and I can extrapolate and understand just by reflecting on the simple ideas he put out.

Perhaps it’s not meant for you. Does not mean it’s not meant for others.

This is good writing. Highlights a very important concept in very few words. I am thankful for the reminder.

Besides what the others said, they're also good conversation starters.

I enjoy them. It's a paragraph or so of easily digestible information. Not everyone has read something like Atomic Habits so the value is relative. Worst case scenario it acts as an excuse to kick off discussion.

Sometimes it's just that you need to be reminded of what you already know. Taking your own advice and all that.

They're descriptive, not prescriptive. Like journaling. Like "writing to understand" (oneself). Andreas benefits from the process itself. If other's appreciate it, woot. If not, just move on.

I personally find Andreas's efforts comforting.

Whereas I eschew the majority of our culture's prescriptive self-help BS. Just one sincere, yet still excretable, example is Mark Manson's middle brow rehash of philosophy; I get more from reading the OCs like Zeno and Epicurus.

maybe its good to have a reminder of obvious information which is vital once in a while

+1

It irritates me a bit that many comments on HN are like a Yelp review of the linked article instead of adding to the discussion of their comments. Maybe you see HN primarily as a community-curated list of links while I see it as a place of discussions?

In this thread, for example, wccrawford gave an interesting perspective on choices in life. While they used the linked article as a reference point, the contents of their comment stand entirely on their own. The information value in the linked article is not that important, the value of the discussion is much more important. To me, that is.

Not everyone has heard this advice or is in the audience for which it's important.

Andreas' audience includes a lot of young people for which this is valuable.

the message is self-evident, but seeing obvious advice rephrased by someone they respect can help many people stop ignoring and internalize it.

I'm reminded of people who ignored "clean your room" every time their parents told them until Jordan Peterson said it.