Simpleology: The Simple Science of Getting What You Want by Mark Joyner is a book I came across surfing through the RBdigital app (yet another source for checking out audio books from your local library.)

I was a bit doubtful when the very first thing it instructed me to do was to go a URL that is no longer working. My BS detector was buzzing like crazy. It only got worse as the author started promising how to get what you want with the very least effort. It seemed like a setup for a bad infomercial.

For some reason, I kept listening. There was just enough real science in the book to keep me interested. I would vacillate between an icky feeling and giving Joyner the benefit of the doubt as he explains a lot about logic and how we are manipulated.

At times, I had the same feeling hearing Simpleology as when I listened to the Robert Greene book The 48 Laws of Power. I couldn’t even get through that book because it wasn’t written from a standpoint of how to notice if people are manipulating you. Instead, it was written as an instruction manual to manipulate others. This book too just leaves me feeling somewhat dirty at times for having listened.

You know, in retrospect, the problem I have with this book isn’t the content. Had this been offered as an education on how people/governments manipulate others, it would be intriguing. My problem with it is the subtitle, The Simple Science of Getting What You Want. That subtitle positions the book as a tool to use these techniques.

I am sure that these “techniques” are an effective way to “get what you want.” What I am not convinced of is whether you will be able to sleep at night after using them.

I think that you can get what you want simply by working hard, staying positive and helping others get what they want (ie. looking for win-win situations.)

This book and books like it are biased toward distrust and abuse of others. It is a presupposition that getting what you want requires you to take advantage of others.

Uh, no thank you.

But WAIT!

In the book, Joyner talks about invisible walls in our ways of thinking and it turns out I was doing that. I had already decided this was a scam so was looking for things to back up that belief.

The final section made that clear and actually gave some practical advice on how to stop manipulating your own beliefs. It turns out all the previous stuff was to give you the info to be ready to see that before giving you instruction.

In the end, this book has some useful information but it really isn’t anything new. That said, repetition can be useful. The first three “books” somewhat confuse the issue in an attempt to lay the foundation for the final. Folks well educated on these subject will spend that time looking for the angle.

For that reason, I think this a wonderful book for newcomers to self-think and external influence techniques but a good wake up to those of us who erroneously think we know it all already. haha

by Chris Doelle

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