Self-Help, Solved

SOLVED with Mark Manson

Mark Manson

Self-improvement, Education

4.9 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2026

⏱️ 126 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We pulled over 2,600 studies and ranked 19 of the most common self-improvement techniques across three dimensions: research quality, consistency of results, and actual effect size. Then we sorted them into four tiers: legitimately works, works sometimes, probably not helping, and straight up bullshit. Microdosing landed in the bullshit tier. Crystal healing outperformed several "serious" techniques. And the number one most effective strategy is something so stupidly simple it's almost annoying. We also get into why everything at the bottom of the list shares one thing in common, why the middle of the list is mostly a fancy placebo, and why nearly everything at the top has been around for thousands of years. Get your free episode guide: https://solvedpodcast.com/self-help/ Vote for Solved for Best Indie Podcast in the 2026 Webby Awards: ⁠https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2026/podcasts/features/best-indie-podcast Sign up for my newsletter, Your Next Breakthrough. It will help make you a less awful person: https://markmanson.net/breakthrough Get clarity on what actually matters. Try Purpose, Mark's AI mentor app that learns your patterns, challenges your blind spots, and helps you take action. Get 7 days free at purpose.app/solved⁠ Check out our sponsors: Henson Shaving: Get 100 free blades (a two-year supply) with the purchase of a razor. Head to hensonshaving.com/solved and use code SOLVED at checkout. Brain FM: Neuroscience-backed music engineered to shift your brain into focus, relaxation, or sleep. Get 30 days of unlimited access for free at https://go.brain.fm/solved. Chapters: 0:06:02 CHAPTER 1: Category 4: Bullsh*t 0:27:29 CHAPTER 2: Category 3: Probably Not Helping 0:51:37 CHAPTER 3: Category 2: Works Sometimes 1:23:50 CHAPTER 4: Category 1: Legitimately Works 1:59:19 CHAPTER 5: Conclusion Follow Mark Mark's IG: https://www.instagram.com/markmanson Solved IG: https://www.instagram.com/solvedpodcast/ Twitter: https://x.com/markmanson LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmanson/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IAmMarkManson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you're listening to this podcast right now, chances are you have listened to multiple
0:03.8	self-improvement podcasts. And if you've listened to multiple self-improvement podcast,
0:08.0	you have probably been told like 28 different things to do to improve your life. In fact,
0:13.1	there's so much different advice coming at you from every different direction that sometimes
0:18.0	it feels impossible to know what is actually credible, what actually
0:22.1	works, and what doesn't.
0:24.0	And so here at the Solve podcast, what we do is we over-research everything.
0:29.6	I've been in this space for almost 20 years.
0:32.2	Drew, my co-host and lead researcher here has been with me for over a decade.
0:36.8	And in that time, we have dug deep into the science
0:39.7	on so many different techniques, tactics, tropes,
0:43.2	cliches, conventional wisdoms,
0:46.3	that we decided to actually sit down and rank them.
0:49.9	We took 19 of the most conventional cliche pieces
0:53.4	of self-help advice, things that you've
0:55.2	heard a million times in a million different places, and we decided to go into the science
1:00.3	and find a way to rank them from worse to best.
1:03.3	Which self-improvement techniques, you may be asking.
1:06.5	Here is the full list in alphabetical order.
1:09.1	We looked at affirmations, cold water therapy, crystal healing, eat that frog, which is do the hardest thing first.
1:15.9	Energy healing, fake it till you make it, gratitude journals, intuitive decision making, learning styles, meditation, microdosing psychedelics, morning routines, positive thinking, power posing, self-help books in general, speed reading,
1:29.4	venting emotions, visualizations, and of course, willpower. Now, in the process of putting this
	...

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