
Boy Did I Remember This Wrong | Think And Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill) BOOK REVIEW
From Mere Mortals Book Reviews by Kyrin Down & Juan Granados
May 19, 2026 · 36 min
About this episode
The episode reviews Napoleon Hill's 'Think And Grow Rich', contrasting its optimistic messages with its dated claims and pseudoscience.
The classic self-help book is a bit different than I remember. In Napoleon Hill’s 'Think And Grow Rich' I discover it’s not quite the book I remembered. I walk through what still shines—its optimism, self‑analysis prompts and the motivational push that helped me as a younger bloke to build self‑confidence, set goals and act with intention. I share the quotes and practices that I used to use as inspiration for growth. Then I dig into the doozies: dated claims, sciencey overreach, baldness-by-hat myths, telepathy talk, name-dropping and a tendency to state opinions as facts. I contrast Hill’s inspiration-first approach with more modern, evidence-based self-help and explain why I’d now recommend reading it with a strong filter. Take the useful 50% and discard the rest. I wrap with some context on Hill himself and why timing likely supercharged the book’s impact post-Depression. Timeline: (00:00:00) Intro (00:02:55) Core promise: riches, goals, and optimism (00:04:25) Personal history: how the book helped in early 20s (00:09:16) Turning defeat into advantage: key quotes and reframes (00:12:35) Persistence, ambition, and study outside work (00:16:01) Where it falls apart…
People in this episode
Hosts: Kyrin Down, Juan Granados
Topics covered
- self-help
- personal development
- book review
- optimism
- pseudoscience
- goal setting
Keywords
- Think And Grow Rich
- Napoleon Hill
- self-help
- personal growth
- pseudoscience
- goal setting
- optimism
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Think And Grow Rich
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