More psychological revelations happen at beer-soaked urinals than at self-help seminars.
But hang on a minute. Don’t studies keep demonstrating the dangers of the amber-liquid? And aren’t self-help podcasters like Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan a better place for the aspirational man to seek his advice than the bottom of a bottle?
We’re not here to convince you that alcohol is the key to a long and healthy life. But in terms of self-improvement and creativity, it’s certainly more effective than a Youtube guru. Even the NZ Herald admits; “A long Rosé-induced work lunch might not be a bad thing after all.”
Mike Hutcheson, author of Relax and Grow Rich, told the Herald your best ideas are when you are relaxed, and alcohol helps with this. “When you look through the pantheon of great innovation and great creation it’s always when people have been relaxed,” Hutcheson said.
“An accelerator of thinking easy is just a bit of alcohol, up to a certain point.”
What does he have to back it up? A Harvard Business Review study. As reported by The Herald, the research, conducted by professor Andrew Jarosz and colleagues out of Mississippi State University, “Tested two controlled groups’ abilities to answer a series of word association problems from a creative problem-solving assessment called the Remote Associates Test,” finding that those under the influence were better at “creative problem solving.”
Scientists say men who drink beer daily reduce their risk of heart attack. As for livers, scientists said “f*** livers” and then high-fived.
— Chase Mitchell (@ChaseMit) March 28, 2012
Our conclusion? Listening to a twelve-step guide to cleaning your room will not lead to a promotion. Nor will reading a book about selling everything you own and buying a one-way ticket to South America solve your relationship issues. So if a self-help book motivates you to improve; great. But rather than pay for the trendy version of Tony Robbins, we recommend trying one of Australia’s best value wines and trusting in Plato’s Symposium, which said that wisdom and happiness are supposed to come to you when you’re lying around comfortably with a glass of red.