I consider it to be a probably-true fact about human psychology that if you tell someone to “try” rather than telling them to “win” then that introduces failure possibilites into their mind. That may have a positive effect, if they are naturally over-confident—or a negative one, if they are naturally wracked with self-doubt.
It’s the latter group who buy self-help books: the former group doesn’t think it needs them. So the self-help books tell you to “win”—and not to “try” ;-)
The question was about admonitions. I commented based on that. I didn’t mean anything further about instrumental rationality.
OK. I don’t think we have a disagreement, then.
I consider it to be a probably-true fact about human psychology that if you tell someone to “try” rather than telling them to “win” then that introduces failure possibilites into their mind. That may have a positive effect, if they are naturally over-confident—or a negative one, if they are naturally wracked with self-doubt.
It’s the latter group who buy self-help books: the former group doesn’t think it needs them. So the self-help books tell you to “win”—and not to “try” ;-)