Those who attended my workshops and classes on this topic found these techniques very helpful. One participant stated in an anonymous feedback form that s/he gained “a better understanding of what it means to search for meaning, with the research basis especially greatly contributing to my comprehension.”
That basically means that your best testimonial is from a person who didn't benefit much in her daily life. If that's honest description go ahead but if you can find people who actually benefited from your courses, than choose a different quote.
The former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev described in his memoirs how much he and other Soviet citizens enjoyed such events: according to him, “everybody was keen to participate” (35).
Just because a Soviet leader said that his events were very effective at making his citizens happy doesn't mean that's true. It shoud ring alarm bells in any rational reader.
The target audience is reason-minded youth and young adults, especially secular-oriented ones. The goal is to get such people to engage with academic research on how our minds work, and thus get them interested in exploring rational thinking more broadly, eventually getting them turned on to more advanced rationality, such as found on Less Wrong itself.
If you want to get people to engage with academic research why do you advocate meaning based approaches for which you don't link studies that they work over CBT tools that have been shown in studies to be effectful?
It reminds me how David Burns used Frankl's book as a placebo when he tested whether his CBT book produces meaningful help.
Create a schedule for yourself to retake the MPQ and revise the plan on a regular basis. Once a week works best for most people.
That sentence triggers a "how do you know?" impulse.
Wow, thanks for this great feedback!
First, about the testimonial: how about this one, does it work better? It's a bit longish, so we weren't sure whether to put it in.
Good point about the Soviet leader. The reason the quote was in there is to tie the sentiment of meaning and purpose to someone that the general public would be aware of, and based on my research, Mikhail Gorbachev's response was typical of other Soviet citizens. I will make that more clear in the workbook, thanks!
I think we do link to studies using CBT tools, such as this one, but perhaps y...
We at Intentional Insights would appreciate your help with feedback on optimize a workbook that conveys rational thinking to find meaning and purpose in life for a broad audience. Last time, we asked for your feedback, and we changed our content offerings based on comments we received from fellow Less Wrongers, as you can see from the Edit to this post. We would be glad to update our beliefs again and revise the workbook based on your feedback.
For a bit of context, the workbook is part of our efforts to promote rational thinking to a broad audience and thus raise the sanity waterline. It’s based on research on how other societies besides the United States helped their citizens find meaning and purpose, such as research I did on the Soviet Union and Zuckerman did on Sweden and Denmark. It’s also based on research on the contemporary United States by psychologists such as Steger, Duffy and Dik, Seligman, and others.
The target audience is reason-minded youth and young adults, especially secular-oriented ones. The goal is to get such people to engage with academic research on how our minds work, and thus get them interested in exploring rational thinking more broadly, eventually getting them turned on to more advanced rationality, such as found on Less Wrong itself. The workbook is written in a style aimed to create cognitive ease, with narratives, personal stories, graphics, and research-based exercises.
Here is the link to the workbook draft itself. Any and all suggestions are welcomed, and thanks for taking the time to engage with this workbook and give your feedback – much appreciated!