> From the title, I thought this was going to be a negative article. Instead, it says something which should be obvious: Self-help gurus are successful because they address current issues that people are having.

I'm not sure. The article reads to me as a lot of boring details of events, half-relevant biography, and situation interspersed with some mildly amusing snarky commentary.

I wonder what the effect of the piece would have been in the hands of a master like Tom Wolfe. I expect he would have had me rolling on the floor.