I found Carnegie’s book terrible and impossible to finish. Though his advice (the main idea of each chapter) might be true, his supporting arguments are all purely anecdotal, are of dubious veracity, lacks nuance, and commit the logical fallacy of claiming correctness by bombarding you with examples that only repeat each other.

I’m still looking for a more science-backed book on influence and persuasion and I’m currently looking at Influence + Persuasion from the HBR Emotional Intelligence series. Would be happy to hear about others’ recommendations as well.