Beyond Growth
Not all growth is good for you.
Beyond Growth is an independent publication that fact-checks the self-improvement industry — the gurus, the bestselling myths, the seminars, and the money behind “personal growth.” We take the confident claims, check them against the actual evidence, and show the sources at the point we rely on them.
Start here
The four-minute mile is the story the industry tells more than any other, and it is wrong in almost every load-bearing detail: the mile record had been falling since 1913, and the claim that 37 runners broke it within a year of Bannister is false. And if you have ever met the barefoot-on-the-grass pitch, grounding’s one real effect is trivial, and the health claims rest on small, mostly unblinded studies run largely by the people selling the mats.
Also worth your time: what Tony Robbins actually teaches, and where the evidence for it runs thin; the three deaths at James Arthur Ray’s “Spiritual Warrior” sweat lodge, and the negligent-homicide conviction that followed; why the experiments that measured manifestation found vivid fantasy drains the energy to chase the goal; and what the largest growth-mindset studies really found — an average intervention effect of d = 0.08.
More essays
Lifestyle Design
Why Every Lifestyle Designer Looks the Same
Lifestyle design sells escaping the herd, yet its followers share one template: beach laptop, 5 a.m. alarm, quit-my-job story. A maths model explains why.
14 November 2026 · Read →
Lifestyle Design
The 4-Hour Body Review: Which Promises Hold Up?
Tim Ferriss promised 2-hour sleep, 300% more fat loss from cold and 34 lb of muscle in 28 days. We checked three headline claims against the research.
14 November 2026 · Read →
Positive Thinking
Tony Robbins and the Cult of Aggressive Positivity, Part 2: How Positive Thinking Can Make You Depressed
Repeating an affirmation left low-self-esteem participants in a worse mood than saying nothing. What the research says about the cost of being told to feel great.
24 July 2026 · Read →
Positive Thinking
Is Manifestation Real? The Evidence Runs the Other Way
Manifestation promises that picturing an outcome brings it closer. The experiments that measured it found vivid fantasy drains the energy to chase it.
17 July 2026 · Read →
Social Criticism
The Pavlok: A Shockingly Bad Idea
Pavlok sells a wristband that shocks you out of bad habits, on the strength of 'proven' aversion-therapy science. Its own creator got called a con artist on live television for that exact claim.
14 July 2026 · Read →
Personal Development
Meaninglessness, Nihilism, and the Landmark Forum
The Landmark Forum walks every participant to the same scripted realisation on day three: life is empty and meaningless. What that technique actually is, and what happened when it went wrong.
14 July 2026 · Read →
Personal Development
Get a Growth Mindset (Or: What the Research Actually Shows)
Growth mindset became a billion-dollar idea in schools and workplaces. The largest studies ever run on it found an average effect so small it barely moves the needle.
14 July 2026 · Read →
Technology Of The Self
Does grounding (earthing) actually work? What the evidence really shows
Grounding claims that skin contact with the earth floods your body with healing electrons that cure inflammation and fix your sleep. Here's what the actual studies — small, unblinded and largely funded by the people selling the mats — really show.
13 July 2026 · Read →
Positive Thinking
The 4-Minute Mile and the Myths of Positive Thinking
Self-help's favourite parable says belief broke the four-minute mile. The real story — decades of records and training science — says otherwise.
13 July 2026 · Read →
Lifestyle Design
The Lifestyle Guru Playbook: 17 Steps to Instant Success
A deadpan, satirical field guide to the lifestyle-design genre — the 4 a.m. alarm, the beach laptop, the manufactured origin story, and the course about selling courses.
13 July 2026 · Read →
Guru Criticism
Tony Robbins and the Cult of Aggressive Positivity: Does the Method Hold Up?
Tony Robbins built a roughly $600m empire on state, belief and the firewalk. A fair, sourced look at what he actually teaches — and where the evidence for it runs thin.
13 July 2026 · Read →
Guru Criticism
James Arthur Ray's Sweat Lodge Deaths: What Happened at Spiritual Warrior
In October 2009, three people died at James Arthur Ray's 'Spiritual Warrior' sweat lodge near Sedona. A sober, sourced account of the ceremony, the deaths, and the negligent-homicide conviction that followed.
13 July 2026 · Read →
The method
Watch for the deleted preconditions.
Most self-help myths work by deletion: take a real achievement, strip out the training, money, timing and luck that produced it, and the only cause left standing is belief. We put the deleted preconditions back — with primary sources — because that is usually where the truth, and the useful advice, actually lives.