How to schmow to

I really dislike certain how-to pieces of writing.  They get me defensive straight away, somehow.  Oh, here's one more person telling me how to be a little bit more beige, or a little bit more like them, or a little bit not who I am right now.  The ones I dislike the most are where the writer is doing all the telling and how-toing from a great big perspective somewhere far away where they're not.  If they're doing some telling to others but not putting themselves in their own story and sharing a little of their own gooberliness, frailty and vulnerability - well, I think that's surely the easiest way out.  And those pieces you can spot - there's no oomph to them.  They sit flat on the page, like a doctor with his scripts ;)

I love reading pieces where the writer is front and centre.  Which is partly why I read this blog, because she puts herself on the page and shares some of her vulnerabilities ... and I'm not saying that  just because she linked to MY blog in HER post ;)

Yes, how-to's are hard to write.  But then there's this one, and yes, I was quite partial to this one:

http://justinemusk.com/2012/03/11/change-habits-personal-development