The Myth of the Spoiled Child
Coddled Kids, Helicopter Parents, and Other Phony Crises
by Alfie Kohn
Recommended by David Heinemeier Hansson and Heinemeier Hansson
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Should I read this?
Recommended by 2 sources and appears in Most Recommended Books and Nonfiction.
A prominent and esteemed critic challenges widely held beliefs about children and parenting, revealing that underlying each myth is a deeply conservative ideology that is, ironically, often adopted by liberal parents. Somehow a set of deeply conservative assumptions about children—what they’re like and how they should be raised—ha...
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Why recommended
Recommended by 2 sources and appears in Most Recommended Books and Nonfiction.
Recommended by notable people
People and public figures who have recommended this book.
Recommendation Signals
Recommendation proof is sourced from public posts, interviews, reading lists, and cited references.
David Heinemeier Hansson
“There’s also a great book called The Myth of the Spoiled Child, which is even more specific about nurturing and supporting kids and so forth. That’s been very inspirational.”
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Not sure if this is the right fit?
Consider Accidental Presidents by Jared Cohen. Recommended by 10 sources.
“Accidental Presidents offers eight narrative portraits of men who succeeded to the U.S. presidency without election, using anecdote-rich scenes and readable context to show how personality and circumstance interact with office power. It’s strongest as a set of self-contained stories that make succession stakes concrete for non-specialist readers; it does not prioritize dense archival argument or exhaustive methodology, so expect some interpretive generalizations and repeated themes across cases. Use it for fast historical orientation rather than scholarly deep-dives.”
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How recommendation signals are reviewed
Each recommendation is collected from a public source — interviews, articles, or curated lists — and linked to its original URL. Books with many verifiable recommendations from respected people rank higher.