Aaron Swartz has been publishing a series whose founding idea is very resonant with the kind of thinking that’s dominated my life for the last few years. The series itself isn’t bad (but mostly a review of already-known stuff to someone who’s been furrowing in the same field) but the introduction states the issue rather well:

 Life comes with no instruction manual and the advice parents give is all over the place. TV and the newspapers don’t offer much more than narrow Quick Tips and I never saw a course in this stuff at school. There are self-help books and self-improvement courses, of course, but … they’re usually less about working through tough problems and more about energizing you to Get Up And Go!