Gardner’s five minds are a memorable frame built on a shaky foundation. Here is what survives the evidence and the working toolkit the book withholds.

Templar’s 100 rules for getting rich mix durable behaviour with unsourced aphorisms. We separate what the evidence backs from what it quietly ignores.

Robbins’s shortest, gentlest book has a few tools that actually work. We separate the ones science backs from the NLP folklore that props them up.

Lynch’s slim, charming book ties four decades of creativity to Transcendental Meditation. We grade the claims: incubation and modest meditation benefits hold up; TM’s specific promises and paid-mantra model do not.

Richard Templar’s 100 short rules for a better life are calm common sense. We test them against the happiness research: three hold up, most are filler.