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I read a few books and articles this year that reference this book, so I thought I'd pull it out again. I first read this book when I was 17 and it really opened my eyes. I remembered that it impacted me and figured the lessons were worth revisiting.
While this is mostly true, I'd forgotten, perhaps chose to forget, how dated some of these anecdotes are. Beyond the "Golly gee! That's swell!" types of exchanges, you can't overlook that it was written at a time before global corporations and billion-dollar mergers. And let's face it, our attention spans are at an all-time low and our needs for instant gratification are at an all-time high. People deal with each other differently now. In some ways, we communicate more efficiently, but in my opinion, we also tend to hear more of what we want to hear, so being CLEAR is more important than being KIND.

The overall principals of treating people the way you'd like to be treated remain the best course of action. The author tends to go a little overboard with repeating some of his points, but maybe some people need to be beaten over the head to understand the kind of impact their words and behavior have on their peers and loved ones. However, I'm concerned that following the directions set forth by this antiquated literature to the letter could lead to some serious crushing of careers, happiness, and well-being.
Maybe I'm becoming meaner or more jaded or both, but if you're one of the handful of people who hasn't read this yet, read it with a grain of salt... or read a book on negotiation, which is probably what you're really looking for anyway.