Does this book still work now that everyone has read it?

Written in 1936 and still selling. The advice, use someone's name, be genuinely interested, avoid criticising directly, was less familiar then than now.

The interesting question is what happens to social technique when it becomes universal. Techniques that read as warmth when rare can read as sales training when recognised. Anyone who has been on the receiving end of aggressive rapport-building knows the feeling.

Carnegie's defence is that the sincerity is not optional, that the methods fail when performed. That may be right, and it is also conveniently unfalsifiable.

Can you tell when someone is running this on you? And does knowing make it less effective, or does it work anyway?