Loserthink
Summary
From the creator of Dilbert and author of Win Bigly, a guide to spotting and avoiding loserthink: sneaky mental habits trapping victims in their own bubbles of reality. If you've been on social media lately, or turned on your TV, you may have noticed a lot of dumb ideas floating around. "We know when history will repeat and when it won't." "We can tell the difference between evidence and coincidences." "The simplest explanation is usually true." Wrong, wrong, and dangerous! If we're not careful, loserthink would have us believe that every Trump supporter is a bigoted racist, addicts should be responsible for fixing the opioid epidemic, and that your relationship fell apart simply because you chewed with your mouth open. Even the smartest people can slip into loserthink's seductive grasp. This book will teach you how to spot and avoid it - and will give you scripts to respond when hollow arguments are being brandished against you, whether by well-intentioned friends, strangers on the internet, or political pundits. You'll also learn how to spot the underlying causes of loserthink, like the inability to get ego out of your decisions, thinking with words instead of reasons, failing to imagine alternative explanations, and making too much of coincidences. Your bubble of reality doesn't have to be a prison. This book will show you how to break free - and, what's more, to be among the most perceptive and respected thinkers in every conversation. "They say you shouldnt judge a book by its cover, but they never tell you why. So I went ahead and judged it. Looks great!" (Juan Variable) "Dont think of this book as something you read. Think of it as survival. And you want to survive, dont you?" (M. Wordthinker) "If you love this book, you are probably part of a clandestine global conspiracy to control the world. Youll probably deny it, but I know what you are thinking." (Reed Mines)
©2019 Scott Adams (P)2019 Penguin Audio
Win Bigly
Summary
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER The New York Times best seller that explains one of the most important perceptual shifts in the history of humankind Scott Adams was one of the earliest public figures to predict Donald Trumps election. The mainstream media regarded Trump as a lucky clown, but Adams - best known as the guy who created Dilbert - recognized a level of persuasion you only see once in a generation. Were hardwired to respond to emotion, not reason, and Trump knew exactly which emotional buttons to push. The point isnt whether Trump was right or wrong, good or bad. Adams goes beyond politics to look at persuasion tools that can work in any setting - the same ones Adams saw in Steve Jobs when he invested in Apple decades ago. Win Bigly is a field guide for persuading others in any situation - or resisting the tactics of emotional persuasion when theyre used on you. This revised edition features a bonus chapter that assesses just how well Adams foresaw the outcomes of Trumps tactics with North Korea, the NFL protesters, Congress, and more.
©2017 Scott Adams (P)2017 Penguin Audio
How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big
Summary
Blasting clichéd career advice, the contrarian pundit and creator of Dilbert recounts the humorous ups and downs of his career, revealing the outsized role of luck in our lives and how best to play the system. Scott Adams has likely failed at more things than anyone youve ever met or anyone youve even heard of. So how did he go from hapless office worker and serial failure to the creator of Dilbert, one of the worlds most famous syndicated comic strips, in just a few years? In How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Adams shares the game plan hes followed since he was a teen: invite failure in, embrace it, then pick its pocket. No career guide can offer advice that works for everyone. As Adams explains, your best bet is to study the ways of others who made it big and try to glean some tricks and strategies that make sense for you. Adams pulls back the covers on his own unusual life and shares how he turned one failure after another - including his corporate career, his inventions, his investments, and his two restaurants - into something good and lasting. Theres a lot to learn from his personal story, and a lot of entertainment along the way. Adams discovered some unlikely truths that helped to propel him forward. For instance: Goals are for losers. Systems are for winners. "Passion" is bull. What you need is personal energy. A combination of mediocre skills can make you surprisingly valuable. You can manage your odds in a way that makes you look lucky to others. Adams hopes you can laugh at his failures while discovering some unique and helpful ideas on your own path to personal victory. As he writes: "This is a story of one persons unlikely success within the context of scores of embarrassing failures. Was my eventual success primarily a result of talent, luck, hard work, or an accidental just-right balance of each? All I know for sure is that I pursued a conscious strategy of managing my opportunities in a way that would make it easier for luck to find me."
©2013 Scott Adams (P)2019 Penguin Audio
The Dilbert Principle
Summary
Welcome to the wonderful world of under-evolved bosses, style-of-the-week buzzword management, hapless coworkers, and other worthy fodder. Sound like your company? Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip about a harried but determined '90s antihero, brings you his hilarious take on the bizarre realities of life in corporate America. You'll be convinced he's spying on your own company. As he says, "No matter how absurd I try and make things, I can't stay ahead of what people are experiencing in their own workplaces."
©1996 Scott Adams (P)1996 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., All Rights Reserved, Harper Audio, a division of HarperCollins Publishers