How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

by Scott Adams

If the idea of reprogramming your mind sounds like L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics and the process of “auditing,” which is at the core of Scientology, that’s about half right. The part that’s right is that Dianetics also attempts to change behavior by changing the way you look at yourself and what makes you do what you do. Interestingly, as I pointed out earlier in this book, you can get good results by doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. For example, if you believe alcohol is the devil’s urine, it might eliminate your risk of drinking and driving. You can often get good results from inaccurate worldviews. Some famous philosophers, some scientists, and at least one cartoonist would speculate that inaccurate worldviews are the only kind there is. Does Dianetics work in terms of creating good outcomes for its followers? I have no data to answer that question. But I wouldn’t be surprised if auditing does work for some people. Based on my experience, I think you could replace the auditing process in Scientology with a Ouija board and still have good outcomes for some people.