More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Scott Adams
Read between
February 5 - February 13, 2019
The common worldview, shared by most humans, is that there is one objective reality, and we humans can understand that reality through a rigorous application of facts and reason. This view of the world imagines that some people have already achieved a fact-based type of enlightenment that is compatible with science and logic, and they are trying to help the rest of us see the world the “right” way. As far as I can tell, most people share that interpretation of the world. The only wrinkle with that worldview is that we all think we are the enlightened ones.
Display confidence (either real or faked) to improve your persuasiveness. You have to believe yourself, or at least appear as if you do, in order to get anyone else to believe.
If you want the audience to embrace your content, leave out any detail that is both unimportant and would give people a reason to think, That’s not me. Design into your content enough blank spaces so people can fill them in with whatever makes them happiest.
It is easier to persuade a person who believes you are persuasive.
People prefer certainty over uncertainty, even when the certainty is wrong.
5 percent is usually enough to win the presidency in the United States because most elections are close affairs due to party loyalties.
People are more persuaded by contrast than by facts or reason. Choose your contrasts wisely.
A goal is, by definition, one way to win and infinite ways to lose. A good system gives you lots of ways to win and far fewer ways to fail.
If you can frame your preferred strategy as two ways to win and no way to lose, almost no one will disagree with your suggested path because it is a natural High-Ground Maneuver.
If you are selling, ask your potential customer to buy. Direct requests are persuasive.
Simple explanations look more credible than complicated ones.
Strategic ambiguity is especially useful when you are trying to persuade lots of people at the same time, and they all have different hot buttons. How will Trump make America great again? The answer: any way you want it to happen.
a good filter on reality is one that makes you happy and does a good job of predicting the future.
The democracy illusion is probably one of the most beneficial hallucinations humankind has ever concocted. If you think democracy works, and you act as if it works, it does work.
To be super clear, I am completely in favor of my government brainwashing its citizens, including me. The alternative would involve eventual conquest by a nation that did a better job of brainwashing its citizens.
You can argue whether an estate tax is fair or unfair, but fairness is an argument for idiots and children. Fairness isn’t an objective quality of the universe.
