Loserthink: How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America

by Scott Adams

trapped in mental prisons, not rational actors. In my experience, if someone has up to three reasons for an opinion, that person might have a strong case. But people who present laundry lists of ten reasons rarely have a strong case. I can’t say this rule of thumb is predictive every time, but you can easily test the validity of a person’s laundry list with this request: Give me the strongest argument or evidence on your list that supports your point. Just one, please. Your critic will usually smell a trap, resist your request, and demand that you consider all the damning evidence on the laundry list. Here’s how to reply: In the interest of time, would you agree that if I can debunk your strongest point, you should rethink all of your points that are weaker than the one I debunk? If you can’t debunk the strongest point, you might be the one in the mental prison in this case. But if you can, I don’t recommend debunking anything else on the list, even if you have the time and desire. Remember, your goal is to reduce the other person’s confidence in their rightness. Taking their strongest argument off the table (if you can) should be enough to get that done.