How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, by Scott Adams

I've been a fan of Dilbert since my college days, and I'm pleased that the strip is still going strong.  I didn't know much about Dilbert creator Scott Adams so I decided to check out How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life.  Part testimonial, part biography, part self-help, Adams gives his readers and fans plenty to think about in a no-nonsense, experiential style familiar to Dilbert readers.  Here are some nuggets I liked:

"One should have a system, not a goal."  Adams says goals are for losers.  If someone has a goal, time spent trying to achieve that goal is "a state of nearly continuous failure that they hope will be temporary."  Once you achieve a goal, "you realize you just lost the thing that gave you purpose and direction."  One the other hand, people using a system "succeed every time they apply their systems, in the sense that they did what they intended to do."  This, to me, is revelatory.

Adams's diet plan holds a lot of appeal for me, too: "I eat as much as I want, of anything I want, whenever I want."  That's a plan I can follow!  The key for him, though, is the catch.  "Once you want to eat the right kinds of food for enjoyment, and you don't crave the wrong kinds of food, everything else comes somewhat easily."  So begins a lengthy discussion about training yourself to crave the right things.  As Adams puts it, "I set out to hack my brain like a computer and rewire the cravings circuitry."  This fits the systems over goals mindset, and makes a lot of sense, but getting there is not easy.

Similarly, Adams's exercise advice is simple: "Be active every day."  Make things you enjoy become a habit.  Don't try to force yourself to do something you don't like or aren't suited for.  That involves willpower and "any system that depends on willpower will fail."  (Same goes for diet.)

Adams has plenty of other thoughts, which may or may not be called advice.  He just talks about what has--and what hasn't--worked for him in business and life.  One of his apparently controversial practices is his spoken affirmations, "the practice of repeating to yourself what you want to achieve while imagining the outcome you want."  He said some people have criticized his affirmations as sounding like magic or something.  It does sound a little goofy, but I could see it working.

Adams approaches this book with a lot of humility, in that he recognizes that what works for him may not work for you and me.  Yet his record speaks for itself; clearly he has met success in his life and work, in large part due to the factors, behaviors, and decisions he describes here.  He leaves the reader with a parting note that perhaps something he said with stick with us and help us make a difference in our own life and work.  Sounds reasonable to me!