Date read: November 2017
How strongly would I recommend? 8/10
Lasting Thoughts
The biggest takeaway I got from this book was thinking in terms of Systems VS goals. I wrote an article about it back in 2018. The idea has had a powerful impact on me. I use it across most areas of my life, from writing to exercise to shipping creative work. Trust the process not the outcomes. Adams also discusses the idea of combining skills. He argues it’s better to be above average at two skills than great at one. I think of that idea often.
Most Memorable Quote
“Sometimes the only real difference between crazy people and artists is that artists write down what they imagine seeing.”
Scott Adams
My (somewhat limited) Notes
For reference:
The bold highlights are my own emphasis
The blue highlights are passages I found noteworthy or interesting
The market rewards execution, not ideas.
The idea was to create something that had value and – this next part is the key – I want the product to be something that was easy to reproduce in unlimited quantities. I didn’t want to sell my time, at least not directly, because that model has an upward limit.
Apparently, humans are wired to take care of their own needs first, then family, tribe, country, and the world, roughly in that order.
A great strategy for success in life is to become good at something, anything, and let that feeling propel you to new and better victories. Success can be habit-forming.
It’s a cliche that who you know is helpful for success. What is less obvious is that you don’t need to know CEOs and billionaires. Sometimes you just need a friend who knows different things than you do. And you can always find one of those.
To put the success formula into its simplest form: Good + Good > Excellent
Success-wise, you’re better off being good at two complementary skills than being excellent at one.
… while we all think we know the odds in life, there’s a good chance you have some blind spots. Finding those blind spots is a big deal.
List of skills every adult should gain a working knowledge of:
1. Public speaking
2. Psychology
3. Business writing
4. Accounting
5. Design
6. Conversation
7. Overcoming Shyness
8. Second language
9. Gold
10. Proper Grammar
11. Persuasion
12. Technology
13. Proper voice technique
List of cognitive biases: [search on wikipedia]
It is tremendously useful to know when people are using reason and when they are rationalizing the irrational. You’re wasting your time if you try to make someone see reason when reason is not influencing the decision.
If your view of the world is that people use reason for their important decisions, you are setting yourself up for a life of frustration and confusion. You’ll find yourself continually debating people and never winning except in your own mind.
I also learned that art composition for anything from a magazine cover to an oil painting to a PowerPoint slide should conform to a few basic templates. The most common is the L-shaped layout. You imagine a giant letter L on the page and fill in the dense stuff along its shape, leaving less clutter in one of the four open quadrants. Artists call the uncluttered part negative space.
Dale Carnegie’s question stack for conversation:
1. What’s your name?
2. Where do you live?
3. Do you have a family?
4. What do you do for a living?
5. Do you have any hobbies/sports?
6. Do you have any travel plans?
Summary of good conversation technique:
1. Ask questions.
2. Don’t complain (much).
3. Don’t talk about boring experiences (TV show, meal, dream, etc.).
4. Don’t dominate the conversation. Let others talk.
5. Don’t get stuck on a topic. Keep moving.
6. Planning is useful but it isn’t conversation.
7. Keep the sad stories short, especially medical stories.
The basic parts of a good party story are:
1. Setup
2. Pattern
3. Foreshadowing
4. The Characters
5. Relatability
6. The Twist
When you talk about the hypothetical future, use “were” instead of “was.” Don’t say, “If I was to go with you, I would enjoy myself.” Say, “If I were to go with you, I would enjoy myself.” This rule of grammar is a big one. If you get “were/was” grammar wrong, it’s a red flag to people who know the difference.
Thank-you notes sent by snail mail are always appreciated and still a must for bigger occasions. But a well-written e-mail is now socially acceptable for most situations. No matter how you deliver a thank-you, make sure it includes a little detail of what makes you thankful. Was it the surprise, the thoughtfulness, or how helpful the favor or gift was? Be specific.
- ie. “Thank you so much for the ride. I was worried all day about how I would get everything done while my car is in the shop. You really saved me.”
Suppose you’re not insane. Can insanity help you? The answer is yes, but you want to use a calculated, emotional type of insanity. In any kind of negotiation, the worst thing you can do is act reasonably. Reasonable people generally cave into irrational people because it seems like the path of least resistance.
Another common speaking trick is to hum the first part of the “Happy Birthday” song and then speak your normal voice right after. You’ll notice your push-humming voice is strangely smooth and perfect. The effect won’t last long, but it gives you a target voice that you know you can get to with practice.
In general, you want your punch line to inspire listeners to complete the story – including the bar part – in their own minds. That allows every person to imagine the ending the way that is most amusing.
I find it helpful to see the world as a slot machine that doesn’t ask you to put money in. All it asks is your time, focus, and energy to pull the handle over and over. A normal slot machine that requires money will bankrupt any player in the long run. But the machine that has rare yet certain payoffs, and asks for no money upfront, is a guaranteed winner if you have what it takes to keep tanking until you get lucky. In that environment, you can fail 99% of the time, while knowing success is guaranteed. All you need to do is stay in the game long enough.
If your gut feeling (intuition) disagrees with the experts, take that seriously. You might be experiencing some pattern recognition that you can’t yet verbalize.
Step one if your search for happiness is to continually work toward having control of your schedule.
When you choose a career, consider whether it will lead to a lifetime of ever-improved performance, a plateau, or a steady decline in your skills. As a cartoonist, my drawing skills have slowly improved over most of my career, and that is a source of happiness for me. If you are lucky enough to have career options, and only one of them affords a path of continual improvement, choose that one, all else being equal.
If you think your odds of solving your problem are bad, don’t rule out the possibility that what is really happening is that you are bad at estimating odds.
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