<p>Who is the author of Loserthink?</p>

<p>The author of Loserthink is Scott Adams.</p>

Psychology

Loserthink Book Summary - Loserthink Book explained in key points

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Loserthink summary

Name: Loserthink
Rating: 3.9 (114 reviews)
Author: Scott Adams

Scott Adams

How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America

3.9 (114 ratings)

16 mins

Brief summary

Loserthink by Scott Adams offers an insightful and humorous perspective on how to think critically and avoid common cognitive biases. It provides practical tips to improve decision making and avoid groupthink.

Topics

Manipulation

Table of Contents

Loserthink
Summary of 5 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 5

What’s in it for me? Break out of your mental prison.

Since the advent of smartphone technology and social media, we’ve become inundated with opinions and ideas that are often biased, manipulative, or outright absurd. At the same time, the skill we most need for navigating this jungle, rational thinking, is not something most of us are taught in school. As a result, even those among us with remarkable intelligence often fail to see beyond the biases and limits of our individual mindsets.

If you’ve ever let your ego influence your decisions, criticized someone without understanding his opinion, or abandoned a seemingly overwhelming project, you might have experienced loserthink – a term the author has coined to describe various kinds of unproductive thinking. Luckily, with these blinks in hand, you’ll be able to break out of it.

In these blinks, you’ll find out

how, without any training, the author became a world-renowned cartoonist;
the trick hypnotists use to help their patients make drastic life changes; and
why the author believes that climate change isn’t as bad as you might think.

Think of your ego as a tool rather than your identity.

At some point in your life, you’ve probably found yourself in a room full of seemingly capable people and felt intimidated. But have you ever considered that, in these sorts of situations, everyone is putting on a performance. Sure, some people’s performances are close to their true selves. But it’s still more than likely that they’re amping up their egos for the sake of the public and hoping that the other people in the room will buy it.

In other words, even if confidence doesn’t come naturally to you, you can learn to fake it. All it takes is thinking of your ego as a tool rather than an aspect of your identity.

In situations in which an ego will work in your favor, you should dial your ego up a few notches; thinking of yourself as more valuable than your achievements alone might indicate can improve your romantic, professional, athletic, and social performance – and that’s not all. Confidence can help you get hired, since you’ll be more likely to test well under stress. That’s just one of many reasons why confident people tend to be more successful, and vice versa.

One way to project a stronger ego is through your body language. If you have good posture, maintain eye contact and take up a lot of space in a room, people will see you as confident. When they perceive you that way, they’ll treat you better, fueling your confidence further.

But not every situation benefits from you turning your ego up; sometimes it might be in your best interests to dial it down. If you let your ego run wild, you’ll probably be perceived as arrogant. In fact, letting your ego influence your decisions is a form of loserthink that could cost you your career.

When the author, Scott Adams, started the Dilbert comic strip in 1989, he funneled funny ideas from every aspect of his life into the project. But soon, fans were writing to him and telling him that they enjoyed his office comics the most. Had he let his ego get in the way, he would have ignored his fans and continued to build the comic around what he personally found humorous. Instead, he reshaped Dilbert as a workplace comic strip. By letting go of his ego, he made the comic strip a national sensation, paving the way for his lucrative career as a cartoonist and entrepreneur.

Overreliance on history is a sure sign of loserthink.

We often look to the past to find patterns or meaning that might help guide us in our lives. Yet many of us fall into the trap of relying too much on the past. After all, in many cases, history isn’t necessarily reliable.

You might be surprised to hear that much of the history you learned in school isn’t accurate. That’s because there isn’t a single, objective interpretation of past events – historical accounts often deviate from one another because of who was writing them. For example, when the author was in school, he learned that gracious European settlers had allowed Native Americans to live on reservations for free since the Native Americans were too primitive to understand the concept of private property.

Loserthink can make projects seem impossible, but microsteps make them achievable.

As a trained hypnotist, Adams knows a thing or two about influencing the human brain. Hypnotists take their patients through a step-by-step process that begins with small suggestions like, “Your eyelids are getting heavier.” These prepare the brain for more significant suggestions, like those that help overcome a phobia.

But you don’t have to believe in hypnosis for a similar method to be useful in combating procrastination. When you’re considering a big life change like applying to grad school, changing your job, or moving to a new city, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the size of the project as a whole. But psyching yourself out like this is another kind of loserthink. To avoid it, try thinking about productivity in terms of microsteps.

Ask for clarification before criticizing someone based on what you think she meant.

Have you ever said something that someone else misinterpreted? As a public figure with a large following on Twitter, Adams experiences this on a daily basis. Among other things, he’s been called a racist, a liar, and a neo-Nazi supporter. He’s also been criticized for his ardent support of President Trump.

But before you blame this on social media, consider his point of view on the press, too – as a person who’s experienced fame, he says he’s well-acquainted with the fourth estate’s tendency to misinterpret the truth most of the time. He says that less than ten percent of his critics, both professional and otherwise, accurately interpret his personal thoughts or opinions. That’s because, while many people believe they’re good at guessing others’ thoughts, no one is capable of mind reading.

The future isn’t as bad as you might think.

If you’re like most people, never-ending gloom-and-doom predictions about the future have left you, at the very least, concerned. Between climate change, unemployment, and the healthcare crisis, our current media climate has created a constant state of anxiety.

However, the author believes that things are often better than news outlets would like us to think. Take unemployment. Though many futurists have speculated that robots will increasingly displace low-skilled workers, new economic and technological developments suggest that we might be approaching the end of unemployment.

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What is Loserthink about?

Loserthink (2019) looks at the various ways in which we fall victim to unproductive thinking habits. Drawing upon history, psychology, global affairs, and business to reveal the pitfalls of such habits, these blinks will sharpen your thinking in an increasingly irrational world.

Loserthink Review

Loserthink (2019) by Scott Adams delivers a thought-provoking exploration of irrational thinking and how it hinders progress. Here's why this book is worth reading:

With its insightful analysis of common cognitive errors, it provides readers with the tools to identify and avoid self-defeating thought patterns.
The book offers a refreshingly different perspective on controversial topics, challenging conventional thinking and encouraging critical reflection.
Through witty anecdotes and relatable examples, Adams keeps the book engaging and ensures that it never veers into dullness.

Best quote from Loserthink

Loserthink involves imagining the entire task ahead and letting it stun you into inaction.

—Scott Adams

Who should read Loserthink?

Entrepreneurs seeking motivation
Frustrated political debaters or Twitter fanatics
Dilbert fans

About the Author

Scott Adams is the creator of the Dilbert comic strip. He is the author of several nonfiction best sellers, including How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big (2013), The Dilbert Principle (1996), and Win Bigly (2017), and co-founder of the online platform WhenHub.

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