---
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title: "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big MP3 CD – Unabridged, April 8, 2014"
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# How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big MP3 CD – Unabridged, April 8, 2014

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Failing to Success
  

*by S***F on Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2015*

I have a weakness for self-help books. The sad truth is that I’ve known for a long time that my self needs help—of all kinds. I also like to learn and try out new ideas and ways of living. This reading history—this quest—for an improved self hasn’t cured my many flaws, but on the whole, I think I’d be the worse off for not having tried some of the ideas that I’ve encountered. Of course, the quality of the advice that you get from what we call self-help books varies immensely. I think it appropriate, albeit unusual, to consider Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca—even Socrates—as a part of the self-help literature. The Greeks thought of philosophy as a way of life, with concepts, reasoning, and knowledge as tools for leading a good life. And this is the ultimate aim of the self-help literature, isn’t it? Religious practices (as distinct from limiting religion to a set of beliefs) all more or less seek to regulate and thereby improve the self (or soul). (Buddhists also might object to the use of “the self”, as they belief it an illusion, but I think most would agree its a handy one and something—if not someone—benefits from the Noble Eightfold Path). More recently, one can cite Ben Franklin, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and William James as self-help gurus in the their literate and cultured ways. Just this morning I read excerpts and commentary upon Bertrand Russell’s The Conquest of Happiness, wherein the great mathematician and philosopher dispenses advice.Of course, a great deal of hokum and P.T. Barnum-like salesmanship pervades the field as well. From Norman Vincent Peale to Dale Carnegie to Napoleon Hill to Stephen Covey, we find a middle-brow sources of advice, often over-sold or simplistic, but good for nuggets of wisdom and for exercising the crap-detector. Some writers have helpful suggestions for improving morning rituals, getting more work done, and becoming a better conversation partner. Nassim Nicolas Taleb provides a good contemporary example of an intellectual who dispenses advice and opinions, not under the guise of self-help, but through thoughtful and entertaining essays that provide can provide benefits. One has to shop carefully, or you end up with a bunch of sale junk in your reading basket, but if you’re discerning, you can provide yourself (it’s who your giving a gift to, right?) some helpful mind-stuff.This brings me to Scott Adams. Farnum Street (one my must-read blog list) posted an excerpt and commentary based on Adams’s combination autobiography and self-help book. In fact, the unique blend of personal story and insight into how to conduct a better life makes this a fun read. I’ve never read Dilbert cartoons regularly—Adams’s significant claim to fame—so I wouldn’t have read the book unless Farnum Street had included a blurb about how Adams denigrates “goals” and promotes “systems”. My inner Taoist had rebelled against goals in a way that I had never been able to quite understand. I’ve accomplished things in life, helped raise a family, succeeded in my profession, married well, and so on, without having been a goal-driven person. In fact, I had this inkling that goals were a rather abstract and perhaps in some way faulty way of going about things, and Adams clarified the issue for me. Adams writes:  To put it bluntly, goals are for losers. That’s literally true most of the time. For example, if your goal is to lose ten pounds, you will spend every moment until you reach the goal— if you reach it at all— feeling as if you were short of your goal. In other words, goal-oriented people exist in a state of nearly continuous failure that they hope will be temporary. That feeling wears on you. In time, it becomes heavy and uncomfortable. It might even drive you out of the game. If you achieve your goal, you celebrate and feel terrific, but only until you realize you just lost the thing that gave you purpose and direction. Your options are to feel empty and useless, perhaps enjoying the spoils of your success until they bore you, or set new goals and reenter the cycle of permanent presuccess failure.  Adams, Scott (2013-10-22). How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life (p. 32). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.If you have your crap-detector on, you will think that any system as a system must have a goal or purpose, and that any goal must have a means or system for reaching the goal. Adams agrees. He recognizes the inherent relation of goals and systems, but he goes on the identify the fundamental differences in perspective between the two attitudes:  [T]hinking of goals and systems as very different concepts has power. Goal-oriented people exist in a state of continuous presuccess failure at best, and permanent failure at worst if things never work out. Systems people succeed every time they apply their systems, in the sense that they did what they intended to do. The goals people are fighting the feeling of discouragement at each turn. The systems people are feeling good every time they apply their system. That’s a big difference in terms of maintaining your personal energy in the right direction. . . . For our purposes, let’s say a goal is a specific objective that you either achieve or don’t sometime in the future. A system is something you do on a regular basis that increases your odds of happiness in the long run. If you do something every day, it’s a system. If you’re waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it’s a goal.  Adams, Scott (2013-10-22). How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life (pp. 32-33). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.This is the gem that convinced me to read the book. I think that Adams is on to something. If my goal is to lose 20 pounds, I can do it and then what? If I’m like most people, I’ll put it right back on. But if my system is to eat smartly and keep myself healthy and fit, then that’s a daily set of tasks that allow to act (with success) each day. However, lest you think he goes to far, much later in the book Adams writes:  Humans will always think in terms of goals. Our brains are wired that way. But goals make sense only if you also have a system that moves you in the right direction.  Adams, Scott (2013-10-22). How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life (p. 228). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.Adams throughout the book proves himself a balanced and nuanced thinker, as well as displaying a fun sense of humor.As befits a cartoonist—who must get a message across in a small set of boxes with a few drawings and words—Adams praises the benefits of simplification, even at the expense of optimization. For him, the best way of doing things is usually the simplest because it is the most robust. (Although he doesn’t cite Nassim Taleb here, his reasoning tracks a key argument of Taleb about robustness and antifragility.) Adams goes on to list a number of different practices, acquisitions, and hacks to put yourself in the best way in this world. His list includes:  Goals are for losers.  Your mind isn’t magic.  It’s a moist computer you can program.  The most important metric to track is your personal energy.  Every skill you acquire doubles your odds of success.  Happiness is health plus freedom.  Luck can be managed, sort of.  Conquer shyness by being a huge phony (in a good way).  Fitness is the lever that moves the world.  Simplicity transforms ordinary into amazing.  Adams, Scott (2013-10-22). How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life (p. 3). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.Adams details these fundamentals in the course of the book. As with the biggest points, his tips and practices usually make a lot of sense. On diet, I don’t agree completely—although he’s all over the simple carb problem. However, I’m not sure that any two people on planet Earth agree about diet (where personal bias and taste account for a great deal!). Also, if you follow through to the end the book you find that Adams believes in experimentation and observation: he’s in the pragmatic camp for dealing with the world. This attitude allowed him to locate a unique and crucial cure to a severe voice impairment that he developed. It also led him to recommend affirmations as a way of realizing goals (did he just use that word or was that me?). In other words, he’s dealt with some vexing and troubling issue,s as well as the day-to-day hassles and challenges of life that we’ve all encountered, and he’s enjoyed some success. He’s allowed observation and experience to overcome skepticism, as in his use of affirmations. I appreciate someone who is that open-minded. Sometimes things work in ways we just don’t understand or that don’t make sense to us. But working knowledge can—and should—come before theory.If you read one contemporary self-help book this year (sorry, he can’t go ahead of the Greeks, the Romans, or the earlier Americans) and you want some chuckles to go along with many helpful suggestions and insights, then I recommend this book. And, as one final gem, I’ll leave you with Adams’s own recap of his happiness formula:  Eat right.  Exercise.  Get enough sleep.  Imagine an incredible future (even if you don’t believe it).  Work toward a flexible schedule.  Do things you can steadily improve at.  Help others (if you’ve already helped yourself).  Reduce daily decisions to routine.Adams, Scott (2013-10-22). How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life (pp. 178-179). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Scott Persuaded Me To Buy This Book, And To Love It
  

*by R***D on Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2016*

"This is the story of one person’s unlikely success within the context of scores of embarrassing failures.” - Scott AdamsScott Adams, probably best known as the creator of the comic strip Dilbert, has more failures than successes, yet he is still a big winner at life. Scott's latest book, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, chronicles his system for a good life.  This book is part self-help manual, part autobiography, part history of the Dilbert comic. A fan of any of those things will enjoy this easy, fun read.I've always been a fan of the Dilbert comic, but I knew very little about Scott Adams until a couple years ago. when he wrote a very provocative post about end of life care and government interference. It's one of the most amazing things I've ever read, and it put Scott's blog on my radar. Last fall, I noticed Adams was blogging on the presidential election, specifically, he was focused on Trump and predicting Trump to win in a landslide. The posts were prescient and intriguing, and they demonstrated Scott's range outside the world of comics. He regularly added a postscript to his posts, mentioning his book. I'm glad he persuaded me to buy it.In How to Fail,  Adams sprinkles stories and examples from his life with his advice for how to build systems for success. He gives lots of advice, but the core ideas are as follows:Systems vs. goals. Systems are for winners, goals are for losersYou can change how you act and how you thinkPersonal energy is the key to self improvementIt's unlikely you'll have any one exceptional skill, but if you stack several skills together, you can win. Every skill you add doubles your chance of success, and some skills are more valuable than others (he gives many good examples, including Persuasion)How to be happy? Basically health and freedomYou can increase your chances of being 'lucky'How to conquer shyness, be more outgoingTips on diet and fitness, via systemsSimplicity can produce amazing resultsAdams writes in a simple style, and makes it easy for the reader to read this book in short bursts, as the chapters are short to the point. The book contains lots of interesting details about Adams' rise to fame, his many failed ventures, and some personal health struggles, all with doses of his humor. Most of his advice seems reasonable, and if you read other pop social science, you'll recognize a lot of his advice. However, this is not a pop science book. This book reads like a conversation with a friend over coffee.A few things might be controversial, but he warns throughout that this is a system that worked for him, not something everyone should try. One small example is that he finds peanuts to be a healthy alternative snack. Some might disagree with the choice of peanuts, but it's not a big deal. His point of making small tweaks to your diet, to provide quick energy boosts without a lot of calories, is worth considering. A bigger idea that might be controversial is his practice of daily affirmations. Science is mixed on this, and conventional science is very skeptical. Adams warns of this, and simply says it has worked for him, even if those successes were simply coincidences. Adams has written a couple other books, with some controversial ideas about religion. His blog posts have also stirred controversy at times. This book, however unconventional, is not controversial. I think most readers will find a few good tips, probably more, they can incorporate into their own lives.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Helpful and enjoyable read but . . .
  

*by E***H on Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2016*

First, I should disclose that I am a big Dilbert fan. Many years ago, I was a cubicle dweller and had Dilbert cartoons pasted all over the walls of my workspace.  Scott Adams has a way of describing the peculiarities of corporate life from the point of view of the average Joe engineer that simply resonates with me.  After retiring from corporate life in the early 2000's I haven't kept up much with the Dilbert cartoons, but recently I began reading Scott Adams again as his blog was linked to a website I visit regularly.  When I saw that he had written this book, I decided to check it out--just for the entertainment factor as I enjoy Mr. Adams' quirky way of looking at life.  The book was entertaining and there were moments when I found myself laughing out loud at his funny takes on everyday occurrences.  Not only is the book funny, I think there is some really good advice here.  His contrast of simplifiers vs. optimizers and the contrast of goal setting vs. systems were actually very astute observations that I had never thought of in that way before.  Furthermore, there is a lot of good common sense suggestions like maintaining a good diet and exercising, etc..  All that said, I do have one criticism . . . Mr. Adams suggests the use of what he calls "affirmations" to bring about desired outcomes.  For me as a Christian, this technique sounds suspiciously like an incantation of some sort.  As Christians we are taught to pray in the name of Christ for the things we think we want while at the same time praying that ultimately not our will be done but "Thy" (meaning God's) will be done.  So for me, the three (or so) small sections on Affirmations detracted slightly from an otherwise enjoyable and helpful read.  Even so, I would still highly recommend the book, especially for fans of Mr. Adams' other work.

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