Reading: How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big
Briefs
Failure is a common life experience, but is a success so out of reach? Unlike the conventional rhetoric on success: a result of hard work, talent, environment, and luck, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams provides a fresh perspective and practical strategies, revealing that success isn’t magic and has its subtle pattern.
There are many unmeasurable variables in seeking success, but we cannot deny it has many controllable success factors. Instead of passively waiting for luck, you can consciously adopt some strategies to create a situation that would allow luck to find you more easily in the long term. Making this situation relies on following a good system and managing your odds of success with the right approach. If you are in a state of continual failure in life, One of the core reasons is that you failed to create a good situation that can improve the probability that luck finds you.
Everyone certainly has a different definition of success, luck, etc. But we commonly expect to live relatively affluent, meaningful lives and to be happy. Adam offers a mathematical view of success and recommends practical strategies developed from the story of his life. His mindset on luck and strategy for success can also enlighten us on how to live a good life.
Insights
1. See success as math
Your perception of success matters. You’ve put yourself in a passive position when you view it as magic. Although you can’t control the luck directly, you can move from a game with low odds of success to a game with better odds. The best way to increase the odds of success is to systematically become good, but not exceptional, at the skills that work well together and are highly useful for any job. The most common practical skills include Public speaking, Psychology, Conversation, Second language, Persuasion, Technology, Accounting, etc.
2. Use systems as opposed to goals
The people using systems do better in most cases. A system is sth with the right direction you do regularly, which increases your odds of happiness and success in the long run. It is to look for better options continually. Systems-driven people succeed every time they apply their systems because they do what they intended. On the other hand, Goal-driven people prefer to fight the feeling of discouragement at each turn. For example, reading twenty books is a goal, and reading purposely to improve mindset is a system.
The future is unpredictable when it comes to your profession and personal life. The best way to deal with uncertainty is to build your systems for your life and your professional work. Your systems should also include continuously looking for patterns in your life. For example, always identify fundamental patterns in this area if you are a designer.
3. A combination of mediocre skills makes you surprisingly valuable.
The simplest success formula is Good + Good > Excellent. Every skill you acquire doubles your odds of success. You will raise your market value by being merely good — not extraordinary — at more than one skill. Some skills are more valuable than others, for sure. You should be careful in selecting the valuable skills you are also interested in to learn it.
4. Passion is bullshit. Energy is more matter.
Traditional success story exaggerates the importance of passion. Passion is needed, but it is not sustainable and needs to be driven by sustainable forces to achieve better results. The key point is our energy. The premise for us to continue to maintain enthusiasm is that you always keep good energy. You will do things well in a good mood (calm, focused energy). Your energy gives you a positive mental or physical lift. Take care of yourself first so you can be more generous in the long run. To have good energy, not just a healthy lifestyle, and sleep enough, you need to choose your direction and only focus on limited things you are genuinely interested in. Ideally, you want to manage your personal energy for the long term and the big picture.
5. Simplifiers are better than Optimizers
Simplifying is the strategy of people who view the world in terms of systems. They do not pursue perfection; more pursue simplicity and effectiveness. Even knowing that some extra effort might have produced a better outcome, a simplifier prefers the simple way to accomplish a task since it’s efficient and frees up time. An optimizer, most of the time, is a perfectionist. They look for the best solution even if the extra complexity increases the odds of unexpected problems. The cost of optimizing is that it’s exhausting and stress-inducing.
Simplicity is a worthy long-term goal. The best systems are simple and for a good reason. Complicated systems have more opportunities for failure. Human nature is such that we’re good at following simple systems and not so good at following complex systems. Simple systems are probably the best way to achieve success.
[My argument: Simplicity is suitable for most life or work situations, but it is not the best principle for artistic creation. A great artist, I believe is always an optimizer and strives for perfection.]
6. The more you know, the more you can know
Leaning skill is crucial in increasing your success opportunity. Knowledge has a magic formula: the more concepts you understand, the easier it is to learn new ones. A smart way thinks of learning as a system in which you continually expose yourself to new topics that you find interesting and valuable. For example, concentrate on the valuable issues in science, technology, and business. When reading diverse news from them, you automatically see patterns in the world and developmental hooks upon which you can hang future knowledge. Also, block meaningless and harmful information which wastes your energy and makes you feel bad. As talked about in Building a Second Brain, capturing knowledge purposely.
7. Managing your attitude
Your attitude affects everything you do in your seek for success and happiness. A positive attitude is essential to avoid consuming extra energy and negative moods. You can control your attitude by manipulating your thoughts, body, and environment. It would be like a superpower if you could control your attitude directly instead of letting the environment dictate how you feel on any given day.
8. Affirmation
People expect to remember the coincidental good luck and forget the bad luck. That selective remembering gives us the impression that affirmations work more often than you might reasonably expect from chance alone. Affirmation works in reality. In daily life, constantly affirm your small successes or progress; it lets you feel lucky and have more positive feelings.
Do an optimist to affirm the future. Optimists image future achievements and like to take more risks. They see more opportunities and have more energy and a positive attitude, which is essential to finding the odds of luck more easily.
9. Happiness is firstly based on 80% body feeling well
Eighty percent of our mood is based on how the body feels, so to be happy, firstly, confirm your body feels good. To ensure the body feels well, you need to eat right, exercise, get enough sleep, and work toward a flexible schedule. In addition, Imagine a great future (even if you don’t believe it), Do things you can continuously improve, Reduce daily decisions to routine, and be kind and glad to help others (the precondition is you’ve helped yourself already).
