In the book, Loserthink: How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America, Scott Adams analyzed and discussed ways to teach us how to eliminate our biases and to sharpen our ability to think critically.

These are some of my favorite quotes and takeaways from reading the book.

Here are tips on how we can help others break out of their mental prison.

What to watch out for: The Magic Question

“State ONE thing you believe on this topic that you think I do NOT believe.”

“Don’t play Whack-A-Mole with people who have laundry lists of reasons supporting their hallucinations. Ask for their strongest point only, and debunk it if you can. Target their undue confidence, not their entire laundry list.”

What to watch out for: Pacing

“Agree with people as much as you can without lying, and you will be in a better position to persuade.”

What to watch out for: Define the Weeds

“Don’t argue in the weeds of a debate. Dismiss the trivial stuff and concentrate on the variables that matter. That gives you the high ground.”

What to watch out for: Describe the Long Term

“Ask people with opposing opinions to describe what the future would look like if their view of the world were to play out. Does it sound reasonable?”

What to watch out for: Calling Out the Mind Reading

“The best way to avoid the mind reading illusion is to look for it in others. That will prime you to better catch yourself when you do your own mind reading.”

What to watch out for: Framing Issues

“You can’t get the right answer until you frame the question correctly. And partisans rarely do.”

In the book, Loserthink: How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America, Scott Adams analyzed and discussed ways to teach us how to eliminate our biases and to sharpen our ability to think critically.

These are some of my favorite quotes and takeaways from reading the book.

Scott Adams provided some tips on how we can break out of our mental prison.

What to watch out for: Cultural Gravity

“If you allow the opinions of unsuccessful people in your culture to hold you back, you’re engaging in loserthink. If you can learn to think of yourself as free from the cultural gravity of your peers, it will pay off in the long run.”

What to watch out for: Knowing to Where to Start

“If you can’t figure out how to do a task the right way, do it the wrong way and watch how quickly you get free advice.”

What to watch out for: Unfocused Priorities

“Your first priority should be you. If you don’t take care of yourself first, you won’t be much use to anyone else. But hurry up – the world has lots of problems and maybe you can help.”

What to watch out for: Context

“Reports about famous people and other trustworthy topics are either wrong or misleading about 60 percent of the time, often because they lack context. Wait a few days before forming an opinion on anything new, just in case context is missing. It usually is.”

What to watch out for: Listening to the Experts

“We live in a world in which it is dangerous to ignore the advice of experts, but it is almost as dangerous to follow their advice. The trick is to know when the experts are the solution and when they are the jailers of your mental prison.”

What to watch out for: Fake News Filter

“News that is reported the same by news outlets on both the left and the right is probably true. If you only see a story reported by news sites that lean in one direction, it probably isn’t true.”

What to watch out for: Persuasion

“If you think humans are rational about their biggest priorities, you are poorly equipped to navigate life.”

What to watch out for: Managing Embarrassment

“Put yourself in potentially embarrassing situations on a regular basis just to maintain practice. If you get embarrassed as planned, watch how one year later you are still alive. Maybe you even have a funny story because of it.”

“Note how other people’s embarrassments mean little to you when you are an observer. That’s how much your embarrassments mean to them: nothing.”

What to watch out for: Change What You Do to Change How You Think

“To think more effectively, improve your fitness, diet, and sleeping.”

What to watch out for: The Forty-Eight-Hour Rule and the Twenty-Year Rule

“It is loserthink to imagine you can accurately discern the intentions of public strangers. It is better to ask people to clarify their opinions and accept that as the best evidence of their inner thoughts.”

“It is loserthink to judge people by their much younger selves. People change. And they usually improve.”

What to watch out for: Conspiracy Theories and How to Know You Fell for One

“Being absolutely right and being spectacularly wrong feel exactly the same.”

“If your view of reality is consistent with the past but falls to do a good job predicting the near future, you might be in a cultlike organization with a manufactured worldview. If members of your group discourage you from listening to opposing views, it’s time to plan your escape.”

In the book, Loserthink: How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America, Scott Adams analyzed and discussed ways to teach us how to eliminate our biases and to sharpen our ability to think critically.

These are some of my favorite quotes and takeaways from reading the book.

How can we minimize our tendency for Loserthink by not copying things that pundits say?

What to watch out for: Moral Equivalency

“If you are accusing someone of making inappropriate morel equivalences, you are probably experiencing Loserthink of the mind reader variety.”

What to watch out for: Word-Thinking

“If your only complaint about another person’s behavior is that it might normalize something, you might not have any reasons to back your opinion.”

“If you find yourself calling a plan problematic and you can’t give some reasonable-sounding examples to back up your opinion, you might be engaging loserthink.”

What to watch out for: The Hypocrisy Defense

“If you make a mistake and your best response is that other people do similar things, you are engaging in loserthink.”

What to watch out for: Fairness

“Arguing for fairness is loserthink because no two people will agree on what it looks like. The exception is when you are trying to persuade, in which case rationality matters less.”

What to watch out for: Feels-The-Same

“If you find that your best argument depends on the predictive or persuasive characteristics of analogies, you are likely in a mental prison of your own making.”

What to watch out for: Friction

“Add friction to any human choice will reduce the number of people making that choice. To assume otherwise is loserthink.”

What to watch out for: Mentioning Is Not Comparing

“If two or more items are mentioned in the same conversation, that doesn’t mean anyone is comparing them for relative value.”

What to watch out for: “Do Your Own Research”

“For big, complicated political questions, “doing your own research” is a waste of time.”

What to watch out for: “Be Yourself”

“Never be yourself if you can make yourself into something better through your conscious actions. You are what you do.”

What to watch out for: “Coward!”

“It is loserthink to call people cowards after those people risked their lives for a cause.”

What to watch out for: “Apologist!” and Words Like That

“If your response to a disagreement is to assign your opponent a dismissive label, you have surrendered the moral and intellectual high ground to wallow in loserthink.”

What to watch out for: “Why Didn’t You Do It Sooner?”

“If someone does something you appreciate, it is loserthink to ask why it didn’t happen sooner.”

In the book, Loserthink: How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America, Scott Adams analyzed and discussed ways to teach us how to eliminate our biases and to sharpen our ability to think critically.

These are some of my favorite quotes and takeaways from reading the book.

How can we minimize our tendency for Loserthink by thinking like an economist?

What to watch out for: Money Influence

“A basic understanding of economics can help you “see around corners” that others cannot.”

“People who understand economics can more easily spot hoaxes because money drives human behavior in predictable ways.”

“Be skeptical of any experts who have a financial incentive to mislead you and almost no risk on their end.”

What to watch out for: Ends Justify the Means

“If you think in terms of “the ends justify the means” instead of “costs compared to benefits,” you are buying into loserthink.”

What to watch out for: How to Compare Things

“If you have a string opinion about a proposed plan but you have not compared it to the next best alternative, you are not part of a rational conversation.”

What to watch out for: Halfopinions

“If your opinion considers only the benefits or only the costs of plan, you might be in a mental prison.”

What to watch out for: Time Value of Money

“A dollar you have today is worth a dollar. But a dollar you might get in the future, if things go as predicted (which is rare), is worth a lot less.”

What to watch out for: Consider the Alternatives

“If you have only one mortal risk, it might make sense to spend huge amounts of money to drive that risk to zero. But if you have multiple mortal risks, it might make more sense to allocate your money across several risks.”

What to watch out for: Confusopolies

“If you find yourself experiencing certainty in a complex situation, you are probably experiencing loserthink.”

What to watch out for: Straight-Line Predictions

“Over the long term, straight-line predictions are loserthink, because history rarely travel in a straight line.”

In the book, Loserthink: How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America, Scott Adams analyzed and discussed ways to teach us how to eliminate our biases and to sharpen our ability to think critically.

These are some of my favorite quotes and takeaways from reading the book.

How can we minimize our tendency for Loserthink by thinking like a scientist?

What to watch out for: Coincidences

“Sometimes coincidences tell you something useful. But 90 percent of the time they mislead you. Never be too confident about an opinion that depends solely on interpreting a coincidence.”

What to watch out for: Anecdotal Evidence

“If you are reaching a general conclusion about a big topic by looking at anecdotal evidence, you are engaging in Loserthink.”

What to watch out for: “What if the Opposite is True?”

“Always ask yourself if the opposite of your theory could be true. Doing so keeps you humble and less susceptible to bias until you get to the truth of the situation.”

What to watch out for: Judging a Group by its Worst Members

“Don’t believe that every member of a group is as bad as its worst 5 percent. If you do, you’re probably among the worst five percent of whatever groups you are in”

What to watch out for: Proving a Negative

“Rarely is it possible to prove something isn’t true. But sometimes we can prove things are true.”

How can we minimize our tendency for Loserthink by thinking like an entrepreneur?

What to watch out for: Couch Lock

“Learn to think in microsteps. Of you are experiencing couch lock, try wiggling one finger. Then build from there.”

What to watch out for: Staying in Your Lane

“Sticking with what you know ensures you stay where you are. Take some chances. Leave your lane and build some skills.”

What to watch out for: Personal Control

“You can learn to think like a rich person by consuming books, blog posts, and podcasts from the authors who can teach you how. If this sore of reading isn’t your thing, make it your thing, one microstep at a time.”

What to watch out for: Humility and Testing

“Find a way to test your assumptions in a small way so no one gets hurt.”