Book Review: Scott Adams, Win Bigly, Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter
11-20-2017, 06:00 AM
This is a recommendation for Scott Adams' new book, Win Bigly - Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter. While it ostensibly is a history of Donald Trump's election and Scott Adams' observation and role in it, it really is a case study in persuasion which is why I am posting it in the Game forum and not Politics.
First I recommend this book and his stuff that will add to your game. I have read a lot of books on persuasion including Cialdini's Influence and Pre-Suasion and this is up there with those, to some extent. While those books are good and Cialdini includes solid examples to explain academic research, I found my self better understanding those principles by reading this book.
For example, one of the key persuasion techniques Cialdini lists is contrast. He gives the story of how responsible people approved the Watergate break-in. G. Gordon Liddy was tasked with coming up with the plan. On two previous occassions he came up with some seriously crazy shit that the committee rejected. The actual break-in was downright mild in comparison, which is why they approved it.
Adams says to be persuasive present your ideas in the context of alternatives that are clearly worse and frame the alternatives as bad. He's not writing about game, but he is game aware and you can export this to game. For example, "Baby, come meet me for a drink and you might just meet the man of your dreams, or are you going to stay home and watch TV and binge eat ice cream and waste your life away."
Another technique is if someone is treating a small issue as a big problem, remind them what a big problem actually looks like.
A related application is to participate in activities in which you excel, and are better than others by comparison. So while its good to go dancing or kareoke for personal growth, if you don't do those things regularly then don't expect good results. But if you are an accomplished tennis player, trying to meet women in tennis circles would likely be more fruitful. And remember, Scott Adams is not the best looking guy in the world, so what he is talking about here is how to obtain an advantage with everything else being equal.
Another principle from the book is that visual persuasion is the strongest. He gives several examples from the election. In game, the more you can paint a picture or use descriptive language the better. "Picture this . . . ."
He also talks a good bit about why some of this stuff works. For example, the common phenomenon of hamstering and the related technique of offering plausible deniability is a form of cognitive dissonance. Basically we often make decisions for emotional reasons or to avoid upsetting the stories we tell ourselves, like "I am not a whore." In seduction, if you spike attraction or get a girl horny she will tend to make emotional decisions. Scott Adams says you can be persuasive by offering people a a "fake because" or a reason to do something. Ultimately it tends to works because of the psychological concept of cognitive dissonance.
And men are not immune to it. You see a nice pair of tits and you rationalize wasting your time talking to a bimbo. Or you go to a car dealership and the salesman has you sit in the car that is beyond your budget because they want to emotionally hook you on more so you will sell yourself.
So this is a good book to learn some principles of persuasion. Cialdini's books are better in a text book way, and Adams doesn't offer much new ground if any, but I read those books and enjoyed them and still benefited from this book. If you haven't read those, reading this book will make you want to read them imho. The book is accessible and goes through Scott's experience with the election as teaching points in persuasion.
One thing to note is Adams is a bit egocentric and slightly dismissive of Republican/conservative/Trump values. He even changed his prediction twice. But he is fairly candid about these things so I don't hold it against him. If you buy this book solely for the election history, you might come away disappointed. If you buy this book to get a practical application of some high level persuasion techniques you'll be pleased.
First I recommend this book and his stuff that will add to your game. I have read a lot of books on persuasion including Cialdini's Influence and Pre-Suasion and this is up there with those, to some extent. While those books are good and Cialdini includes solid examples to explain academic research, I found my self better understanding those principles by reading this book.
For example, one of the key persuasion techniques Cialdini lists is contrast. He gives the story of how responsible people approved the Watergate break-in. G. Gordon Liddy was tasked with coming up with the plan. On two previous occassions he came up with some seriously crazy shit that the committee rejected. The actual break-in was downright mild in comparison, which is why they approved it.
Adams says to be persuasive present your ideas in the context of alternatives that are clearly worse and frame the alternatives as bad. He's not writing about game, but he is game aware and you can export this to game. For example, "Baby, come meet me for a drink and you might just meet the man of your dreams, or are you going to stay home and watch TV and binge eat ice cream and waste your life away."
Another technique is if someone is treating a small issue as a big problem, remind them what a big problem actually looks like.
A related application is to participate in activities in which you excel, and are better than others by comparison. So while its good to go dancing or kareoke for personal growth, if you don't do those things regularly then don't expect good results. But if you are an accomplished tennis player, trying to meet women in tennis circles would likely be more fruitful. And remember, Scott Adams is not the best looking guy in the world, so what he is talking about here is how to obtain an advantage with everything else being equal.
Another principle from the book is that visual persuasion is the strongest. He gives several examples from the election. In game, the more you can paint a picture or use descriptive language the better. "Picture this . . . ."
He also talks a good bit about why some of this stuff works. For example, the common phenomenon of hamstering and the related technique of offering plausible deniability is a form of cognitive dissonance. Basically we often make decisions for emotional reasons or to avoid upsetting the stories we tell ourselves, like "I am not a whore." In seduction, if you spike attraction or get a girl horny she will tend to make emotional decisions. Scott Adams says you can be persuasive by offering people a a "fake because" or a reason to do something. Ultimately it tends to works because of the psychological concept of cognitive dissonance.
And men are not immune to it. You see a nice pair of tits and you rationalize wasting your time talking to a bimbo. Or you go to a car dealership and the salesman has you sit in the car that is beyond your budget because they want to emotionally hook you on more so you will sell yourself.
So this is a good book to learn some principles of persuasion. Cialdini's books are better in a text book way, and Adams doesn't offer much new ground if any, but I read those books and enjoyed them and still benefited from this book. If you haven't read those, reading this book will make you want to read them imho. The book is accessible and goes through Scott's experience with the election as teaching points in persuasion.
One thing to note is Adams is a bit egocentric and slightly dismissive of Republican/conservative/Trump values. He even changed his prediction twice. But he is fairly candid about these things so I don't hold it against him. If you buy this book solely for the election history, you might come away disappointed. If you buy this book to get a practical application of some high level persuasion techniques you'll be pleased.
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, I will check the book and decide whether to read or not.