Scott Adams is the author of the popular comic strip Dilbert. I decided to read How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big after hearing Scott talk through his approach to success on podcasts and other interviews. I recommend this book for anyone interested in self-improvement for a few reasons: 1) the recommendations are extremely practical 2) it’s well-written (i.e Scott gets to the point, doesn’t add a lot of fluff, and there’s a good amount of humor as well) and 3) there some new and interesting ideas in there that will likely change your perspective on things. Below are my three key-takeaways:
1. Willpower is a Scarce Resource:
This is the most important concept in the book in my opinion. It’s one of those ideas that seems obvious, but is rarely applied or talked about in the context of self-improvement. The idea is that since Willpower is a scarce resource, you can’t rely on it to help you overcome ALL your problems or drive towards your goals. On the contrary, relying on Willpower is a surefire way to fail.
I think there is tendency, particular with people who have used Willpower effectively in their lives, to believe that it is a renewable resource; that we can continually push ourselves by sheer force of our “wills” or mental toughness to move forwards and make progress towards our goals. If we fail in our diets it’s because we lacked willpower; if you don’t go to the gym as often as you want, it’s lack of willpower; if you didn’t produce a good enough result at work, it’s because you lacked willpower…and so on.
Scott calls bullshit on this line of thinking and asks us to acknowledge that Willpower is a scarce resource. Just like you can only drive a certain number of miles on a tank of gas, you can only use a certain amount of Willpower on any given day. If your gas tank is close to empty you’re probably not going to take a lot of detours to tourist attractions until you get to gas station.
Of course you need willpower to succeed. It is required to do anything hard and can lead to amazing results, often beyond your wildest dreams. So the Big Idea is to organize your life so that you are using Willpower in the most effective way possible. If you take anything away from this book it’s the idea that you need to use your Willpower wisely.
2. Systems Instead of Goals:
A key concept for the efficient use of Willpower is using Systems instead of Goals to guide your behavior. Systems Thinking combines of the idea of “process over results” with a hint of “shortcuts” or simplification. The idea is replace Willpower with systems as much as possible.
This seems counter-intuitive. Don’t you need clear goals in order to make sure you’re doing the right things and to measure that you’re actually getting closer to them? Maybe, but there is real psychological issue with this approach: while you’re striving for you goals you’re in constant state of near-failure. You might be tracking towards your goal, but you’re also one wrong move away from going down the wrong path. This just puts you in bad mental state, drains your energy, and makes it harder for you to do the things you need to do to succeed.
Systems on the other hand put you in a state of constant, if small, successes. This increases your energy and makes it easier for you do the things you need to do. Ultimately it conserves your Willpower for the truly hard tasks.
Naval Ravikant has a quote I like that sums this idea up well: “Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.” A goals-oriented approach puts you in this constant desire state. A Systems approach gives you positive momentum and reduces your reliance on Willpower.
3. Maximizing Energy:
Prioritization is a common theme in the self-improvement literature. It’s also one of the hardest things to do. Scott has a system for Prioritization and it is simple (not easy, but simple): do things that maximize your personal energy. I think of personal energy as the opposite of Willpower. Things that increase your energy require minimal or zero Willpower. Is skiing your absolute favorite thing to do? You could probably drive 2 hours in a car with a crying baby and it could barely tap into your will power. You’ll probably feel your energy build up as you get closer to the mountain. However, those same two hours would likely require immense will power if you’re driving to a Thanksgiving dinner with your dysfunctional family. Think about how you feel walking towards the front door of that house.
To be clear: maximizing energy is not the same “do what you love.” It’s more about understanding how you operate and acknowledging that there are activities that drain your energy and ones that increase it. And since activities that drain energy require Willpower, be wary of doing them since they become obstacles towards to your success. The idea is that as you go about prioritizing your time, be sure to place extra value on things that maximize your energy because it will ultimately lead to betters results in everything you need to do.
NOTE: There is a special category of things that increase Energy, like exercise and diet, that do require regular use of Willpower. However, the tradeoff is worth it because doing those things will ultimately put you in a better state to take on other tasks in your life. Scott also offers some systems on how to approach these types of activities
What am doing about it?
The next step for me is to do what I’m calling a “systems assessment.” I’m going to under which systems I’m using today (without necessarily knowing it) and then assess which areas of my life I should try and apply systems.
Intergalactic Dance 