Author: Scott Adams

This particular book peeked out of the express shelves at the library.

Well I’m familiar with Scott Adams work on his Dilbert comic strip, I didn’t know he ventured off into other areas, especially in the political commentary forum.

However within a few pages of reading this book it intrigued me enough. I mean, look at the title! It didn’t take me long to finish and…

Wow.

Am I very happy that I read this one.

A lot of the conditions that Adams described in this book is the way that people misconstrue how the world actually works.

In other words, reading this book as a way to help release us from our mental prisons in which we can think the world works a certain way. It gives you a greater appreciation for not only understanding others, but why they get stuck in the way that they do.

And lo and behold, it also makes me realize how much of these mental prisons I fall into, which is good because I can learn to break out of it.

I already did a post earlier on one of the parts of the book that stood out to me.

After that point, there’s a great chapter on how we’ve hit the golden age of humanity. Now, no one can predict the future and what’s going to happen. However, I certainly share his optimism that when humanity has its back against the wall, and has a bit of time, we can come up with solutions to our greatest problems.

This, in combination with the great research of Hans Rosling in Factfulness, can turn any person’s despair into some modicum of hope.

Many of the topics in this book have been covered in detail by others, although those were a bit more academic in nature and represent a microcosm of the varieties of way in which we fall into mental traps.

Adams really delivers it all in a very palatable way.

You read it, get it and understand it.

Now, it’s just a matter of applying it.