21A – Reading Reflection No. 2

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

For the second reading reflection I read How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big, a memoir by Scott Adams which essentially provides an insight on the physical and mental changes Adams grew to perceive were most beneficial and effective for his career and personal success. Scott Adams endured countless failures respective to startups and patents though through personal modification he reformulated his life and ended up creating the successful Dilbert office cartoon, which he used as an outlet for many of the things he had experienced. 

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

Without having read the other books, I would probably say this lecture choice was very relevant to what we are learning in ENT3003. The fact is, Adams shares advice that tells it how it is. For one to pretend success be evident in their life they have to make changes, and truly be sly or ´vivo´as we say in Spanish. Adams is a perfect example of an entrepreneur that analyzed not only his situation but the situation around him and enacted changes in his personality or routine when the moment corresponded. Because of these changes he was able to find a break-through and be successful. 

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

I think an interesting exercise to carry out would be incorporating psychology and trying to figure people out— a skill that Adams says is a solid ten on a scale from one to ten. Maybe grouping students who have never met before and asking them to make conversation for five minutes and then analyzing ones perception of each group member. 

Another point of advice made by Scott Adams which I found neat was that “to maximize productivity one has to match their mental state to the task”. In other words, learn to figure out when you are at a most productive mental state and then work on the task. I thought this was a very interesting but complicated advice to incorporate at first— because sometimes one is tired and has a deadline, etc. Lately though I’ve tried to incorporate it by hyping myself up randomly and getting productive, and I’ve had some pretty successful results. 

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

In the text Adams mentions that we shouldn’t expect people in the world to make rational decisions, or else we’ll strip ourselves of mental freedom and end up being frustrated our whole lives. I thought this was extremely interesting, as my interpretation of it was “shit will many times not go your way even though you think it should, f*ck em, get over it, and move on”. As mentioned before, Scott Adams really tells it how it is, and I can honestly say I’ve turned into a fan.