ReframeYourBrain

Reframe Your Brain (Scott Adams)

  • Refames dont need to be rational or logical, they just need to work.
  • Everything you experience rewires your brain. I'm teaching you how to do it strategically instead of randomly

  • The first thing I think when something falls apart is that an opportunity has been created.

    I still deal with the problem of course, but Ive rewired my brain via repetition to look for the upside.

  • I fail at 90% of the things I try —> I only need to succeed 10 percent of the time.
  • I want to do XXXX —> I have decided to do XXXX

  • Cultivate a reputation that can handle being spectacularly wrong without offending your sense of self, do that.

    It will make you the only person in the room who can see the whole field.

  • A big downside of long-term goals withough systems is that every day you do not meet the goal, you are in a mental state of something like failure.

    But when you have a system, you can feel success every day.

  • Your best odds of happiness are closely associated with how flexible your talent stack is.

    Focus on being excellent at a skill that has commercial value —> Acquire skills that work well together and make you rare and flexible at the same time.

    Brig Williams: "Do not become a commodity"

  • Another problem! Why me? —> Ooh, a new puzzle to solve.
  • Ugh, I hate this repetitive chore –> I can do this chore so gracefully and efficiently it feels like a game.
  • Dont give something for nothing –> Giving triggers reciprocity (on average)

  • Best piece of career advice: always give more than is expected of you.

    When you do that you instantly stand out as a person of character.

    Doing more than expected is almost always doable.

    There is no simpler formula for social and career sucess.

    Do your job –> Do more than your job.

  • Succes depends on who you know —> Succes depends on how many people you know.
  • Honesty is a rare superpower. Keeping your word consistently creates an asset that is hard to compete with in todays sketchy world
  • Favor action over caution when the cost of taking the wrong action is low.

  • If you see someone do something wrong, the normal impulse is to point out the error and explain how to do it right.

    This is OK in life or death situations — get to the point.

    But most things are not urgent. Much of life involves teaching people how to do something you know how to do but they dont.

    People generally want to do good work. Showing someone a better way is often all you need.

    People usually know when they mess up and why.

    Tell people what they did wrong so they avoid it next time –> Tell people what they did well so they are motivated to continue repeating it.

  • The universe is acting agianst me –> the universe owes me.
  • Do wait around for luck. Luck needs you to do its part which usually looks like this.
    • Work on your fitness and health
    • Build your talent stack
    • Meet more people
    • Go where there is more energy
    • Create systems for you success

  • The concept of fairness is useful in sports, relationships and other situations, but it is a big abstacle to success.

    Fairness is a desirable social goal –> Fairness is the enemy of success.

  • The way I experince creativity is as river of ideas flowing through my consciousness. Nearly all of them are bad or imcomplete, and my brain flushes them as quickly as they arrive. But every so often, I get a physical sensation from an idea. It might cause me to laugh, get goosebumps, or get excited about a project. Thats the good one. I dont creat ideas. I simply select the best from the stream as it passes and I identify the good ones by how they make me feel.

  • Compare youself to where you were yesterday or where you started

    You feel like a fraud. Everyone else is competent –> Your are learning fast! Look at all you learned.

  • Its better to say the boy hit the ball than the ball was hit by the boy.
  • Nuke the adverbs

  • For most types of writting the best sentence is the simplest one that gets the message across. If you use words that a 12 year old would understand, you will sound like the smartest person in the conversation.

    Simple sentences are better in every way.

  • Good writting makes the reader feel something. Especially for humor. Use you body as a sensor to know when you write someting funny or emotionally persuasive.
  • I am my inner thoughts –> I am what I do.
  • The best way to talk yourself out of feeling judged by others is to stop judging others. Lose that frame. When you judge others on a subjective frame of goodness and badness , you are buying into your own destruction. The more you think of others as good and bad, the more you will suspect people are judging you because that will become your go-to frame.
  • Hate is nothing bug punishing yourself for the misdeeds of others.
  • One of the greatest keys to happiness and good health involves managing stress and anxiety. It wont matter to your happiness how many skills you acquire over the course of your life if you dont also learn how to control how you feel.
  • Embarrassments dont last. It makes it easy to ignore the next potential embarrassment.
  • Immunity to shaming is one of the most usefull business and professional skills you can acquire (counter point: shaming is a signal, might have some value)
  • I worry something will go wrong –> Im curious what will happen.
  • Look for situations in your life where you can reasonably "do everything you can do" to improve the situation. Notice how much better you fell no matter if things go wrong or right from that point on.
  • Fitness is a gift that keeps on giving. It touches all aspects of your life and is highly controllable. So control the fuck out of it and see how much better you feel. Same with diet. Eating right and exercising are not easy. But they are 100% availible to all interested takers. Get control of your diet and exercise and watch how the benefits start solving your other problems
  • If something is too small to be remembered on you final day of consciousness, what are the odds its important now?
  • If you have problems, your brain will pounce and – for many of us – never release. Thats exactly what you want if your problem is one that can be solved. But reality is too messy. Many of our most vexing problems exist entirely inour minds.
  • "Less is more" is a powerful bit of programming code that makes everything it touches seem persuasive. Use that to your advantage.
  • People love to hear their own names. Its an easy and instant bonding technique Be a name-user. Make it your superpower to remember names. All it takes is focus and effort.
  • The worst thing you can do when you meet a stranger is talk about yourself for too long while trying to be interesting. Instead ask questions and show interet. You might need to fake your interest for a few questions until you find a topic you both like.

  • Once you accept that we are all "acting" to some degree when we communicate, you can go all-in and turn it into technique.

    Dont deny the show. If you can call on your acting skills and create an interesting verion of yourself that isnt a lie.

  • Telling good stories:

    Have an intersting payoff at the end. Practice saying the punchline, the big reveal, or the shocking ending in one clean sentance. The body of the story can be variable each time you tell it, but make sure the "payoff line" is tight and simple.

  • Stress comes with your job –> Reducing stress is your job
  • There are good days and bad days —> All days are useful in different ways
  • Your mind includes your brain, body, and physical environment. Any change to one changes the others.
  • Be yourself –> Become a better version of yourself.
  • Dress for the impact you want to have on others.
  • "Strong personality" is usually a way to say that a person is toxic.
  • Giving a compliment is an easy way to improve your life experience. When you offer a sincere, unsolicited compliment, people remember it.

  • Giving compliments is awkward, creepy, or manipulative –> Withholding a compliment is almost immoral.

    If you have a positive thought about someone, let it out.

    Drop and leave approach: dropping a thick compliment and immediately changing the subject before your target has a chance to feel awkward or even respond.

  • Minor Decisions: Never say you dont care, just choose. Everyone will be glad you did, and you will appear to be a leader.
  • The experts are in charge –> The best communicators are in charge
  • The boss is in charge —> The most capable people are in charge.
  • Everyone is a basketcase once you get to know them.
  • Judge people by how they respond to their mistakes.
  • There are no small acts of kindness.
  • Some food is fuel and some food in entertainment
  • Many words carry a little package of power that influences you independently from the context of the sentance
  • Being good at selecting words is gthe difference between being persuasive and being annoying.
  • Use repetition to brand yourself as a certain type of person and all of your other decisions will become simpler. One of our strongest motivations is be seen as consistent.
  • The best excersises are the ones youre willing to do.
  • Humans are not rational creatures, they are creatures who rationalize decisions after they make them.
  • People might not say they are motivated by money, but watch how their ethics-based preferences match their ecomomic interests.
  • Everyone is innocent until proven guilty –> Citizens are innocent until proven guilty. Comporations and governments are presumed guilty until proven innocent.
  • Logic and facts wont help you change many minds. If people did not arrive at their opinions by rational means, a rational argument isnt going to talk them out of it. Instead ask them to repeat back your argument to demonstrate that they understand it. If they can, they can be persuaded.
  • Your bring is programmable if you learn how to access the user interface. This book teachers you how to write and insert code into your brain. Reframses are software upgrades to your brain.
  • Freedom is a huge button on the human interface, and its easy to push. Consider it in every decision you make and remember to consider it when trying to persuade others.
  • Dont bring up ugly topics when making a first impression or at any other time during the getting-to-know-each-other phase.
  • Stick to communication that is funny, interesting, useful, optimistic, and even inspirational. It makes you far more fun to be around. The people who are not lucky enough to read this book will communicate the tragic stuff to other people for you, at their own social expense.
  • A good way to brainstorm reframes is to imagine how the smartest and most aware people you know would approach a given situation. Assemble an imaginary advisory board of people you know and them imagine them giving you advice on the topic.

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