Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Wow, did I get suckered into buying this book. I've enjoyed many Dilbert comic strips, so I expected this book to be amusing. Instead, it's nearly humorless. The book is based largely on three premises: 1) people are mostly illogical, 2) the author (Scott Adams) predicted that Donald Trump would win the presidency, and 3) the author knew this because he knows more about persuasion than most people. Adams is right about #1 and #2, but his conclusion (#3) is very flimsy. In the first couple chapters, Adams seems extremely gleeful about being correct in his prediction. His writing there is only superficially modest, making it difficult for me to stomach. Later he turns to the more credible topics of reasoning and fallacies, including "confirmation bias". His descriptions are largely correct, but they would be more credible if written by a noted psychologist or sociologist. Adams is a businessman, a comic-strip writer, and a "trained hypnotist". Oh, and he's rich, too. Unless Adams is actually parodying himself in this book, I find it very perplexing - almost sad. Adams barely mentions (or immediately dismisses) any evidence that Trump may have won the election for reasons other than being a "master persuader" (his words). Worse still, he insists that our "perception filters" (again, his words) stop us from seeing reality, even suggesting that there may be no objective reality (and, therefore, facts). Scott, there is an objective reality. There is a difference between opinion and fact. If you drink enough poison, you will die, whether you believe you will die or not. I don't know if you really believe the anti-reality nonsense in your book or not, but it is far from persuasive. Moreover, you have fallen into your own confirmation bias trap. You have convinced yourself that you knew with high certainty why Trump would win because you tuned out all other explanations using your perception filter!