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Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter Hardcover – October 31, 2017

by Scott Adams (Author)

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The New York Times bestseller that explains one of the most important perceptual shifts in the history of humankind

Scott Adams was one of the earliest public figures to predict Donald Trump’s election. The mainstream media regarded Trump as a lucky clown, but Adams – best known as “the guy who created Dilbert” -- recognized a level of persuasion you only see once in a generation. We’re hardwired to respond to emotion, not reason, and Trump knew exactly which emotional buttons to push.

The point isn’t whether Trump was right or wrong, good or bad. Adams goes beyond politics to look at persuasion tools that can work in any setting—the same ones Adams saw in Steve Jobs when he invested in Apple decades ago. Win Bigly is a field guide for persuading others in any situation—or resisting the tactics of emotional persuasion when they’re used on you.

This revised edition features a bonus chapter that assesses just how well Adams foresaw the outcomes of Trump’s tactics with North Korea, the NFL protesters, Congress, and more.

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Portfolio
Publication date

October 31, 2017
Dimensions

6.38 x 1 x 9.31 inches
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0735219710
ISBN-13

978-0735219717
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Win Bigly taught me how to persuade my boss to treat me with slightly less contempt.”
—Dilbert

“I am deeply impressed by Scott Adams. I don’t know how anyone can write so many pages without using the word ‘doth.’”
—William Shakespeare

“I recommend this book to all mammals, big and small. It once turned a mole into a cheetah. I saw it with my own eyes.”
—Lord Byron

“If you only read one book this year, that’s one more than I did.”
—Mark Twain

“Scott taught me how to create a persuasive nickname for myself.”
—Alexander the Great

“If I’m being honest, Win Bigly is better than all other books and at least one play.”
—Abe Lincoln

“Win Bigly helped me escape from the secret room beneath the author’s shed.”
—Kristina Basham

“My life improved tremendously after I finished this book. If you ever write a book, I bet you’ll feel good when you’re done writing it too. Hey, why is my shed door open?”
—S. Adams

About the Author

Scott Adams is the creator of Dilbert, one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He has been a full-time cartoonist since 1995, after 16 years as a technology worker for companies like Crocker National Bank and Pacific Bell. His many bestsellers include The Dilbert Principle, Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook, and How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big. He is co-founder of WhenHub. He lives outside of San Francisco.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction (Where I Prime You for the Rest)

'm a trained hypnotist.

And I'm going to tell you about the spookiest year of my life. It happened between June 2015 and November 2016. Okay, that's a little more than a year.

Everything you are about to read in this book is true, as far as I know. I don't expect you to believe all of it. (Who could?) But I promise it is true, to the best of my knowledge.

I've waited decades to deliver the message in this book. I waited because the world wasn't ready, but also because the messenger-yours truly-didn't have the skill to deliver it right. The story was too hard to tell. But it was important, and it needed to be told.

And so I waited.

And I learned.

And I practiced.

And I waited some more.

Then it happened.

On June 16, 2015, Donald J. Trump rode a golden elevator in Trump Tower to the lobby, where he announced his candidacy for president of the United States. Like most observers at the time, I didn't fully understand what I was seeing. It wasn't until the first Republican primary debate that I realized what was happening right before our eyes. Trump was no ordinary politician. He was no ordinary businessperson either. In fact, he wasn't ordinary in any sense of the word.

Trump is what I call a Master Persuader. That means he has weapons-grade persuasion skills. Based on my background in that field, I recognized his talents early. And after watching him in action during the election, I have to say that Trump is the most persuasive human I have ever observed.

President Trump carried those persuasion skills into the White House, where his supporters say he has gotten a lot done, and his critics say he hasn't. Supporters pointed to a decrease in illegal immigration, a strong stock market (at this writing), high consumer confidence, progress fighting ISIS, a solid Supreme Court nominee, and a stronger-than-expected foreign policy game. Critics saw "chaos" in the administration, slow progress on health-care reform, and maybe some kind of nefarious connections with Russia.

President Trump's critics (and mine) asked me how I could call the president a Master Persuader when his public approval levels were in the cellar. The quick answer is that low approval didn't stop him from winning the presidency. And according to his supporters, it didn't stop him from getting things done on the job. His persuasion skills, combined with the power of the presidency, were all he needed. Keep in mind that disapproving of Trump's style and personality is a social requirement for people who long for a more civil world. Effectiveness is a separate issue from persuasive skill.

But here's the fun part: I also believed that Trump-the Master Persuader-was going to do far more than win the presidency. I expected Trump to rip a hole in the fabric of reality so we could look through it to a deeper truth about the human experience. And he did exactly that.

But not everyone noticed. That's why I made it the theme of this book.

The common worldview, shared by most humans, is that there is one objective reality, and we humans can understand that reality through a rigorous application of facts and reason. This view of the world imagines that some people have already achieved a fact-based type of enlightenment that is compatible with science and logic, and they are trying to help the rest of us see the world the "right" way. As far as I can tell, most people share that interpretation of the world. The only wrinkle with that worldview is that we all think we are the enlightened ones. And we assume the people who disagree with us just need better facts, and perhaps better brains, in order to agree with us. That filter on life makes most of us happy-because we see ourselves as the smart ones-and it does a good job of predicting the future, but only because confirmation bias (our tendency to interpret data as supporting our views) will make the future look any way we want it to look, within reason.

What I saw with Trump's candidacy for president is that the "within reason" part of our understanding about reality was about to change, bigly. I knew that candidate Trump's persuasion skills were about to annihilate the public's ability to understand what they were seeing, because their observations wouldn't fit their mental model of living in a rational world. The public was about to transition from believing-with total certainty-"the clown can't win" to "Hello, President Trump." And in order to make that transition, they would have to rewrite every movie playing in their heads. To put it in simple terms, the only way Trump could win was if everything his critics understood about the true nature of reality was wrong.

Then Trump won.

That's what I mean by "ripping a hole in the fabric of the universe." Think of it as the moment your entire worldview dissolves in front of your eyes, and you have to rebuild it from scratch. As a trained persuader, I found this situation thrilling beyond words. And I was about to get a lot of company, once people realized what they were seeing.

I'll help you find the hole that Trump punched through the universe so you can look through it with me to the other side. Put a seat belt on your brain-you're going to need it.

Before we go further, I need to tell you that Trump's stated policies during the campaign did not align with my political preferences. Nor do my views line up with Clinton's stated policies during the race. I realize this is hard to believe, so I'll need to give you some examples to make the point. This little detour is necessary so you can judge my political bias. It is important context because the message is always connected to the messenger. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you can probably skip this part.

I label myself an ultraliberal, and by that I mean liberals seem too conservative to me. I'll give you some examples:

Generally speaking, conservatives want to ban abortion while liberals want it to remain legal. I go one step further and say that men should sideline themselves from the question and follow the lead of women on the topic of reproductive health. (Men should still be in the conversation about their own money, of course.) Women take on most of the burden of human reproduction, including all of the workplace bias, and that includes even the women who don't plan to have kids. My personal sense of ethics says that the people who take the most responsibility for important societal outcomes should also have the strongest say. My male opinion on women's reproductive health options adds nothing to the quality of the decision. Women have it covered. The most credible laws on abortion are the ones that most women support. And when life-and-death issues are on the table, credibility is essential to the smooth operation of society. My opinion doesn't add credibility to the system. When I'm not useful, I like to stay out of the way.

Generally speaking, conservatives are opposed to legalization of marijuana whereas liberals are more likely to support it. I go one step further and suggest that doctors prescribe recreational drugs for old people to make their final years enjoyable. What do they have to lose? (Yes, I'm serious. I know it's hard to tell.)

When it comes to complicated issues about economics and foreign affairs, my opinion is that I never have enough data to form competent opinions. Neither does anyone else. My opinion of my own limitations doesn't match that of any politician. They pretend they have enough information to make informed decisions.

Generally speaking, conservatives think we live in a country where everyone already has equal opportunity. Liberals generally think the government should do more to guarantee equal opportunity. I go one step further and suggest considering slavery reparations for African Americans in the form of free college and job training, funded by a twenty-five-year tax on the top 1 percent. In the long run, I want free education for all, but you have to start someplace. No matter who goes first, it will seem unfair to everyone else. So why not let African Americans in low-income families go first? Keep in mind that helping the demographic group that is in the deepest hole gives society the biggest economic bang for the buck. And when society is prosperous, most of it flows right back into the pockets of the 1 percent, making their taxes for this purpose almost an investment.

I hope those are enough examples to make my point. I'm not on any political team, and I like it that way.

Policies aside, I was clearly a Trump "supporter" in the sense that I spoke glowingly of his persuasion skills, his humor, and his business talent. I was among the first observers-some say the first-to identify his political maneuvering as solid strategies borrowed from the business world. I was making that point while most pundits were labeling him an unhinged clown. I know a lot about business because I've observed it, and lived it, in a lot of ways. I write about business in the Dilbert comic, and I've published several business humor books. I also spent sixteen years in corporate America, first at a large bank and later at a phone company. I held about a dozen different jobs at those companies and got to see business from the perspective of technologists, marketers, strategists, leaders, followers, and more. I also have a BA in economics and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. And I've managed several different types of businesses of my own. The Dilbert business is a substantial enterprise, and I manage that. I also cofounded a start-up called WhenHub, and I help manage that. I make no claim of being a great businessperson, but I can usually tell the difference between good business practices and bad. Political pundits and writers covering Trump during the campaign generally did not have business experience, and I think that put them at a huge disadvantage in understanding the power of his methods. It wasn't all about persuasion. He also used high-end business strategy all the way, and you wouldn't recognize it as such if you had never spent time in that world.

As I grew my number of social media followers by attracting Trump supporters, it was fun to play to the audience. They liked pro-Trump humor and content and I enjoyed delivering it. The funniest observers of the election seemed to be on the political right. I'm attracted to funny.

I did sometimes criticize Trump, and I sometimes praised Clinton when her persuasion game was good. But I made no attempt at balancing the two for the sake of appearances. The mainstream media was doing a good job of covering all of the candidates' flaws and features. My primary interest was the topic of persuasion. And on that dimension, Trump owned the election until the summer of 2016. That's when Clinton's persuasion game went weapons grade and it became a fair fight for the first time.

If you would like to see my list of Trump's mistakes, I've organized them in appendix D. I did that so you won't think I'm blind to his missteps.

This is a good place to tell you where my credentials rank in the field of persuasion. I label my persuasion skills commercial grade, meaning I successfully use persuasion in my work. A few levels above me in talent and credibility are cognitive scientists who study this sort of thing for a living. If a cognitive scientist tells you I got something wrong in this book, trust the scientist, not me.

In my view of the world, the few individuals I call Master Persuaders are a level above cognitive scientists in persuasion power and possess what I call weapons-grade persuasion skills. The qualities that distinguish weapons-grade persuasion from the academic or commercial types are the level of risk taking and the personality that goes with it. Trump the candidate had an appetite for risk, a deep understanding of persuasion, and a personality that the media couldn't ignore. He brought the full package.

Here's the summary of the persuader types. The most powerful are at the top.

Master Persuaders (includes several presidents, Steve Jobs, Peggy Noonan, Tony Robbins, Madonna, etc.)

Cognitive scientists

Commercial-grade persuaders (people such as me)

I'll try to compensate for my lack of a PhD in cognitive science by linking to sources where it makes sense. But much of this book is based on decades of personal practice and observation of what works and what doesn't in the realm of persuasion. I encourage readers to remain skeptical and to check any of my claims on their own. A simple Google search will confirm (or debunk?) almost anything I say in this book about persuasion.

But Scott, Trump Is a Horrible Monster, Isn't He?

Trump's critics were appalled that I could say anything positive about this horrible monster that they expected to sprout horns at any moment. To them, my so-called support of Trump represented a big risk for the country, and it was the most despicable thing I could do. They worried that my writing would help get this racist, sexist, disrespectful, xenophobic hater elected. And they asked me how I could live with myself as Hitler's Little Helper. Wasn't I taking a risk with the future of the entire planet? Was I putting everyone's life in danger just to have some fun and get some attention?

The simple answer is that I didn't see any of their concerns as real. In Trump I saw a highly capable yet flawed man trying to make a positive difference. And I saw all of his opponents' fears as the product of heavy-handed political persuasion. No one becomes Hitler at age seventy. We would have seen lots of warning signs during his decades of public life. And I kept in mind that most Republican candidates for president have been painted with the same Hitler brush, and it hasn't been right yet. In a similar fashion, I knew President Obama was not part of an Islamic terrorist sleeper cell, as some of his critics claimed. I saw candidate Trump as the target of the same sort of partisan hysteria. Like much of the public, I saw a scary extremism in Trump's language and policy preferences during the campaign. But I recognized his hyperbole as weapons-grade persuasion that would change after the election, not a sign that Trump had suddenly turned into Hitler.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Portfolio; First Edition (October 31, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0735219710
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0735219717
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.13 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.38 x 1 x 9.31 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #145,213 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #60 in Political Humor (Books)
- #134 in Business & Professional Humor
- #215 in Self-Help & Psychology Humor

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What started as a doodle has turned Scott Adams into a superstar of the cartoon world. Dilbert debuted on the comics page in 1989 while Adams was in the tech department at Pacific Bell. Adams continued to work at Pacific Bell until he was voluntarily downsized in 1995. He has lived in the San Francisco Bay area since 1979.

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The author has class. This is a fun read on Persuasion and the Prez election

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 13, 2018

Verified Purchase

The Prez Election and the Art of Persuasion

This book was purchased at the suggestion of ‘Doc’ James, an intellectual buddy. Scott Adams, the author, is known coast-to-coast. He’s also a fascinating famous cartoonist. He Tells us that he's wealthy and successful.

The book’s overall contents oscillate around the art of persuasion. A good part of the material, or most all of the substance, pertains to Scott being linked to the last presidential election. On several occasions he wants his audience to know he’s a hypnotist. Those in that profession know a good deal about persuasion. We also learn about his education and that he’s an author of other books.

According to Mr. Adams, persuasion is all about tools for changing minds with or without facts. He affirms most of President Trump’s supporters were hiding because they feared career risks regarding any open support. After all, MSM’s credibility is becoming more and more dubious. The monopoly Tube referred to TD as a Con.

Scott tells us ideas created his own vocabulary. It's within persuasion. It's about cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias filters and other factors. According to him, the rational mind is a myth. We are informed that a main theme of Scott Adams’ is that humans are not rational. My take is that a good part of the book centers around himself and the electoral evolution of media’s false sensational reporting. The book has a different take on life. It reminds me of ambulating in the woods with my beloved, deceased, Dziadek (grandfather) and hearing a story.

As his keyboard rolled along Adams refers to various life-assisting filters. There's a Santa Claus filter. He found out about this when he was a small child. He moved on to the Church filter and here he refers to Jonah living in the stomach of a fish without oxygen for three days. He then moves on to other filters such as the Mushroom filter. He tells us about seeing different movies playing on the same screen at the same time.

He rides on to cognitive dissonance. It's a mental stress of individuals holding on to two or more contradictory beliefs. The reader learns people are often wrong and irrational. According to Scott, the presidential election might have provided the biggest trigger for cognitive dissonance that you’ll ever experienced in life.

Trump did not use traditional advertising and the experts predicted this was wrong. However, a number of famous individuals such as Ann Coulter, Stefan Molyneux and Mike Cernovich, picked Trump to win at the gate. After the election there was nonstop abuse from the pro-Clintonites. Here Adams was very impressed at how the masses of Trump supporters handled constant abuse.

As for the author, he wants us to know that 100,000 were following him on social media. We learn that when people realize their arguments are not rational they often attack the messenger. Scott tells us if a debating partner departs from fact you should declare victory and leave. In the presidential election masses for both Trump and Clinton were looking at similar info and coming to opposite conclusions. Millions of people swam in sea of delusions.

Reading along I came to a chapter entitled The Making of the Hypnotist. Here, Mr. Adams tells us about persuasion tips. For example, Persuasion Tip Number 10 is strongest when the messenger is credible. A person has to believe in himself, or at least appear to. Persuasion Tip Number 11 tells us that if you are right the subject should bond to you because of like-mindedness. Most of the stuff about hypnotic premise is perhaps generally known. For example, love, romance and sex create irrational behaviors. He also notes a political incorrect factor. Scott asserts that being handsome or talented can often be construed is having good genes.

Scott tells us Trump convinced the public that his policies were the ones they should care about. Happy filters can do a good job of predicting the future. The author’s remarks about candidate Trump and Rosie O’Donnell, plus Megan Kelly, were somewhat funny. Kelly asked a loaded question about calling females fat pigs, slobs and disgusting animals. Trump answered by referring to locker room talk and an obese individual in a humorous fashion that certainly must've had millions laughing. He avoided a dirty attack.

There are several cartoons which were enjoyable while reading that Hillary attempted to portray her opponent as the next Hitler. This made critics believe Trump had the potential to invade Poland. Of course, like a large number of Americans, Trump had numerous Pol-Am friends and he knew history. In other words, to even suggest that he would invade Warsaw was more than dubious. This did not stop his critics from making crazy associations. Scott Adams refers to TV programs, such as Morning Joe, that features Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough. Here we learn that Mr. Adams decided to go on YouTube as Coffee With Scott Adams. That was absolutely brilliant.

The author mentions grafting ideas to people’s aspirations. Candidate Trump was campaigning with the content of Making America Great. On the other hand, the Clintons’ message was Stronger Together. One message appealed to the entire country; the other, to certain elements. Scott writes that The Donald told Americans they were Americans first. Clinton, on the other hand, tried to persuade women, minorities and various aspects of the gay community. The writer wants us to know Trump was gold for the TV tinsel image makers.

According to SA, the winner of our last presidential run was versatile. Not only was he persuasive, he was an author of a best-selling book (The Art of the Deal). One of the skillful parts of SA’s book pertain to The Donald's linguistic skills. He used such catchy terms as Pocahontas, Low Energy Jeb and Crooked Hillary. We read that Hillary's email server and Foundation provided plenty of ammunition for DT. She had made a lot of cabbage as a bureaucrat.

After composing much about TVs unnecessary negativity, we learn that a good idea is decent for passing fruitless thoughts. This can be done by positive images in thinking. For example, Trump’s slogans were more than appealing. He spoke about greatness. Clinton slogans were, I'm Ready for Hillary, I'm with her, Breaking Down Barriers…

We read about Clinton's fund raising advantages. However, the adventure pertaining to Bernie Sanders speaks for itself. As I move along Scott's book, an enjoyable section pertains to getting away with bad behavior. We read if you can't change habits acknowledge them with humor. Persuasion Tip Number 23 is that it’s important what people deem you are thinking. In The Donald's case there was no reason to abide by the anti-Trump media that demanded he release his tax info. He also got the voters attention by not going along with a MSM KKK-togetherness trap.

As we near the end of the book we realize that much of our entertainment oscillates around the election. When Anthony Weiner’s laptop scandal was publicized it opened doors for Trump’s vivid imagination. He used association tactics. After all, Weiner was the husband of Hillary's closest adviser. When Clinton emphasized that half of Trump’s millions of supporters were deplorable, it wasn't the brightest of her behavior paradigms.

Reading this book is like riding a roller coaster through the last election. FBI director Comey’s commentary about Hillary abiding by law and (2) Attorney General Lynch’s emphasizing no charges would be made spoke plenty. Info about CNN’s Donna Brazile passing debating questions to Hillary must have influenced large numbers.

It was around this time that the media became more desperate. It was suggested that Donald T was a womanizer who used vulgarity to describe women. Donald’s reply was that Bill Clinton had done worst. Here, readers see Persuasion Tip 24. It's all about framing your strategy to win and no way to lose. It's about using high ground. The media attempted to portray their enemy as a racist. All the while, Trump was kissing small colored kids. You don't kiss those you don't like. Scott claims it was because of the media that he supported Hillary. He tells us he did this for his own protection. Low life trolls we're coming after him on the Internet. It was later revealed Hillary’s side spent a million dollars with online operatives. They threatened and even branded Adams as a Goebbels. He claims that's the reason he endorsed Hillary. Just before the end of the election he switched back to Trump.

He wants us to know that he lives near a nest of liberals, Berkeley. He insists that we should bear in mind he's a trained Persuader, and a professional writer. He reached over a 100,000 followers in cyberspace. Candidate Donald Trump once tweeted him. Even Newt Gingrich mentioned him. We learn that on the last night everyone hearing and watching the TVs tools of persuasion thought Trump’s goose was cooked.

Scott ends with the line, Welcome to the Third Dimension.

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Helpful

Mike Klepper

Reality Bites Back: A Review of Scott Adams' "Win Bigly"

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 4, 2017

Verified Purchase

Scott Adams' latest book, "Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter", describes the approach he used to predict Donald Trump's winning of the 2016 election. His thesis is that Trump is a "master persuader," similar to Steve Jobs, who has a "skills stack" (Adams' words) that naturally allows him to persuade people to rally to his side, and this resulted in his victory. This is one theme in "Win Bigly". A second theme that Adams did not intend to include, I believe, is what I'll call "the revenge of reality" theme.

Throughout the election, many people were comparing the policies of Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump.

Other people, myself included, were concerned about the candidates' overall ethics and politics as well as those of their supporters. Observing a candidate's supporters is crucial. The candidates themselves are slick and polished; their supporters aren't, so their words and actions are far easier to unravel. The Berkeley riots at Milo Yiannopoulos' attempted speech told me all I needed to know about Hillary. I'm a died-in-the-wool America Firster Deplorable, and while I supported Trump, I did not believe he would carry his political philosophy to its natural conclusion, nor would he understand the causes that would block him from reaching that goal.

Regardless, those two approaches (policy and philosophy) attempt to answer the question: who will make the best president, should he or she win? Adams realized that neither of those address another question: who will win? In order to answer that, he examined the techniques each candidate used to persuade the electorate to vote for them.

Adams begins his book by describing his experience as a persuader. He is a trained hypnotist, and a lifelong student of the art of persuasion. He calls himself a "commercial-grade persuader".

To get the art of persuasion off the ground, he believes that it is necessary to take what can be called an "anti-realist" approach to how individuals know the world around them. His theory is that people cannot know the world - that we are living in a world where facts don't matter. By this, he isn't talking about temporary ignorance, or ambiguities, or "fog of war" type nescience, but rather an actual inability to know. In support of this he sites anti-realist philosophers like Kant, various marketing experts, and quantum physicists. "All we have is probability and strangeness," he claims.

Adams goes on to say that this doesn't apply to mundane tasks like balancing your checkbook, only the important things. "...[F]acts and reason don't have much influence on our decisions, except for trivial things, such as putting gas in your car when you are running low. On all the important stuff, we are emotional creatures who make decisions first and rationalize them after the fact." Which side do the steps needed to split the atom, or put men on the moon, or perform open heart surgery, belong - trivial or important? He doesn't answer that.

Instead, Adams claims that people view the world through interpretations or "filters". How does one choose among different filters? He uses two standards:

1. It makes him happy
2. It makes accurate predictions

Left unaddressed: how does he know if a prediction has indeed come true, if facts don't matter? How does he know that he is indeed happy?

One of the funniest chapters is the one where he describes the various filters he went through while growing up - starting with the Santa Claus filter, going through the church filter (which makes predictions only after one has died), through the marijuana filter, finally ending with what he calls the "persuasion filter".

The persuasion filter is not to be underestimated for, as Adams points out, it is sufficiently powerful to undermine even the scientific method. Just look at "climategate".

Adams recognized Trump to be a master persuader very early. He didn't start the campaign as a Trump supporter; rather, he was impressed by Trump's persuasive abilities and entertainment value. This was enough to trigger Hillary supporters and Internet trolls, which resulted in Adams being the target of intimidation.

As the campaigns continued, Hillary used backdoor means to eliminate Bernie Sanders. These would not work on Trump, simply because those techniques would not play well in public. She had to up her game in a manner that would grant her victory without appearing even more slimy in the public light. This is when the "pussygate" recording was made public, which caused Adams to temporarily switch his endorsement to Gary Johnson, as he "is the candidate who touches only himself."

Those of us who are skeptical/cynical of politicians knew that the importance of the recording wasn't in the content, but rather in how it was being used: as a tool to paint Trump as a womanizer. By implication, those on Hillary's side were pure as snow, like Bill Clinton or Harvey Weinstein. Thus pussygate didn't get much traction.

So, Hillary and her supporters began the allegations describing Trump as "dark", racist, Islamophobic, racist, homophobic, racist, sexist, Nazi... racist. Rhetoric of this scorched-earth kind cannot stick only to Trump, but carries over to his supporters. Indeed, it is designed to spill over in that manner: "people believed Trump was as bad as Hitler, and by extension that marked his alleged propaganda chief (me) for death as well."

Adams was genuinely concerned for his safety and for that of his friends and family. He changed his endorsement to Hillary "for his own safety". You can tell that Adams lives in northern California: threatening violence against another would be unacceptable anywhere else, we have too much integrity to tolerate such threats. In other parts of the country, the snowflakes resort to economic retaliation.

A died-in-the-wool anti-realist would say: friends and family are concepts that exist only in my mind. How do I know that they are in danger? And if indeed it is a fact that they're in danger, it doesn't matter, since... facts don't matter. Fortunately, Adams dropped his anti-realism and came out swinging: "this was not politics. This was bully behavior, plain and simple. And it flipped a bit in my brain that couldn't flip back."

We know the rest of the story: Trump won the electoral vote, the snowflakes had a tantrum of seismic proportions, and the media continues as leftist propaganda machines.

Adams ends the book with a discussion about how persuasion relates to casualty: did his predictions actually cause Trump to win? Predictions are but guesses - when they come true, they are prophecies; when they don't, we salvage the situation by calling them allegories. An anti-realist cannot make the distinction.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, because the author expresses interesting insights into the art of persuasion, and applies those insights to electoral politics. Filter out the anti-realism, and a very strong book remains.

Let me end this review by making a prediction of my own: Trump will be stymied throughout his term of office by what is coming to be known as the "deep state". He will be slow to understand the fact that the deep state is what we ourselves are supporting, and that the easiest way to stop the deep state is to excise it like the cancer that it is.

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Bill Harvey

Ten top ideas from the book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 6, 2023

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1. The concept of "framing" or how people interpret and understand information.

2. The importance of storytelling in persuasion and communication.

3. The concept of "linguistic kill shots" or the use of specific words and phrases to change the narrative.

4. The role of emotions in decision making and persuasion.

5. The use of "anchoring" or setting the initial frame for a discussion or debate.

6. The importance of setting expectations and making predictions in persuasion.

7. The use of humor and satire in persuasion.

8. The role of non-verbal communication in persuasion, including body language and facial expressions.

9. The concept of "confirmation bias" and how people seek out information that supports their preexisting beliefs.

10. The use of "cognitive dissonance" to change people's beliefs and behaviors.

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Top reviews from other countries

Bart

A love-letter by the ultimate fan boy. A waste of money and time.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 7, 2020

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I’ve been a reader of Scott’s blog for quite a while and found his earlier books entertaining.
Following Trump’s raise to power, I was fascinated about the gullibility of the average voter (I.e. congitive biases) and how some people are masters at the exploitation of this. The way Scott wrote about this guy in his blog was interesting, as it offered a fresh and alternative view at the events. The “what if Trump is a genius using his unorthodox ways to play the political establishment” approach was at least interesting to follow. I always liked Scott’s slightly odd explanation of matters, which were entertaining and sometimes thought provoking. Here, I expected a set of carefully selected examples and their analysis based on findings of Cialdini, Thaler, Kahneman and others.
However, what you get is a thesis that has a pre-defined conclusion and then uses impressive argumentative acrobatics to back this assumption as being factual. At one point it just gets out of hand. As the title suggests, facts don’t matter here.
I stopped reading it at the point where Scott started explaining Trumps jokes and why they were misunderstood because most people don’t get New York humour. That was pretty much what made clear that the book will portray Trump as the next Messiah (the reference is made in the book) no matter what.
The book is from 2017, when Trump was still utilising the momentum generated by the previous administration. Things appear to look different now in 2020, when ignoring facts (or injecting disinfectants) might get you killed. Trump has proven in many cases, that he does not use his ridiculous behaviour to cover up some grand plan, because he simply has none.
Not too long after the publication of the book, Scott first turned off the commenting section of his blog, then switched into a podcast format, probably to reach a smaller, more evangelised audience. Eventually he removed his blog from the Dilbert website. I can only assume this is due to the backlash to his popularity resulting from his unconditional loyalty to what some refer to as “the last president of the US”.

13 people found this helpful

Ross Hamilton

Persuasion Trumps Reason

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 28, 2017

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Adams explains persuasion with regular reference back to one main case study: Donald Trump and the US presidential race. Personally I think this choice is a masterstroke. The race dominated the news for >12 months, the text explains the importance of many things you knew of and some you didn't. Virtually no-one gave Trump a chance. It was a result that shocked most of the world including everyone who was hitherto considered an expert in US politics. The book goes a long way to explaining why so many people were totally wrong about a matter they were very sure of. Most people are still bewildered by the result to this day, but not those who have read 'Win Bigly', Scott's blogs or watched his Periscope's.
The techniques of persuasion described in the book are also deployed in the writing of it. Making the reader a target for persuasion, rather than a casual observer, this stimulates your thought process and reinforces the message. The reader is kind of an active part of the book's creation which is pretty meta.
Whilst the material stuck to persuasion techniques, I loved it. I was totally into examples about Trump & the race. When he quotes his blogs and talks about Godzilla that was interesting too.
What I found less interesting was toward the end it got deeper into describing Scott's personal story, the effects of being publicly identified as a Trump supporter, reasons for flip-flopping, endorsing each of Clinton/Johnson/Trump.
But overall a great read that will help you interpret and understand the world around you.
FWIW I'm from the UK. The ratings of this book are clearly very polarised between American voters identifying as Republicans & Democrats. I don't consistently identify with a particular political party. IMO you don't need to be American or even interested in politics to enjoy and find value in this.
Would highly recommend - Win Bigly

14 people found this helpful

Arron Tolan

A fresh, fascinating take on the modern human condition

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 19, 2017

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Scott Adams book is a tour de force in information and entertainment, after reading you will never look at politicians, businessmen or public figures the same again!

Adams' level of detail when breaking down Trumps persuasion wins and Clinton's failures is both accessible yet deeply enlightening and his frequent use of personal blog excerpts remind us that this is an author whom has the experience and academic chops to go beyond mere punditry and pull back the curtain on what makes the consumeristic public warm to a brand.

Win Bigly is well written and good humoured, I highly recommend it to anyone who has aspirations of becoming a better speaker or influencer.

8 people found this helpful

DR

Waste of time & money

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 2, 2020

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Very hard read. Full of hyperbole & self-congratulatory. Repeats many of the psychological knowhow from very good writers on behavioural science, but regurgitated here in dumbed down form. Incredibly repetitive of one accomplishment: ‘predicting’ Trump election, but it harks to one of the big cognitive biases: survivorship bias. Wouldn’t waste the time or money on it. Read Thaler & kahneman for far cleaner, better supported and scientifically robust arguments, while still very entertaining.

4 people found this helpful

Paulo T.

Biased but valid

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 13, 2018

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Entertaining and informative. Not recommended if you dislike Trump though. Even though Scott began by predicting Trump's victory and persuasion skills, now he works to keep the president's image por favor a master persuasion.
At this point Scott's view on Trump is biased, but it doesn't invalidate the principles he talks about in the book.

2 people found this helpful

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