21A – Reading Reflection No. 2

"How to Fail at Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of my Life" by Scott Adams

1. The general theme of the book was that everyone should embrace failure and screwing things up. In the book, the author discusses the idea that we, as people, should focus on systems rather than having goals. Goals look at the end product, and if we don’t get that end product fast enough, we get discouraged. We should look at the world in terms of systems. A system is something that a person regularly does that will lead to a better you. Adams believes that people who use their systems will almost always succeed. This ties into failure in a way that failure makes our system more refined. There are many things we can do to make our system more likely for success. In this book, Adams discussed other things we can do to have more success like practicing public speaking, overcoming shyness, using affirmations, exercising, etc.  

2. This book ties into the idea of opportunities. While Adams failed at a lot of things through life, each failure gave him knowledge into his own capabilities. Learning about skills and failure often leads to opportunities that otherwise would not have occurred. Opportunities came in several forms maybe a job or another business idea. These opportunities sometimes caused failure again or were successful, but each time he learned more and sought other opportunities.  

3. If I had to design an exercise based on the book, it would involve looking at our past failures and what we learned. The author spends pages 17 to 27 discussing all the things he tried and failed at. Each time he failed, he looked at what caused this endeavor not to go as he wanted. Sometimes it was just based on the fact that he did not make the right decisions or didn’t know much about the topic. Overall, he was proud of his failures because it made him who he is today. The exercise that I would develop is that students have to look at their past shortcomings and pick four notable ones. It could be not doing well in class or not getting an internship and so forth. In the assignment, they discuss the failure: what it was, why they think it occurred, and what they learned. Failure can be uncomfortable for many to admit and can be embarrassing. But this book shows that everyone should embrace failure and not be ashamed of it. Failure can be the best teacher and provides the necessary experiences.

4. My ‘aha’ moment occurred on page 96. This section was titled “The Success Formula: Every Skill you Acquire Doubles your Odds of Success.” The formula discussed in this passage was: 

good + good > excellent. Adams argues that you raise your marker share more by being just good at a lot of things rather than being excellent at minimal things. Sometimes it is better to be good at complementary skills. If you become good at every skill you acquire, not excellent, then you double your odds at success.