Scott Adams' Blog

Is President Trump Doing Management Wrong?

Posted January 31st, 2017 @ 9:24am in #Trump #management #entrepreneur

I made the mistake of turning on CNN yesterday and saw all the hypnotized pundits trying to work the secret persuasion word “chaos” into every comment about President Trump. That’s your tell that none of the pundits are offering independent opinions. They are part of the hive mind led by some uncredited persuader on their side. Someone told them to say “chaos” a lot, and so they do. This might signal the return of Godzilla. Reminds me of “dark,” their hive-mind word for the summer of 2016.

It appears that Trump’s counter-persuasion for “chaos” involves framing his administration as “disruptive.” That’s a good persuasion move because it doesn’t deny the observations. A disruption looks a lot like chaos from the outside. Two movies on one screen.

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The Persuasion Filter Looks at Torture. Does it Work?

Posted January 30th, 2017 @ 1:29pm in #Trump #Torture #Waterboarding #climate change

If I ever get captured and threatened with torture it will take about five seconds for me to give up every secret I have. That’s because I know I would break eventually, so why put up with unnecessary torture?

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Be Careful What You Wish For (especially if it is Hitler)

Posted January 29th, 2017 @ 11:50am in #Trump #immigration

As a trained persuader, I’m seeing a dangerous situation forming that I assume is invisible to most of you. The setup is that during the presidential campaign Trump’s critics accused him of being Hitler(ish) and they were sure other citizens would see it too, thus preventing this alleged monster from taking office.

They were wrong. The alleged monster took office.

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The Persuasion Filter and Immigration

Posted January 29th, 2017 @ 8:02am in #Trump #immigration #Obama #Islam #Terrorism

President Trump has issued temporary immigration orders that ban citizens from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. This is a good opportunity to test the Persuasion Filter against what you might call the Hitler Filter.

For new readers of this blog, my starting point is the understanding that human brains did not evolve to show us reality. We aren’t that smart. Instead, our brains create little movies in our heads, and yours can be completely different from mine. We see that situation now. Half the country thinks President Trump is well on his way to becoming a Hitler-like dictator. But many other Americans think Trump is an effective business person with good intentions. They can’t both be right.

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Outrage Dilution

Posted January 26th, 2017 @ 8:24am in #Trump #Whenhub

I’m having a fun time watching President Trump flood the news cycle with so many stories and outrages that no one can keep up. Here’s how the math of persuasion works in this situation:

1 outrage out of 3 headlines in a week: Bad Persuasion

25 outrages out of 25 headlines in a week: Excellent Persuasion

At the moment there are so many outrages, executive orders, protests, and controversies that none of them can get enough oxygen in our brains. I can’t obsess about problem X because the rest of the alphabet is coming at me at the same time. 

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Battle of the Hats – Hitler Phase

Posted January 25th, 2017 @ 5:49pm in #Trump #pink hat #Hitler

I can’t stop laughing at this. All the silliness of the past year in one picture.

@instapundit @ScottAdamsSays @AdamBaldwin So that’s where the chicks got their inspiration. pic.twitter.com/UX5ExBsTMj

— Bill Marcy (@UnHolyFamily) January 25, 2017

Battle of the Hats

Posted January 24th, 2017 @ 11:14am in #Trump #pinkhat #branding

When Donald Trump ran for president he put his clear, simple message on the front of bright red hats. The message was perfect. The choice of a hat instead of a t-shirt or other garment was perfect. The color red was perfect for his message – bold, sexy, and important. The hats were a master class in branding and influence. Political historians will be referring to Trump’s hats for ages.

Compare that to the Million Woman March. They chose pink because – I assume – it is a bit of an ironic color for women who are fighting for their rights. Women are “owning” pink to rob it of its power to brand them as the so-called weaker sex. At least that’s why I assume they picked pink.

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A Look Back at My Trump Predictions

Posted January 20th, 2017 @ 10:28am in #Trump #Whenhub #inauguration

Many of you asked me to provide a quick index to my Trump-only blog posts. I did that for you here in a Whencast. Feel free to share on social media or embed in your own blog. My updates to this will flow automatically to wherever it is shared.

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The Master Persuader Scrambles the Frame

Posted January 11th, 2017 @ 11:14am in #Trump #WhenHub

What was Trump’s biggest persuasion problem in the election? 

Answer: His opponents did a great job of framing him as some kind of Hitler. Do a Google search on Trump and Hitler and you get an avalanche of comparisons. 

It was sticky persuasion, and it still hangs over the country like a chorus of stale farts. I’ve said before that half the country believe they are living in 1930s Germany and the other half think we got a better economy and some free entertainment. Those are two completely different movies running on the same screen at the same time. So how does the Master Persuader deal with the second-largest case of national cognitive dissonance in our history? (Slavery was first.)

Ignoring the Hitler branding from the other side won’t work. It’s too sticky.

Denying the Hitler branding won’t work either. That would just make people debate the details and harden the association by reputation. In the 3rd dimension, where persuasion matters and facts do not, brains recognize “Bob is totally NOT like Hitler” as “Somehow Bob and Hitler are connected.” So denying doesn’t work. Not even a little.

What’s left? You can’t ignore it and you can’t deny it. There’s no solution, right?

Well, there’s no solution if you operate in the 2nd dimension. That dimension is out of ammo. But the 3rd dimension is not. A Master Persuader neither ignores nor denies. 

He plays offense and scrambles their frame. 

But he had to wait for the right time and the right opportunity. That opportunity came to him in the form of an intelligence meeting leak and some fake news. Here’s how the Master Persuader played it:

Trump Tweeted: 

Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to “leak” into the public. One last shot at me.Are we living in Nazi Germany?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017

How do I know this was calculated and not just a Godwin’s Law universal reference to Hitler? Because he played it exactly the way I would have done it. And I have a similar skill set in persuasion. This was the only play that can work. It won’t solve for the Hitler branding the other side put on him, but it’s a start.

Update: Now this…

President-elect Trump calls for an apology on the Russia report: “That’s something that Nazi Germany would’ve done and did to.” pic.twitter.com/qYi4m4G7st

— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 11, 2017

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You might enjoy using my start-up’s app, WhenHub, because it makes you happy to know exactly when your friends and family will arrive. I’m hearing great things about it from users. Feel free to get some free happiness for youself by downloading the free app.

Is Meryl Streep Persuasive?

Posted January 9th, 2017 @ 10:10am in #Trump #meryl streep #golden globes

Yes, she is.

Will Meryl Streep’s speech at the Golden Globes make President Trump less popular or more popular?

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) January 9, 2017