Scott Adams' Blog

The Persuasion Reading List

Posted September 24th, 2015 @ 10:58am in #Trump #persuasion #hypnosis

Update: New Book added: Impossible to Ignore

Background: Readers of this blog have been asking for a reading list to learn more about hypnosis, persuasion, and influence in general. This is the start of the list. I will update it over time.

If you wonder why people are asking a cartoonist about persuasion, it is because I am a trained hypnotist, and mention it often in the context of blogging. I have also studied the various tools of persuasion for years because it is directly applicable to my job as a writer.

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The “Reason” for Trump’s Success

Posted September 23rd, 2015 @ 10:03am in #Trump

A month ago the media was saying Trump was ahead in polls because he is an outsider. All the evidence pointed that way. For example, more than half of Republicans say they support an outsider in Trump, Carson, and Fiorina. And Bernie Sanders seems sort of outsiderish too.

The big problem with that analysis is that if we try to imagine no Donald Trump in the race, it is also hard to imagine that one of the other outsiders would have taken out Jeb Bush so easily. (Low-energy indeed.) So I see Carson and Fiorina as along for the ride, basking in Trump’s “outsider” halo because no one is quite sure what ELSE could be behind Trump’s success in the polls. The media is telling us that we must like outsiders this year, so we start using that explanation ourselves. It becomes self-fulfilling in surveys because no one really has a better explanation of why they want Trump as president. 

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A Clarification

Posted September 21st, 2015 @ 12:40pm in #Trump

After Jimmy Fallon said in his monologue on The Tonight Show that I compared Trump to Jesus, I knew I needed to clarify a few things. So on Twitter I said…

That was only a joke. But just to be super-clear, I am not saying Trump healed any sick people either.

Although … to be fair, the taxes Trump has paid over his lifetime have probably funded more healing than Jesus could have handled one-on-one in his entire life. But it isn’t a competition. No one is keeping score.

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Who is the Better Business Person - Trump or Fiorina?

Posted September 21st, 2015 @ 12:15am in #Trump

The common wisdom goes like this:

1. Fiorina ruined HP and Lucent totally by herself yet made a fortune in CEO pay. Therefore, Fiorina is bad at business. She only makes money for herself, not the stockholders. Also, she eats employees and poops them out. 

2. On the other hand, Donald Trump is a successful entrepreneur across several lines of business. Therefore, he is the better business person.

But then you say…

3. “But what about Trump’s four bankruptcies? His partners lost money!”

Then someone with more than ten minutes of business experience says…

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Calling Jimmy from the Third Dimension

Posted September 20th, 2015 @ 7:37am in #Trump

Have you ever randomly turned on your television and discovered that the topic was you? I have, several times. It’s a freaky experience. The whole world becomes tiny for an instant – so small that it all fits in your living room – then it slowly expands to where it was.

Anyway, some friends saw me taking a walk last night and alerted me that I was mentioned on The Tonight Show. It was easy to find the quote on Google. I’m glad I didn’t see it live because of the freakiness factor. Here it is:

“The creator of Dilbert predicted that Trump will win the presidency and also compared him to Jesus. And people hope he’s right because they would love a three-day break from Donald Trump.” – The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

In two-dimensional chess, both Trump and I have been dismissed in cartoon fashion in service of the joke. And that’s fair. We’re all professionals. I’m sure the joke succeeded with the audience. Viewed from the perspective of the two-dimensional world, some might say I am diminished in some small way because the Jesus reference is intentionally used out of context to make me look foolish. That would be bad.

But in the third dimension, where I live and work, associations matter more than reason. And Jimmy Fallon referred to me as “the creator” in the same sentence with Jesus and the next President of the United States.

Trade-off accepted.

How was your day?

—–

I love the brevity of the newest review for my book.

Checking My Gender Bias - Master Wizard Hypothesis

Posted September 19th, 2015 @ 4:00pm in #Trump

I’ve been blogging about my Master Wizard Hypothesis while focusing on Donald Trump and a number of other men. For the sake of balance, I will “out” for you two of the greatest living female Master Wizards of persuasion. Before I tell you their names, see if you can guess who they are based on my list of known tells for a Master Wizard.

1. Unusual success in a field, as if coming from out of nowhere.

2. A gifted communicator with a simple, visual, story-telling style.

3. A big influence on hundreds of millions of people.

4. A tie to a known wizard.

5. High intelligence.

6. Success in a variety of business ventures.

7. Unusually high productivity.

Okay. What famous women, still living, fit all of the tells for a Master Wizard of persuasion? If you are coming up blank, you might be a sexist.

Are you ready for the answers?

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Thinking Past the Sale - Trump Persuasion Series

Posted September 19th, 2015 @ 1:38pm in #Trump

Trump issued a series of five tweets in quick succession as a response to the controversy over the Obama-birther guy at the Trump event.

Why five tweets?

I assume the two-dimensional chess pundits will tell you it is a sign of desperation from a campaign that was always destined to flame out. Sure looks like a guy grasping at straws, right?

Maybe it is.

The Master Wizard Hypothesis has another filter on this. According to this way of thinking, Trump just made you think about which of several reasons you will choose to agree with him.

He made you think past the sale.

And to get there he said at least one, maybe two, things you agree with. That’s pacing. It is a tell.

On the Master Wizard scale, this was an A+ performance in engineered persuasion. Will it be enough?

Depends what the Master Wizard in the White House does next.

— Reminder —

I remind readers that the Master Wizard Hypothesis is for entertainment, not enlightenment. Truth is at a different URL. All we are doing here is seeing how well the data fits the hypothesis, especially for predictions. This is just for fun. And yes, I am forcing the data to fit the hypothesis. That is the whole point. You should do the same with whatever hypothesis you prefer as an explanation of Trump’s success so far. Then compare. None of this should be confused with science.

The Scariest Executive Order. Ever.

Posted September 19th, 2015 @ 11:36am in #Trump

Do you want to read the scariest executive order that ever came from a Master Wizard?

If you have been reading my Master Wizard Hypothesis series, and you also like science fiction movies, see if you can find the moment that humanity decided to evolve into fuel for our future robot overlords.

It’s right in the title.

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Running Against a Branding Wizard - Trump Series

Posted September 19th, 2015 @ 8:43am in #Trump

Who thought they could beat a branding wizard in a political race? 

Ask Sweaty, Plenty, Nice, Robot, or Low-energy.

To be fair, Trump’s opponents have also branded him… as a person who speaks his mind and doesn’t pretend to know more than he does.

Let’s call that roughly equal.

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Trump Linguistic Kill Shot Alert!

Posted September 18th, 2015 @ 5:33pm in #Trump

Master Wizard Hypothesis Mode: ON

This just in … Trump is calling Fiorina “very robotic.”

How clever is that?

Let me count the ways.

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