How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big

Please read the disclaimer first.

I've wanted to read this book since inception, and finally got a used book on Amazon, along with some children's books for my daughter.  :)

The paperback version of Scott Adams' latest book will be released on December 30, 2014.

I explained the cover page to my daughter, and she drew her own version.

I could have submitted to the contest if it was a couple months ago.  :)



Here's my biggest take-away from this book:

Use systems instead of goals.



I've never been good with goals.


On my first job as a programmer, my employer made me write three month goals.

They were never achieved because I couldn't allocate the time to work on them.



On the other hand, I've been very good with systems/routines.


Here's how my day starts.

1. I wake up around 3 AM.
2. I do my personal stuff, like checking e-mails and web surfing until around 4 AM, when my daughter wakes up saying she's hungry.  :)
3. I give her something to eat, do any leftover dishes, prepare tea, brush my teeth, do one round of radio exercise, and drink the tea.

BTW, the radio exercise would by my "Be Active Every Day" thing.  :)

My work day starts like this.

1. I check my e-mails during by personal stuff time mentioned above, to prepare my expectations for the day.
2. Once I arrive at the workplace and log in to my computer, I check for any major errors in the production system.
3. I write my TODO list, which is usually a copy of yesterday's list.
4. The rest of the day is based on the TODO list.
5. If something is done, the item gets crossed out.
6. If something new pops up, it gets added and prioritized.

I've been doing the same routine for at least three years, with only a handful of exceptions.



So now I won't make many goals, and use systems instead.



Here are a couple nitpicks.  :)

Found a typo in the Diet chapter:

Several terms appear twice in the bias list.  (The gray pages in the middle of the book.)

• Barnum effect
• Choice-supportive bias
• Conservatism or Regressive Bias
• False consensus effect
• Forer effect
• Hindsight bias
• Illusory correlation
• Subaddictivity effect
• Egocentric bias (same page!)
• Self-serving bias

I don't know if anybody actually reads this list, or if it was even intended to be read...

Let's see if these are fixed in the paperback edition.  :)