Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter - Win Bigly

Reading this is taking the red pill, staying in Wonderland, and giving you a peek at how deep the rabbit hole goes.
I don't disagree with Scott's observations, in fact, it has prompted me to do additional research inter persuasion and influence starting with the "prequel" to Bigly which is "Influence" by Cialdini. I am, however, uncomfortable with Scott's conclusions and takeaways. "Win Bigly" uses the backdrop of Trump's rise to power as a vehicle to describe the tools of influence and persuasion and how they are applied. This is brilliant! In his view, the real world consists include 88% of the population which are proles living in a two-dimensional landscape, completely unaware that there is a third dimension. Then there are about 10% of the population who are familiar with influence/persuasion techniques who can see a third dimension. This is capped off by 2% who can live and work in the third dimension and can utilize these tools to manipulate the 98% to get results. Their tools, being amoral, can be used by the 2% for good or ill. Adams posits that Trump actually has America's best interests at heart (this I don't agree with). Therefore what we have is a flatland with a prole population who can be easily manipulated by the Titans (2%) who can martial the proles to do their bidding. These titans then can battle with other titans for control of the Earth while the proles sleep in the matrix. I believe that while Trump has an impressive skill set in this area, he is not motivated by love of country; he is driven by the darker, narcissistic forces of his personality.
What I most object to is Scott's sanguine response to this entire experience. It is almost like we're watching a baseball game. Even if I grant Adams his benign Trump, what can be done to protect us from a malignant populist with an equally impressive skill set in the future?

Bottom line: This is a massively important work that should be required reading for everyone (especially proles) but buckle in, there is lots of cognitive dissonance ahead!

Adams was one of the first pundits to predict the Presidential win of Donald Trump in November 2016. And, he is quite proud of the feat. In a world gone mad (Actually, the world has always been mad.) the candidate's utter disrespect appealed to Americans who had never before registered to vote.
The author explained he had enough f*** you money he could say what he wished.
Having taken a hypnosis class, Adams has lots to say on the subject… And, what influences the humanoid masses…
Then, he goes on the explicate the President’s powers of persuasion: “Trump convinced the public his policies were the ones they should care about the most.” (p. 93.)
All media attention was on the winner, who lost by 3,000,000 votes. Even CNN went Trump, Trump, Trump twenty-four hours a day. The author’s contention that he who must not be named owned the media is 100% right on. The marketing on the right was magnificent! On the left, the marketing was not even adequate… especially since the election was about insulting, lying, and obfuscation. Actually the Make American Great Again was taken from the Reagan era.
The author was totally wrong about the Mike Pence for VP. That pick enabled Evangelicals to use Trump as a tool to ensure their ideals were foisted upon America. Evangelicals can get out their voters. Gerrymandering does not hurt either. Trump could disappear and their Christian poster boy would do their bidding. Probably, if Trump disappeared, the Evangelicals would be in heaven, so to speak.
More than the winning candidate’s powers of persuasion were involved. Hate is a powerful motive. The Civil War is far from over. This is not to mention the Electoral College set up by Hamilton to prevent the tyranny of the majority.
After flip flopping Adams endorsed Trump in the end to save his vast fortune from inheritance taxes.
Adams was wrong before the pick and still wrong after the election.

I started following Scott Adams during the Election in 2016.

His take on events and the Candidacy then Presidency of Donald J. Trump were unique like nothing I'd read before.

I eagerly awaited this book and decided to listen to the Audiobook version (which if you know Mr. Adams' story is quite the accomplishment in its own right). It was one of the most interesting things I've ever heard. I listened to it in one sitting.

If you're want to understand what happened in this past Election then this is the book to read.

This book was an interesting read, believe me =). Even if his thesis is not correct, I still feel that it provides extremely valuable information on the arts of persuasion. It helps to better understand how other people can accept what you feel is unacceptable and vice versa.

My one major complaint is the tone of arrogance that Scott Adams has. It seems to really ratchet up towards the end of the book and becomes a bit hard to look past. The last part of the book just makes him look like a troll. He also seems convinced, though doesn't ever fully admit, that he feels that he persuaded the election with his writings and that is a big eye roller.

Some of the ideas become quite hypocritical and self-defeating as well. He states that donald supporters were attacked by non-donald supporters but then claims that Clinton paid people to cause issues at donald rallies. Could it be, and hold on while I blow your mind, that donald paid people to attack his own supporters? Think about. It provides a visual aspect. It makes people feel fear that they will be attacked and that they must stand together. Look, I'm not saying that I fully believe that. I'm just saying that it wouldn't be unthinkable based upon the rest of the book's content.

If it wasn't for the arrogance and whatever the hell happened to the last sections of the book then this would have been a 5-star book for me.

Overall though, still worth a read!

Interesting book about effective persuasion and being aware of what motivates people.
I will read it more than once and it has prompted me to do more reading on the subject.
And, coincidently, the author includes a list of recommended reading.
I particularly liked the comments about bullying.
Not surprisingly, Scott Adams makes this a humorous book as well.
Looking forward to his next book on "climate change".

I started following along Scott's tweets during the election, then his blog, then his Periscope broadcasts. Now I am buying his books and writing this review to give it as good a score as possible. This is his second book I've read, and recommend them both "BIGLY."

I am a Dilbert fanatic. I have gotten the desk calendars for several years... addicted. Book was different. Not horrible, but not Dilbert. And frankly, after a few pages I quit... and its a short book. Some interesting thoughts... but not powerful and witty like Dilbert

Had more respect for Scott before I read the book. Liked Dilbert. Scott not so much. He seems to be a legend in his own mind. I also don't care how rich he is. I found his tone to be condescending and his writing sophomore.

A never trumper...no problem, this book uses real life examples to explain the techniques. One phrase, “is this the person you want to be?” “thank you” so simple but worth the price of admission. You will find others in the book as well.

If you want to understand the power of persuasion and human nature then this is the book you should be reading, and Scott Adams is the person you should be following. His ability to explain the dynamics of persuasion is truly impressive and insightful.

Thanks, Scott, for making sense of what often times looks like non-sense or chaos.

This books feels like it could have been good if there was a strong editor and reviewers who could call BS on Adams when he needed it. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. I was tempted to give 2 stars because Adams raises some good points, but ultimately he commits the the same errors that he attributes to others. He talks about the dangers of confirmation bias, but the book is a poster child for his own confirmation bias. He talks about cognitive dissonance but appears to have an acute case himself. I am fascinated by how Trump won the Presidential election but Adams fails to separate out where Trump has unique skill(s), and where he received unexpected assistance from outside forces. He also seems to discount completely the fact that Trump lost the popular vote by a significant margin, probably because that works against his narrative. He says that Trump was after an Electoral victory, not a popular victory but that would make the case for being a master politician not a master persuader. But the worst part is that Adams is so arrogant I simply couldn't stand it by the end. I forced myself to finish but felt like I was stuck at a party with a blowhard relative

I am a bigly fan of Dilbert and have always thought of Adams was a kindred, nerdly spirit. But this is just drivel. Adams didn't predict anything, and he doesn't explain anything. He just happened to pick the right side in a (possibly rigged) coin toss. That's not super-power intelligence, it's dumb luck. I will still read Dilbert daily, but I will never pick up another Adams book.

Who knew that it would be two cartoonists that cleared away the clouds of mystery and confusion and brought sense to a senseless world? Peter Bagge wrote about what I knew to be true (from in-depth research) in Rebel Woman and Scott Adams explained why others were interpreting facts so far from reality. Scott is right in saying that facts really don’t matter and when you observe confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance occurring, within yourself, in real time, like I did, it can be rather unsettling and yet, enlightening. Thank you Scott Adams!

If you are baffled by Trump’s win and continued support, read this book. It will explain how a great con artist with great command of master manipulation and great skills of persuasion can get millions to buy into his ideas, no matter how flawed his behavior. The specific techniques used and their psychological basis are clearly explained. Numerous examples from the campaign are used to prove how Trump succeeded and Clinton failed to connect with many voters. You will probably change your mind on why he won even as you continue to despise, detest and loathe Trump; it’s hard not to appreciate a great con even as you hate the harm it caused.
The Chinese government continues to “educate” their citizens on Trump’s behavior and why it proves democracy doesn’t work today. With the rise of social media and the ability to ensure your target audience only gets your side of the story, they may be right. Before you reject that possibility as impossible remember this: the president endorsed a pedophile for the senate and many of his followers will vote for him.

The author is well versed in hipnotic processes... and utilices effectively in this book. Too bad his "left leaning" preferences still clme thru. As a constitutionalist christian I go up to "center right" and no more. There are some interesting points made, which is the reason for the 3 stars.

I bought a few copies of Win Bigly because I thought a few of my more progressive friends would appreciate it outside of the "fact based world" they live in. Rereading the Confirmation Bias and Cognitive Dissonance sections AGAIN. I guess I didn't get it first pass. And, Scott. Thanks again for all the fantastic new quotes that will help my PowerPoints Great Again.

Loved the book though it is a book that while you read it you think: GENIUS. But the more you think about it, you think: YES BUT.

Yes, but. Yes, but. Yes, but.

I think that Win Bigly, along with Dangerous by Milo Yiannopoulos are the two most insightful "cultural" books" about the Trump phenomenon. I'm not a Trumper (full disclosure: I voted for Hillary), but I'm also not an apoplectic politically correct snob who can't get over him, nor see beneath Trump the man to ponder what Trump the phenomenon represents.

So here are my Yes buts to this important book -

Yes, but. First and foremost, Adams' book suffers from "confirmation bias." Because Trump won, Adams (and other Trump supporters as well as the media elite) sees him as a) inevitable, and b) brilliant. But really a single butterfly wing movement could have moved the election the other way, and we'd all be pontificating on the Democratic New Majority. So there is some randomness in Trumps' victory which Adams really ignores in the book. One word: Comey.

Yes, but. Second, Adams' seems to believe that humans are just 110% irrational, so we "feel first" and "rationalize next," and it's all about "persuasion." Yes, we are highly irrational and as anyone post-Freud understands, we often DO rationalize based on emotions first, and reason, second. No real news there. But if that's true.. then Adams' own explanations and persuasiveness are also subject to this problem. He's only "right" because of some randomness in the election and he's "rationalizing" his "genius" because it makes him (and Trump supporters) feel good. I would also argue that for Liberals it makes it easy because we just have "evil Trump" as the villain here, rather than some very much needed Democratic introspection as to why Hillary and the Democrats lost.

Yes, but. Hillary won the votes by a massive margin. Massive. So the polls weren't so much "wrong" as "misplaced." The vagaries of the electoral college and the strategic placement of white, working-class voters allowed Trump to "thread the needle" and win... but this hardly proves he is as much of a genius as Adams makes him out to be.

Yes, but. And this is what is - I think - much more interesting and more useful to ponder: the Republicans control both houses of Congress, the Presidency, and realistically the Supreme Court. Also most of the Statehouses... (Recent events in Virginia and New Jersey to the contrary). Why? It's not just Trump the Rhetorical genius that we should ponder but why the Republicans so dominate the country politically as Democrats so dominate the country culturally. Why is this? This book really doesn't address this much more important, structural reality and lead us to wonder if whither the Republican Party goes so goes the nation, politically.

Yes, but. Reality isn't very important, says Adams, compared to persuasion and emotion. OK, I'd agree in the short run this may be true. But in the long run? Despite what Adams seems to say... I can't see how Trump (so far) has proved to be an impressive Presidency. Four words: Failure to Repeal Obamacare. We'll see about a big tax cut... So yes Trump (and the Republicans) won... so... Reality may come back and bite all of us in the proverbial behind. You can persuade me that "pigs can fly" but that doesn't mean they actually can. North Korea? Health Care? The Budget? Taxes? American Competitiveness? We can't just Trumpify our way out of these very real problems that call for very real policy initiatives.

SO WHAT. Does it really matter, and if so how? The book - despite its brilliance at focusing on Trump the rhetoritician - leaves us very much "hanging" as does Milo's Dangerous.

I apparently read more in to the promotional material about the book than I should have. There was a lot of interesting material about President Trump and not much for me to apply my own ability to improve and win. I would not recommend the book .

I am interested in the psychology of persuasion, and this book was a bigly disappointment. Aside from pointing out some obvious things Trump did well and Clinton did badly, it was largely a self promotion piece for Adams. He spent a lot of type complaining that he was treated badly for supporting Trump and boasting that his predictions had come true. (Some have yet to materialize.) He even suggests that he had something to do with Trump's win. As a student of hypnotism he fancies himself an expert persuader. But the good parts of his book were quickly overshadowed with all his boasting and self-promotion -- a character trait he and Trump appear to have in common.

Read, study, and apply Win Bigly and How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, in your business and personal life, if you really want to be great.

Win Bigly teaches you how to influence others.
How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big teaches you how to influence yourself.

Buy it... you'll be disappoint but darn glad you were. At times, the book allows confused intellect to dominate rational thought. But, does so in a way that no REAL supporter of Trump would comprehend because the book is too honest, too complex, has subjects connecting to antecedents and whitewashes Trump's narcissism wrapped in insecurity protected by white privilege.

This book's descriptions of Trump is ACCURATE. It sites the misunderstandings of Trump in a way only Hitler's Mein Kampf could be matched in literature greatness. But, don't get me wrong the book is good. ...a good example of misguided political insight with a dim lightbulb as it's source of inspiration and direction. I liked the book... it was informative and provides the kind of happy ending where all the hero's die and the puppies/kittens are killed.

- Cognitive dissonance about cognitive dissonance

Terrible book. Basically all Scott Adams tells us in this joke of a book is how brilliant he is. Shame, because everything else I have read by Scott Adams was great. I wouldn't even call this a book, its more an exercise of self proclaimed expertise, in what, I'm not sure. He does repeat dozen of times that he is a trained hypnotist. Who cares and what does that has to do with his adornment of Trump is beyond my comprehension. Save you $ and your time, don't buy or read this trashy nonsense.

I liked the book, as it clearly explained the cognitive dissonance I've seen manifest among my coworkers.

The only thing I did not appreciate as much was the sheer amount of repetition. I think it could have been cut by 1/4-1/3 and still retain all of its value.

This book is about Adams himself and his slow fall into delusion. None of the marketing 101 subjects he mistakes for deep philosophical insight are covered scientifically or demonstrated well. Removing the two entire chapters where Adams talks about his feelings about things he does not understand and the dozen chapters that are mostly reposts from his blog, this book is a breezy and shallow recount of the 2016 election focused on nothing of consequence in it. Even if you’re the sort to enjoy the petty blow-by-blow of election year news scandal articles, Adams can’t keep the limelight off of himself long enough to make a point worth remembering and I just finished it.

Really mind blowing. Tons of extremely useful stuff. Its astonishing, in how many ways you can use these filters and techniques for your benefit or for benefit of matters in which you believe. One of the most important books of this year. Or a decade. Maybe a century. :)

I learned a few things but just a few. I was overwhelmed by the distasteful content and it felt like Adams was simply apologizing and not calling it an apology but an explanation: "Don't blame me!"

Three big failings:

1) Too repetitive. Book should have been 100 pages. Maybe 25 pages would have been sufficient. I fault his editor for this.

2) I don't believe his thesis: That Trump is a natural persuader in a world where facts don't count. Sure, it makes sense, but I don't actually believe anyone was persuaded. I believe that the people who voted for Trump weren't "persuaded" but just voted for him on some very straightforward reasons: hated Hillary, shortsighted self-interest, racism, etc. None of these required persuasion.

I was also pretty astonished by the author's own claims such as:
3a) He was dismayed by bullying of anti-Trumpers. (It was Trump that encouraging his people to bully.)
3b) He supported Trump because he believed Hillary would tax his personal assets. (He was willing to disbelieve Trump's statements but not Hillary's?)
3c) He disagreed with so many of Trump's positions and yet still ultimately went on to support him.
3d) He says that he (and the reader) is not smart enough to assess things like climate change and other problems that our politicians face. (That doesn't mean we should let them get away with spouting nonsense. We have experts for a reason.)

I've probably said enough so I'll stop pointing out the problems.

I have read several of the author's other books (and I'm not talking about his cartoons) and I like the way he writes. In fact, I aim to write using the same persuasive style that the author explains. But wow, that doesn't mean I agree with him or found his book enjoyable. Ugh. It was awful. (And yes, I did read the whole thing.)

Read this book if you want to understand the mindset of liberals who voted for Trump. Adams (with great arrogance) spends a lot of time justifying himself. He has no insight to the mind of the conservative thinker and no recognition of the biases that still plague his own thinking. This one won't stay in my library.

Rambling, annoying. So many words; I wasted a lot of time trying to derive any meaning or point being made. There was nothing to make me laugh along the way. I shouldn't have assumed that the master of a micro-format medium (comic strip) would be competent at authoring a large format book.

I gave up 4 pages in, with it being later in DJT presidency I see too many DJT sided statements incorrect, thought it would be more Dilbert like comparisons to how dumb politics and businesses are and how DJT is like Catbert or Ratbert, etc... wasted my money, lost faith in Scott

I admit I am a big Scott Adams fan and truly enjoy the Dilbert comic strip. While this book offers some interesting insight into the art of persuasion and why Trump won the election as a "master persuader", in general it has a patched together, disorganized feel that I find annoying. Much of the content is repetitive and his constant switching of which candidate he is supporting and why tends to get irritating. (At one point he decides to back Trump since Hillary wants to pass an estate tax that would permit him to give only $20 million of his hard earned bux to his heirs tax free, but then notes that when he backed Trump his lucrative speaking engagements dropped to zero from several a week costing him many hundreds of thousands of $$. So how is that working out for you, Scott? Also noted that he switched his support to Hillary, not because he supported her policies but for his "personal safety" to escape the Hillbullies.) Scott tries to ride the fact that he predicted a Trump win - but did not support him - far in advance of most, but I tend to believe it was a 50/50 chance of being a lucky guess.(I would have been more impressed had Trump actually won the election in terms of overall votes, no through the workings of the archaic electoral college.)

I had high expectations for this book. I really enjoyed his previous book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, and it's still one of my favorites today. Unfortunately this one misses the mark.

This book is a victory lap for Scott Adams in predicting that Trump would win the election. He is highly congratulatory of himself throughout the book, and borrows heavily from his own blog posts. Adams seems to be a victim of his own hypnosis. He ignores the fact that he has confirmation bias after his initial prediction that Trump would win, and views every fact from that point as confirming his "master persuader" thesis. His support of Hilary, then Trump, then Johnson, then Trump are examples of cognitive dissonance, or even worse, hucksterism. But in his reality, he has rationalized that he was right all along.

I found new content in this book thin, and if you even somewhat followed his blog throughout the election, you will not learn much from what has already been written.

If you are a Trump supporter that followed Scott Adams during the campaign, you will enjoy this book. You get to relive the election, with a play-by-play by the guru himself. If you are expecting to learn more about persuasion/hypnotism/affirmations etc, I would pass on this one.

Yeah, I guess most of us need a reminder now and then, or even a "whole new paradigm shift", but this guy comes off empty, or at best, lacking in credibility. Oh sure, he tells us he is a "trained" observer, and he takes us through all the filters he has used in life (The Santa Claus Filter, The Church Filter, The Marijuana Filter, The Mushrooms Filter, etc.) as he so doggedly pursued and finally reached his CURRENT truth station - what he calls his Persuasion Filter and the Moist Robot Filter. As if because he is so smart, and so trained and educated, that he now has the answers we are all missing. At least in regards that there really is no truth, just what the human species, altogether as a sort of living organism crawls toward as we invent truth. If he were open and honest as he describes himself, he should state blatantly, his views in this book (which are accepted by himself as being pretty darn correct), MIGHT very well be WRONG, just because "he holds them". But he does not. He has the answer. As we all will by the end of the book. Why will we come to the same conclusion and awareness as he? Because he's right and we soon will be educated. But by his earliest statements, there really is no right, or truth, only what groups of people CALL truth. And he's just that latest leader in this movement. Just another Persuader.

I couldn't get past Part 2 of his book's 5 Parts. And maybe the only reason is because I'm not a Trump Supporter (neither is he), but throughout the book to this point, he seems to gives illustrations, and examples, which admire the Trumpion line of thought, instead of equal examples from the "other" side. If he were truly not a Trump Supporter he would probably offer equal examples of "mass delusion" which support current societal views in favor of EITHER side, as a sort of balance to his desired readers. Instead, his whole delivery starts to feel like an apology tour for people being so hard on the Donald, who he obviously admires for being such a "Persuader". NO! Don't get him wrong! He doesn't Support Trump! But admiration, well that's another thing.

Personally, I don't admire what anybody does if within their actions they use their power and authority to hurt a widespread group of the less than powerful. And no, I'm not Christian, for the same reason. But I sure do admire Jesus (if the real person actually existed) for such lessons as "help others". Don't hide behind power and influence under the guise of helping others. Maybe there is no life after this one where consequence of actions matter, but even if there isn't, that sort of "mass delusion" still seems to provide a better world for most, than does some sort of misplaced admiration for the "cool behaviors" of a selfish man like Trump.

Seems to be a book justifying his Trump victory prediction and to get back viewership of his blog and to recover potential for future audiences.
I learned much about persuasion and Trump.
More about the work of Robert Cialdini.

Well written. Mr. Adams is very full of himself as he persuades the reader to support his choice for president. Though informative on one level, it is also apologetic and argumentative. I am disappointed with the book

I enjoy Scoot Adams commonly. But this book felt more like a sales pitch. While it was directionally accurate, it grossly overblows the effect of irrationality on decision-making, ignoring the reality that different people train themselves over time for or against faults such as cognitive dissonance. Faddy science which, while it has a certain level of merit, is here turned into cardinal law and supported by little more than anecdotes.And then the paradox hits. It is clear that Scott is attempting to use a list of rational arguments for why no-one thinks rationally.

Average book on persuasion, nothing new here and not particularly well written (seems rushed and poorly edited). Observations on Trump aren’t really that insightful or well researched, and selectively pick antidotes to support assertions.

Biggest irony is that the author seems to spend most of the time justifying his own views and putting on full display of cognitive dissonance at the same time as talking about cognitive dissonance itself

Was a Scott Adams fan, but could not finish the book and it's running at about $4 on eBay now. A quote from "The Making of a Hypnotist" chapter - "After about one hour of hypnosis and twenty or so screaming orgasms - no touching involved - she declared the experiment a success."

Let me start by saying that I suggest you read this book.

If you really want some insights into persuasion and how Trump won, then this book is worth a read. if you are convinced Trump is an idiot, and that people who voted for him are stupid evil dupes, this book won’t do much for you. But if you want a different and fascinating point of view, I suggest this book.

The fact that I would say “read this book” is really a tribute to how good Adams is at being interesting, in the light of the other things I’m about to tell you.

This book is weird.

First—did you know that Scott Adams is a trained persuader? You WILL know it—because he says so ever four pages or so. It’s so ridiculous that after a while I would bust out laughing every time he said it. If you made a drinking game and took a drink every time he said that he’s a trained persuader, you’d be dead from alcohol poisoning by the end of the book. SCOTT ADAMS IS A TRAINED PERSUADER.

Did you know that Scott Adams may have caused Trump to win? And by “may have,” I mean, “I’m not SAYING I made him win, but if I DID, here’s 20 pages of circumstantial evidence”...followed by 20 pages of him fantasizing about how he probably made the difference in the election. Which seemed really weird and unnecessary.

But where he REALLY loses his goddam mind is when he talks about the difference between Trump voters and Clinton voters. You’d think a behaviorist Iike Adams would agree with Noam Chomsky, who once said, “people, on the whole, tend to behave like people.”

Well, no. Trump voters are well-behaved and mind their own business, but Clinton voters are bullies. Oh, and did you know Adams doesn’t like bullies? You will, because he tells you over and over, like it’s some weird unique quirk of his. Unlike everyone else, Adams doesn’t like bullies. Now, from his perspective (being pro-Trump and on twitter, so he got a lot of crap) I can see why he’d say Clinton voters are bullies—he didn’t get harassed by Trump voters, they all agreed with him. But you’d think at least his EDITOR would point out that he sounded like an lunatic with all his “now, I’m not saying that Clinton voters are all bullies, but [followed by cherry picked examples of Clinton voters being bullies].”

But in spite of all the weirdness and egotism, read the book. Adams is on my short list of people I’d like to have coffee with, because he really shows that being likable, or even sane, isn’t necessary for being interesting and insightful.

Scott Adams has a unique perspective that is desperately needed in this hysterical age. Rational, amusing and fair-minded, Scott tries hard to understand what is going on. Does that mean you are going to become a fanboy? No, but even a few insights would make this book worth it's weight in gold. By the way, you'll read plenty of "haters" trashing Scott Adams because they perceive him as a lapdog for Donald Trump. The reality is that Scott Adams sees the persuasive skills of No. 46, and even the haters would be wise to read carefully and take notes.

I should have questioned why there were only comic endorsements on the cover of this book. There is no question Adams can write, and that he knows quite a bit about business. But after he states the book will not be political, he then informs you he supported Hillary until she indicated she would lower the Estate Tax exemption as he didn't want to sacrifice his millions. He flipped on one issue, He then states, "In Trump I saw a highly capable yet flawed man trying to make a positive difference." This simplistic denial about who Trump is, how he governs, his disregard for others, especially non-whites, and his selfish narcissism, makes it impossible for the reader to think Adams has considered the complete picture. Adams respects Trump's "business sense", and this is very disturbing.

Despite my being a long time Adams fan, I must agree with almost all the 3 star review criticisms, so I will only add two observations.
Adams argues that we only see 20% of reality, "if there even is a reality." (Phew!) and that we do not make rational decisions when those decisions involve our emotions. Anybody who has lived a while knows that is simply not true. My decision to marry, and to relocate upon retirement, were both emotionally loaded, but were nonetheless rational decisions with great outcomes.
Adams calls Trump the greatest persuader ever, but six months after the book's publication, I'm not feeling it. Adams predicts in the book that Trump would bring the parties together to pass health care reform. He neglects to address what can happen to one's powers of persuasion once one is a publicly acknowledged liar.
The book is a long, muddled brag with a lot of cut and paste issues.

I received this book; and three months later, I'm not able to finish it. Why? I keep looking for something more about persuasion. Sure, it's got some of the basic points of persuasion, but the title COMPLETELY threw me for a loop as far as the contents of the book. A better title for this book would at least have President Trump's name prominently displayed in the title or subtitle.

The book seemed disjointed. I kept reading, wondering what is the main purpose or take away from this book? Where are we headed and why aren't I seeing more meat on the topic of persuasion? Yes, the book is rich with examples of how Trump and his team were masterminds during the 2016 election, but that's not what I thought I was getting into.

Is this book a big deception, an opportunity for the author to launch some type of hypnotic spell over the reader? This book didn't interest me, but I kept trying.

Adams' previous book "How to Fail at Everything and Still Win Big," was very good, so I thought this book would be a great follow up. He's recommended a few books by Robert Caladini, which were pretty good. Read those instead of this one.

I've read hundreds of books over the years on business, management, speaking and persuasion. There are many other well written classics on the topic of persuasion. Save your time and money. This book didn't offer much new. It was a great commentary on the 2016 election though.

Overall, this book was disappointing. Not my kind of book and not what I expected.

This isn't a bad book but the whole time I couldn't help but notice an elephant in the room. As most people have noticed, Trump's great persuasion skills have mostly only worked well with a certain group of people. If your persuasion techniques mostly just work on one group of people ( e.g. white people who hate Mexicans ) does that make you a great persuader? Some might say this takes away any credibility this book would have. But all in this isn't a bad book. There is some great info here even if it is supported by some dubious examples.

I’ve been familiar with Scott Adams since 2015. I read his blog about the 2016 election regularly. I read one of his other books, “How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big.” Safe to say Scott has opened my eyes to his way of seeing reality.
People who hate Trump should read this book to better understand how they got it so wrong and how Trump (and Scott) got it so right.
People who love Trump will enjoy the walk down memory lane and reinforce lessons Scott doles out on the regular via Twitter, Periscope and his blog. I especially enjoyed all the persuasion tips in the margins and the persuasion hierarchy, ranked from most to least effective.
“Win Bigly” is not another basic recap of 2016 written by some ghostwriter who was hired by some irrelevant Washington, DC pundit. This is a deep dive into crowds, psychology, communication and persuasion.
I’ll be referring back to “Win Bigly” for years to come. Much to the chagrin of the Left, I’ll also be using persuasion as we head into the midterms to grow GOP majorities in the House and Senate. I’d love to see a page compiling all the persuasion tips in order to help study them further. Perhaps this list could be in a future blog post?

The author spends a good portion of the book bragging about himself and what a Master Persuader he is. He also calls Trump a very rare Master Persuader. This seems to be the reason Adams thinks Trump won the election. I suppose if someone like Adams spent the campaign and the first few months of Trump's administration LOOKING for persuasion techniques in play, you could find them. I don't see this in Trump. He may persuade people that WANT to be persuaded, but that's hardly a skill. Adams' premise is very, very flawed. I felt like he was trying to manipulate me into believing his nonsense throughout the entire book. Don't bother with this. It's a persuasion trick Adams is trying to pull here.

You will enjoy this book if you like dumpster diving - you have to wade through a lot of garbage to find the few worthwhile points to be made. Trump is good at manipulation and reading this book does give some insight into techniques if you can get past Scott Adams's massive ego and self aggrandizement. A much better book to gain understanding of how people form opinions is "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman. Adams does actually reference this book.

I bought this book today shortly after midnight because today is its date of publication and it's cool to buy it on Halloween. I decided to buy it after reading part of the description on this page, looking inside to read a little bit, and then watching Scott Adams interviewed by Tucker Carlson on his show on Fox News on Oct 30. I have studied the psychology of cultish or cultlike organizations and the psychology of persuasion, on and off, for over 40 years and I perceive as much of Scott's thoughts about persuasion as I've read or heard him say so far as sound, insightful, entertaining, and easy to understand. So far, I highly recommend this book. Scott, if one of your people reads this to you, or even if you read it to yourself, please be so kind as to reply below. And thanks to y'all for spending a small part of your very limited time here on Earth or on the International Space Station reading my thoughts, time which y'all will never ever see again, and never ever get back. :-) Ciao.

Scott Adams figures he's smarter than you are because he's a hypnotist. And he'll remind you of that about every other page, while justifying Trump in a most inconsistent manner. Since the book is about persuasion, it's hard to tell if that's all part of the conceit of the book, or if he's serious. In the end, while he makes a number of very cogent points, this book is a long, self-serving rationalization of several things that doesn't quite work. Mainly, this book is a victory lap by Adams for having predicted Trump would win, based on his status as a "master persuader". Along the way, Adams reveals that he's really only about Adams, and after-the-fact rationalization undermines many of the points he's trying to make

To wit: "I don't vote. Doing so would destroy whatever objectivity I might have." Really? Then why this? "My blogging and tweeting...made me a Trump supporter by default...I had already tainted my reputation quite a bit by endorsing Trump. I had trashed my income, as my speaking career went from thriving to zero...I decided to put some distance between my brand and Trump's. And so I endorsed third-party candidate Gary Johnson."

On re-endorsing Trump and his hatred of bullies: "I wasn't comfortable with the bullying on either side But i cared more about the bullies who were coming after me [the Trump bullies weren't coming after me]".

Adams extensively references Cialdini's book "Influence" and "Pre-suasion.". He also mentions Dan Ariely's work. My advice would be to read those and just give this self-serving mess a pass.

Scott Adams does a good job in laying out the principles of persuasion with some good examples of how Donald Trump used the principles of persuasion to overcome long odds and get elected. Adams is honest enough to admit he flip flopped his support from Trump to Clinton back to Trump again after fearing his own taxes would be raised under Clinton.
If Reagan was the Great Communicator, Trump has to be at least the Pretty Good Persuader. The book is entertaining, but at times repetitive. Adams mentions many times that he is a trained hypnotist, and can see things that others can not, but seems to have a blind spot for his own hypnosis with Trump's persuasion techniques. Adams spends the latter part of the book defending his blog posts about Trump. Some of the points that Adams makes that aren't quite as persuasive-- include saying Trump has a great sense of humor, and that Trump is wise to promise one thing and either do the exact opposite or nothing at all as part of a coherent strategy. Overall I enjoyed the book, and recommend reading it after you read Robert Cialdini's books on Persuasion and Influence.

Scott Adams did a fantastic job of reading his book for the audio-book! I really love author-read audio-books, because you get the inflection intended by the author and other verbal cues, but often time, the authors voice isn't great. Glad you got it back Scott!! ;) I listened to the whole thing twice, and I doubt that will be the only times. I never read or listen to the same book twice! It's full of interesting perspectives and made me think a lot about how I may be persuading myself, and others, possibly in unhelpful ways. It was a really great book, and makes you think about your life and mindset in a deeper way, with more understanding, and fresh perspectives. For more, check out Scott Adams' periscope scopes!! Coffee w/Scott Adams is fantastic, and often challenging. *Simultaneous Sip!*

Interesting insights on how the brain processes and understands reality and how one can use this knowledge to be persuasive or defend the self against persuasive tactics. However, this fails to be compelling due to an obnoxious writing style as well as the author being extremely biased towards viewing the president and all his actions very favorably. While this isn't negative in itself, it results in a failure to understand how many events in the campaign and presidency actually occurred and a very poor list of examples. Skip this one.

Scott Adams is a brilliant writer and cartoonist. However, I found this book to be a bit lacking in research, and narration for the Audible version was narrated in a way that was dry. This seems a little like instead, a way to defend himself and the president. A lot of the book is explaining the persuasive power of Donald Trump, and his business acumen. However, I'm not convinced that Trump is that persuasive (To the other half that didn't vote for him), nor is his business career particularly spectacular (See other political candidates and their business careers).

However, some of it was funny, but I think that this lean towards Trump may actually divide his reader base. I guess now I know why you shouldn't talk about religion or politics.

I first heard about Adams' book through an interview he did with Stefan Molyneux in which one of the things they talked about (the interview is an hour) was Adams' book. After finishing the interview i was sold on the book and Adams' "philosophy" for lack of a better word, and i rushed to get the book. It was unfortunately not as great as i expected, and basically everything that was covered in his interview with Molyneux was in the book; seriously, if you watch/listen to the interview there isn't much else in the book that's stand out and is new. Below are some other reasons why i didn't care for the book:
1) I was not "wowed" by Adams' "genius" and "perception". To be fair, aside from his Molyneux interview, some of the people mentioned in the book like Dale Carnegie, Robert Cialdini, as well as Thaler and Sunstein's book "Nudge" i had all recently read prior to reading "Win Bigly" so was exposed the psychology of persuasion already. Furthermore, i'd recommend just going straight to those sources instead of reading someone else talking about those sources (and they do a better job of explaining). Perhaps if i hadn't read those authors prior to Adams' i would have liked his book better.
2) The book isn't written well. Blogs and comics are not books, perhaps his other books are better but having read both his blog and comics that style doesn't fit well with books. I know Adams' does a lot of Periscope videos which i'm sure are great but that style of information delivery also doesn't fit well into a book. You've got time and pages, there's no need to rush through and skip over things that could be explained in depth. The writing feels rushed and patched together and i can't help but wonder if that rushed and patched together feel is because he was TRYING to rush to get the book out to capitalize on Trump's being made president.
3) In any intro for a book it's perfectly acceptable for an author to state what they are going to be talking about in future chapters and what they are going to show the reader. 50 of 60 pages past the intro it's no longer acceptable to continually tell the reader what they can expect from the book. That's just poor writing.
4) I don't want to exaggerate but it feels like half this book is just cut-and-paste posts from his blog. Worse is that there isn't even an commentary on those posts which would make the cut-and-paste somewhat acceptable. Adams' just tells his readers that he predicted stuff, then cuts to his blog post confirming he predicted what he says. So what? No one cares that he was right, we're reading the book to learn about persuasion not that he made a guess and got right. Introducing a method of persuasion, saying "i talked about this once", then cutting to a blog post, and then ending the section or chapter is lazy writing.

Not a Trump or Scott fan, but this book has a good explanation of how and why Trump is persuasive, and general persuasion stuff. I liked the examples, esp the ones contrasting Hillary's campaign with Trump's campaign.
But the continuous references to Trump and also all that has transpired with Trump since he took office (e.g. DACA, healthcare, nepotism, corruption, Putin, etc etc), make clear (at least to me) that good persuasion cannot compensate for bad character. This echoes the point made by Stephen Covey in 7 Habits. He phrases it as personality ethic is ineffective compared to the character ethic.
So, while the book has good tips, it focuses on the shallow stuff, and has a lot of fluff. I think it is worth browsing after issuing from your library, but not worth buying.

I know certain a light-heartedness would seem to be in order, as this guy is the creator of a wry comic strip, but still I found the premise of this book so sad, even tragic as he described it on C-SPAN. The idea seems to be that one should somehow learn something from the anti-fact agenda of Trump. I utterly accept that human beings are mostly not rational all the time. But so much misery in human affairs has come from finding a way to creatively resist the atavistic tug of encroaching irrationality. So the premise of this book seems a tragic human cop-out, not the light-hearted piece of wry knowing that proposes to be! And to show the cop out, the author confesses that he never votes! That seems to be a pose of pretentiously neutral parasitism!-----

If you have had a hard time judging reality since June 16, 2015 (the day Donald Trump announced his candidacy for President) through November 8, 2016 and beyond, this is the book for you. It's about persuasion, not politics, and why Trump is the best Master Persuader that Scott Adams has ever seen.

The skills and methods discussed are as applicable to your life as anything you have ever learned.

And if you're a Deplorable, you likely already know the story but re-living it makes for a great read.

Dilbert creator Scott Adams predicted early in the 2016 presidential campaign that Donald Trump would win. In his book titled, Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter, Adams explains why. The basic premise of the book is that Donald Trump has mastered the techniques that are proven successful at persuasion. Adams explores many different techniques that Trump uses successfully and explains why those techniques work.

Rating: Four-star (I like it)

If you are leftie suffering from TDS, beware - the book quite likely contains a slight reference to something-Trump-related, therefore proceed with caution or risk having a major brain meltdown (just look at all those suffering in reviews). In other hand every average person with average intelligence, average sense of humor and ability to connect basic dots will find this book entertaining, well written and possibly educational.

I saw Scott Adams on TV and he seemed entertaining enough, so I picked up the book. As I suspected it was a page-turner. If you are not familiar with him he is the cartoonist behind Dilbert.

In the book he talks about Trump and his means of persuasion in the election, how people have different movies running in their minds and how people have different filters through which they view the world. Adams discusses how he learned hypnosis and how it can work on a certain percentage of the population.

Adams is genuinely funny. However, he has a cynical view of the world. He says he got rid of the God filter in his life because he didn't believe the story of Jonah in the Bible as a child. He talked about how he used drugs in the past. He does not think men should have any opinion in the issue of abortion. He basically said that Americans are brainwashed by the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem, but he said that is better than being brainwashed by something else. There is a lot about Trump in the book, but Adams only reason for supporting Trump was for entertainment value and with Clinton's position on the death tax Adams' lifetime earnings would be taxed again bringing the total tax on money earned to 75 percent.

With all that said there are many unique insights on persuasion in the book. The Trump stuff is fairly incredible when you think about what the political people think about him versus what he was able to accomplish. I'm not going to give 5 stars because there is some profanity and not for kids stuff in the book. It probably makes for good waiting room or bathroom reading. Adams is a brilliant guy, I just think his moral compass is off.

If you are a fan of the orange god, then this book will affirm your confirmation bias. Otherwise it will leave you feeling dirty and violated. Did you know the author is a trained hypnotist? If not, he will remind you at least once every chapter. The author is clearly and firmly planted in camp trump. His take on all the campaign name-calling by trump is that it was the most brilliant marketing strategy EVER, but any similar actions by the opposition, is "Hillbullying". I did not consider the campaign name-calling brilliant. I was horrified that a grown man was getting away with behavior that any parent would punish their toddler for doing. I also noticed that the labels were all his worst traits being projected onto his opponents, like he was eager to get those labels out there before they were applied to him. I'm no Cruz fan, but liar? Statistics show that the rest of the candidates lie as often as the rest of us: 20-25% of the time, while the one labeling an opponent a liar: 70-80% of the time.

Anyway: the synopsis was that this wasn't supposed to be a political book. It was to teach you how to use persuasion techniques to get what you want. Try any of these techniques at work and the only thing you're going to win is a one-way trip to the HR office (be sure to take your personal stuff with you when you go, because you won't be allowed back at your desk). This was nothing but a political book written by a fan.

This was a work book-club selection. We were all left unsettled by the book content, so much so that most members stopped showing up, so last week we decided to pull the plug.

I'm not done with it yet, but now that I've read a good chunk of it, I can really see how the mass delusions, confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance work together in other people, in real-time, to shape their behavior. It is actually blowing my mind realizing how irrational people are... and suggestible. (This doesn't necessarily mean they are plain old stupid.) Yes, I'm using some of his buzzwords, but that's because they are pretty much spot-on.

I'm watching some old election night 2016 footage from some of the cable news networks, and all of these concepts are on full, clear display in the span of a few hours. This book has literally shattered my understanding of how people function, and I'm only on like page 65. Good job, Scott. I just hope I can actually train myself to notice these phenomena in my own behavior. If I can't, at least it's amusing to watch it in others. It's extremely interesting.

The book is also pretty well-written. It's a very unique and effective mix of humor and psychology lessons so far.

It starts out well, but soon becomes too long. Too much in the weeds. I became bored and felt like I had to finish it because I had spent $15.00 for the book. I even got the Audible book to follow along with Kindle copy. That was another mistake. Scott is no reader. I am sorely disappointed. I thought I would get something that I didn’t.

This book is a must read. This book taught me more than I have learned in years about human nature, how decisions are made, US politics, and myself and my past. Scott Adams sees and understands a part of life that most of us are oblivious to. I wish that I had read this book when I was in my late teens, and again in my twenties, and again every decade or so since. Mr Adams is a lot more than just a writer of good jokes. He understands human nature at a very deep level. Definitely read all the way through to the end (although personally I couldn't put the book down once I got half way through it).

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, explains Trump’s success as coming from his skills as a Master Persuader. Adams, well-schooled in persuasion as well as in hypnosis, explains to the reader how Trump uses classic persuasion and negotiation skills. He provides the reader with a theory of persuasion, a vocabulary to understand it, and numerous examples from the presidential race on how it was applied. Adams begins by teaching the reader that, contrary to popular belief, people are 90% irrational in their decision making and 10% rational, as opposed to the commonly held reverse belief. This is to some extent, backed up by contemporary studies in psychology, neuroscience and behavioral economics. As such people are susceptible to emotional triggers, not necessary facts or logic. Trump is a master at using this reality. Speaking of reality, Adams also makes the case that humans did not evolve to perceive reality accurately, but to survive and procreate. He concludes from this that we see reality through various filters, and live life according to them (and not what is real in the external world). He gives as an example the Atheist Filter, by which he lived for a while. But he says that a filter needs to both make one happy and predict the future, which this didn’t for him. He now uses the Persuasion Filter, which he claims both makes him happy and predicts the future. This is what he used to predict Trump’s victory before almost anyone else. He could see based on his persuasion experience how Trump was working with and playing each circumstance. The book has a lot of examples on how Trump used persuasion and negotiation to get his way. By talking about the border wall in general and grandiose ways, he got everyone to talk about it too, making the wall appear to be more important than other policy issues strictly because of its discussion prominence. He also threw out excessive numbers, like wanted to deport all illegal immigrants, setting an anchor to which others must respond and increasing the probability that the final outcome would be closer to his real goal. The book is a real eye opened that shows how any Master Persuader can direct the show, almost without any awareness of the actors in his or her play.

This book is what happens when you only care about winning, with no regard for truth, facts, right or wrong, or any sense of morality whatsoever. Adams is gushing and fawning over Trump's gaping void of character, integrity, or principles, and would like to pass them off as "winning" or "persuasion" - in an insufferably pseudo-scientific, faux-intellectual way that is painfully obsequious, while at same time nurturing his own massive, narcissistic ego and pathological need for self-validation.
So, if you want to gain some perverse insights into Adams' mind and how it is unnervingly similar to Trump's NPD-riddled mind, then this book is for you. If you like to have your intellect, sense of logic, and critical thinking skills disregarded, nay, utterly violated, then this book is for you. All others, I would recommend taking a hard pass on this book.
One can only hope that once Trump disappears into the beyond, utter obscurity, or sheer infamy, whichever occurs first, that Adams will begin to regret having chained himself this enthusiastically to the fate of his Orange Deity for the sake of a few extra bucks.

I wanted to hear / read why Scott Adams predicted a Donald Trump win within a couple of days on Trump announcing his candidacy for POTUS.I knew Scott was a Liberal from other things he has written so I was really curious. This AutioBook did not disappoint. I highly recommend it

Pros
- Neatly puts together all the great insights many of us have been hearing for the last two years
- Hits on most things I wanted him to talk about
- Spooky.
- Helped me win biglier than any other book this year

Cons
- Would've liked to see the following examples of bad persuasion (though there were plenty): "Pink pussy hat" protests, the Dems reclaiming "nasty woman" and why that didn't work
- Perhaps because of Adams' low opinion of facts and reason, there are several areas where he doesn't back his arguments nearly enough
- Didn't know until after reading, but apparently Adams predicted a 2012 GOP win for Herman Cain, *even after* the sexual harassment scandal. (Was curious what Adams thought of 9-9-9, after watching today's Periscope on his tax reform idea.) Would've liked a reason why he was wrong. Even a "fake because" would've been fine. But more on the history of how persuasion has helped win elections at least. Maybe that should be his next book.

This is more than a book. It's like the Philosopher's Stone, a kind of Swiss Army Knife for all of life's ills. You can benefit from reading it, of course. But it's uses are varied and all valuable. It can set broken bones, eradicate famine, intimidate the meek... The list goes on and on. The only way to see it how good it is for YOU is to buy it. Hardcover. Week One, put in under your pillow each night before bed. Week Two, keep it out, and always in plain sight. Week Three read and memorize the dust jacket. Take it slow. Its mystical powers will reveal over time. It's never the same for all people. As you grow it grows with you. Don't miss this chance.

This book will change the way you view the world, believe me. Scott Adams makes persuasion simple and easy to understand. Smart, open-minded people will take great insight from this book and go one step ahead of everyone else.

You might want to buy "Win Bigly" because you like coffee. Mmm... coffee

Adams is really impressed with himself for having "predicted" Trump's election, although he blows past the fact that Trump was appointed President by the Electoral College rather than having been democratically elected. You know who else predicted Trump had a good shot at winning, Matt Taibbi. Of course, rather than putting all of his eggs in the "persuader" basket, Taibbi mostly counted on the dysfunction of the American media, the uneducated and entitled white voters, and the disarray the DNC was in after fudging Clinton's primary 'win." Another voice I heard way back in August of 2016 was from a psychologist who is on an NSA Presidential succession planning team. The NSA team disbanded in September, confident that Clinton would win and the song would remain the same as when she was Secretary of State. My friend was the team's dissenting voice. He argued, "Half of any population is below average intelligence. Half of any population has below average education. They aren't the same group and they will all be for Trump." He figured if the red states turned out to vote, the Electoral College would elect Trump. And that's what happened.

Adams puts himself on a high position as a "persuader" along with Trump as a "master persuader." The fact that Adams thinks this is a rare skill is more a testament to his privileged, entitled, upper-class white upbringing and career than some sort of valuable insight. Anyone brave enough to walk inner city streets will discover that there is no shortage of persuaders out there in the under-privileged and minority classes. That "skill" is how people get from day to day on the streets, especially when there are no other options. From the hookers telling you you're missing out of the time of your life to the guys convincing tourists to bet them $5 they can guess "where you got your shoes," persuasion is just one more necessary street survival skill. Reading Adams' Trump drivel mostly reminded me of Little Marco's accurate evaluation of Trump's dependence on his privilege, his father's connections and wealth, and the lack of white collar crime prosecution in this country: "Here’s the guy that inherited $200 million. If he hadn’t inherited $200 million, you know where Donald Trump would be right now? Selling watches in Manhattan." Of course, Trump inherited a LOT more than $200M. Even with that, it mostly took luck and entitlement for Trump to stay out of going broke.

The best thing about "Win Bigly" is that Adams repeats his arguments in every chapter, so it's a great book to practice your speed reading on. Don't waste your money. Borrow it from your local library for an afternoon's entertainment.

"Win Bigly" is an easy-reading book with fantastic voice and loaded with substance about persuasion. If you like Trump, you will enjoy learning the techniques Trump used. If you hate Trump, "Win Bigly" will unveil an entirely new world to you, showing you why Trump is not incompetent through the lens of persuasion, but you'll be surprised by how little "Win Bigly" pushes Trump. "Win Bigly" uses politics to explain persuasion making "Win Bigly" a book that is truly about persuasion. Don't rob yourself the opportunity to make sense of a world where facts don't matter.

Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter

Scott Adams offers a lot of insight into interpersonal and political psychology and behavior in this book. He makes many practical observations and recommendations, based on both his business world experience and training as a hypnotist.
He reads his own book on Audible and was very pleasant to listen to.

Purchased at a bookstore. When buying a book it's hard to decide if its going to be worthwhile. the store reviews can help, but at a store you're limited to the book jacket and skimming through it. This book looked promising but was misleading. It claimed to be another "why Trump won story" and/or "secrets of persuasion." Adams' and Trump's super persuasion skills failed with me.

Adams claimed to be non-partisan, but it didn't take long to see he wasn't. A why Trump won analysis would have been more persuasive with some objectivity. If I had skimmed the "Why I Endorsed Clinton" chapter in the bookstore I would have made a better buying decision. Any pretense of his being anything but a Trump worshiper blew up there, but he hid it 3/4ths of the way through the book.

An interesting exposure of Adams' own "confirmation bias" and "cognitive dissonance" was his story of how he "went to war" against Hillary because she proposed an Estate tax of 65% on estates over 500 million. He implied he is that rich. If so, much greater celebrities than Adams must be billionaires like Trump. I thought they were supposed to be relatively rare and that's why Trump is allegedly wise.

Also Adams preached against the concept of fairness, saying it was "an argument for children and idiots." Wasn't fairness his basic argument against higher taxes for the 1% like himself?

If you are interested in the book as a handbook for great marketing skills, you would be better off with a book about ethics and salesmanship.

Whatever happened to the advertising/p.r. idea that you try to avoid offending people?

The most bizarre idea came in Appendix C - that we are not reality, but a computer simulation of an advanced society. Really?

Scott Adams is potentially nothing more than another clever salesman creating and delivering product to an identified market. As he says in one of his own YouTube clips about regarding 'Dilbert', "I don't write the comic to match my opinion. I used to write the comic to match my opinion, but people didn't want to read it. So now I write the comic based on what I think people will like to read."

There's little reason to believe Adams isn't applying that same 'Dilbert' philosophy to his new Trump media operation and that he's now creating Trump-related content based on what Adams thinks the Trump faithful will like to see and hear.

And predictably pay for.

In the Sam Harris introduction to his 'Triggered' podcast conversation with Adams, the interviewee most-often requested by Trump supporters was none other than Scott Adams, so it's quite possible that Adams is now reapplying his successful business acumen by properly identifying a hungry audience of Trump supporters and then quickly serving up some well-calibrated content that satisfies it.

Dilbert. Trump. It's all just business.

I couldn’t figure how Trump was getting support from so many unlikely groups until my nephew started insisting Trump would win by a landslide based on Scott Adams blog.
I was a diehard Dilbert fan so I started reading the blog to see what was going on.
I was soon hooked, first on the blog then the Periscopes.
I’m not a New Yorker and didn’t appreciate Trump’s combat style until Scott brought his clarity.
Win Bigly is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the phenomenon that is Donald Trump.

Scott adams is a great cartoonist, but he'd like us to believe that he's also a master of persuasion and brilliant hypnotist. His argument is that Trump won in spite of all his flaws, just because he's very persuasive. And yet he seems to ignore that Trump's persuasion comes from his common sense. The border wall, deporting criminal illegal aliens, protecting the 2nd Amendment, that's common sense for most Americans other than the coastal elites .

Instead of writing about that, he informs us that there's more than one reality, that we might be living in the Matrix! The book quickly became unreadable. I'm sorry Mr. Adams, I still love your cartoons, and I admired that you defended Trump during the election, but your book is terrible.

For a bit I entertained the idea that the book might be a very clever tongue-in-cheek satire, with Scott deliberately assuming a persona with Trump’s collection of psychological disorders. But no, he’s serious.

Scott’s book is riddled with fallacies and is not the least bit amusing. For example, a fundamental premise, asserted immediately and repeated ad nauseam, is that readers should accept whatever he says (loopy unsupported claims and grossly omissive, ineptly reasoned analysis) because, get this, he’s a hypnotist. :-)

It gets worse from there.

I started following Scott's blog during the 2016 election, and I must say, I was blown away by his uncanny knack for predicting the outcome events during the election. Scott brings the chaos of the collective political consciousness into clear focus, where media bias and our own biases are neutralized by the "persuasion filter". The 2016 election acts as a backdrop for Scott to unveil the tools of persuasion and illustrate the powerful space one enters when happenings are understood from the perspective of persuasion.

Scott's appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher was a thunderbolt. He saw what I saw - Trump was too powerful for the Political thespians to thwart.
This is THE tome of the 2016 Election. Get it now and join THE Filter to watch the next 3 years!

Ok book, but it will do nothing to persuade anybody. Trump fans will love it, and Trump haters will hate it.
The first 80% is acceptable, but then Adams goes into full tinfoil hat conspiracy theory. He claims that he got death threats during the election because he wrote positive things about Trump. So far I believe him, but then he goes on to say that the threats came from online trolls paid by Clinton. Sad!
I give it two stars, instead of one, because I got it for free, at the library.

A fast, fascinating read about persuasion in modern politics and life.
The work is organized around the 2016 US election and the strategies and tactics Trump's campaign used.
I had been unaware of the author's blogging and the controversy about his endorsements, and this was a revelation.
It is a witty, fun, fast-paced read that draws one in very quickly.
Only down-side: The author's repeated references to himself as a "trained hypnotist" get a little tiresome. On the one hand, it could be very "meta" in that he's using one of his persuasion tactics (appeal to self-authority "Believe Me") to persuade you about persuasion, on the other, it can make for a fun drinking game.
I did not expect to enjoy the book as much as I did.

Real insights into why Donald Trump won the election, but so much more. In addition to being a cartoonist, Adams is a trained hypnotist and a political blogger. As such, he was a very early predictor of Trump's victory, based mostly on his powers of persuasion. As he repeatedly reminds us, he was NOT a Trump supporter, but a political observer. He also delves into the nature of reality, and how we each create our own "movie" that we live in. Highly recommended.

Adams explanation of how Trump thinks was not surprising, just sickening. It made me feel so sad that the leader of this country cares more for himself and retaining his base than those for whom he governs. The book was not bad just the message.

I really like Scott Adams...he has a great podcast and a well written blog...and and and obviously is a great cartoonist...all three have one thing in common...they require you can generate short concentrated spurts of intellectual prowess which is a skill Adams has in spades….but writing a book...hmmmmm...so...when you smoke as much pot as Adams does you need a great editor to reign in a clearly muddled effort- writing a full length book clearly entails prolonged intellectual focus and Adams doesn’t have either- long term focus or an engaged editor...that said...if you would enjoy a rambling cannabis induced jaunt in and around the 2016 Presidential election detailing how certain techniques of persuasion work- according to the persuasion savant known as Scott Adams- well then this book is for you….

Scott adams is a great cartoonist, but he'd like us to believe that he's also a master of persuasion and brilliant hypnotist. His argument is that Trump won in spite of all his flaws, just because he's very persuasive. And yet he seems to ignore that Trump's persuasion comes from his common sense. The border wall, deporting criminal illegal aliens, protecting the 2nd Amendment, that's common sense for most Americans other than the coastal elites .

Instead of writing about that, he informs us that there's more than one reality, that we might be living in the Matrix! The book quickly became unreadable. I'm sorry Mr. Adams, I still love your cartoons, and I admired that you defended Trump during the election, but your book is terrible.

For a bit I entertained the idea that the book might be a very clever tongue-in-cheek satire, with Scott deliberately assuming a persona with Trump’s collection of psychological disorders. But no, he’s serious.

Scott’s book is riddled with fallacies and is not the least bit amusing. For example, a fundamental premise, asserted immediately and repeated ad nauseam, is that readers should accept whatever he says (loopy unsupported claims and grossly omissive, ineptly reasoned analysis) because, get this, he’s a hypnotist. :-)

It gets worse from there.

I started following Scott's blog during the 2016 election, and I must say, I was blown away by his uncanny knack for predicting the outcome events during the election. Scott brings the chaos of the collective political consciousness into clear focus, where media bias and our own biases are neutralized by the "persuasion filter". The 2016 election acts as a backdrop for Scott to unveil the tools of persuasion and illustrate the powerful space one enters when happenings are understood from the perspective of persuasion.

Scott's appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher was a thunderbolt. He saw what I saw - Trump was too powerful for the Political thespians to thwart.
This is THE tome of the 2016 Election. Get it now and join THE Filter to watch the next 3 years!

Too flabby and smug to be satisfying.

Some interesting takeaways but the insights could have been condensed into a blog post.
The self-congratulatory and self-promoting tone seriously overshadowed the content.

Ok book, but it will do nothing to persuade anybody. Trump fans will love it, and Trump haters will hate it.
The first 80% is acceptable, but then Adams goes into full tinfoil hat conspiracy theory. He claims that he got death threats during the election because he wrote positive things about Trump. So far I believe him, but then he goes on to say that the threats came from online trolls paid by Clinton. Sad!
I give it two stars, instead of one, because I got it for free, at the library.

A fast, fascinating read about persuasion in modern politics and life.
The work is organized around the 2016 US election and the strategies and tactics Trump's campaign used.
I had been unaware of the author's blogging and the controversy about his endorsements, and this was a revelation.
It is a witty, fun, fast-paced read that draws one in very quickly.
Only down-side: The author's repeated references to himself as a "trained hypnotist" get a little tiresome. On the one hand, it could be very "meta" in that he's using one of his persuasion tactics (appeal to self-authority "Believe Me") to persuade you about persuasion, on the other, it can make for a fun drinking game.
I did not expect to enjoy the book as much as I did.

Real insights into why Donald Trump won the election, but so much more. In addition to being a cartoonist, Adams is a trained hypnotist and a political blogger. As such, he was a very early predictor of Trump's victory, based mostly on his powers of persuasion. As he repeatedly reminds us, he was NOT a Trump supporter, but a political observer. He also delves into the nature of reality, and how we each create our own "movie" that we live in. Highly recommended.

Adams explanation of how Trump thinks was not surprising, just sickening. It made me feel so sad that the leader of this country cares more for himself and retaining his base than those for whom he governs. The book was not bad just the message.

I really like Scott Adams...he has a great podcast and a well written blog...and and and obviously is a great cartoonist...all three have one thing in common...they require you can generate short concentrated spurts of intellectual prowess which is a skill Adams has in spades….but writing a book...hmmmmm...so...when you smoke as much pot as Adams does you need a great editor to reign in a clearly muddled effort- writing a full length book clearly entails prolonged intellectual focus and Adams doesn’t have either- long term focus or an engaged editor...that said...if you would enjoy a rambling cannabis induced jaunt in and around the 2016 Presidential election detailing how certain techniques of persuasion work- according to the persuasion savant known as Scott Adams- well then this book is for you….

Excellent book. My wife, who didn't want to read it and who hates Trump, reluctantly took a peek at it during a recent flight of ours and had a difficult time giving it back to me. Like the recent Channel 4 Prof. Peterson interview, this book will present cognitive dissonance. Those who embrace it will enjoy the ride while those who don't will loudly squeal and rage on it in the one star reviews. Such is life. And they will ensure Trumps second term. The irony of it all is so thick, so tragic and so delightful.

Trump on North Koreans: “They’re industrious, they’re warm, much warmer than the world really knows and understands. They’re great people and I hope it all works out for everybody. And it would be a wonderful thing if it could work for those great people, and for everybody.”

News Media: "He said he thought North Koreans were 'great people. And I hope it all works out for everybody.' ”

This is a great book!

I love how he helps you understand how Trump won and why the knuckleheads on the left and right still don't get it. It is fun to watch them continue to think they are smarter when they simply are doing what Scott describes in the book. Great read.

The thing about this book is, you can disagree with most of it, and still get a tremendous kick out of it. It is very readable, hugely entertaining, and often laugh-out-loud funny. It explains a lot, and when you've finished it, you'll understand why Win Bigly is such a perfect title. If you think that Trump keeps winning by sheer dumb luck, or if you think Trump's tweets are an annoying distraction, or that Trump is thin-skinned and acts on impulse, this book will certainly make you think twice. It's true. I disagree with Scott about fifty percent of the time, but have become a fan of his YouTube talks (originally on Periscope), and have been inspired to write a couple of essays about his ideas, soon to be published (in a book called Scott Adams and Philosophy).

Extremely disappointing work. Being a Dilbert fan I had high hopes but turns out that Scott Adams' products have taken a turn for the worse, especially the binding See the pictures before you buy this book. This book comes with a very assymetrical binding. I wonder why the creator of Dilbert made a book with a crooked one edge...is it a hidden indication about his subject' rival? I don't know, that's up to interpretation. I really don't see humor in a book that has a crushed corner, much like a grimly, missing teeth character. This one goes back because it violates a basic principle of industrial design - harmony in form.

I’m not a book reviewer, just a lover of Dilbert and started listening to Scott Adams and found him to be an interesting and unique character - I knew nothing: this book is amazing.

If you dislike Trump because he’s a Republican, don’t let that stop you from grabbing this book. You may have more in common with Adams than you think (politically). If you like Trump, you’ll love this book because it reaffirms what you knew but couldn’t explain.

Finally, the story of the wizard(s) had me in tears the second time through...

Hilarious, insightful, concise. Classic Scott Adams on a topic he's wanted to write about for years and uses the upset election of 2016 as his prime (though not only) example of 3D persuasion techniques.

MOVE ON!

This book has failed to sell as many copies as they thought it would. I believe it may be already out of print.

This book is written by a "Certified Hypnotist" which he points out endlessly in the text. He explains that he took ten night courses and was issued an official Certification. Who certifies Hypnotists anyway?

He states that 50% of the population saw through Trumps deceptions and didn't vote for him. The rest were hypnotized!

It is no wonder it may have been panned by Fox News.

Order the best seller which I believe was recently praised by Sean Hannity of Fox News called " Fire and Fury" which is an in depth, interesting, look behind the scenes look at the Trump White House.

I began watching Scott's thoughts on Trump in 2015. His 'persuasion filter' gave a new perspective on Trump and the 2016 election that was not being presented anywhere and was roughly 1000x more accurate and predictive than any other voice in the discussion. In this book you will find Scott's advice on persuasion told in an amazing story of a brackish business man who became President against all odds.

Funny how a book on the art of persuasion by a self-acclaimed master persuader totally failed to persuade me. I didn't find his arguments compelling. Although Adams raises a few interesting points, he mostly pats himself on the back and works awfully hard to convince you he's smarter than you. Meanwhile, he commits the very mistakes he says the uninformed, unwashed masses are guilty of. I actually listened to the audio book, which is even worse than reading the book. He sounds smug. I regret this purchase.

Adams does a stellar job of juggling several balls: his philosophic views on human nature, his history of analyzing Trump's persuasion abilities, his actual analysis of these abilities, and creating a playbook for anyone who wants to become a Master Persuader.

A very thoughtful and well-reasoned book. Adams' assertions will likely distress Clinton supporters and Never Trumpers because those assertions flatly contradict what the Clinton/Never Trump folks strongly believe.

However, he cogently makes his case. And he's refreshingly honest about things that he suspects but can't prove. If I despised Donald Trump, I'd read this book very carefully. Rejecting Adams' conclusions merely because you don't like them won't make Trump any easier to defeat.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.”

--Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Scott Adams should stick to doing Dilbert comics. You can tell from this book that Adams is simply an obvious Trump fan who thinks being a "master manipulator" is a socially redeemable character trait. Adams makes no comments about Trump's appalling ignorance, congenital lying, and that Trump tends to bring out the worst instincts in people. Adams also seems to be suggesting that truth and facts are over rated. Unfortunately, so is his book. Don't waste your money.

Truly a sad state of affairs for our country that we live in a world where facts don't matter, that a presidential candidate's character and actions don't matter. Scott Adams has a super size ego that became more annoying the more I read. Yuck!

If it were a choice to give zero stars I would. I completely regret spending money and 1 evening of my life reading this book. It's awful. It's everything you might imagine from an uniformed cartoonist trying to sound smart.

Well, Adams failed to persuade me. He gets it wrong about why Trump won and about his impact on how people view things. Trump merely came along and gave voice to what many ignored people were already thinking. He took on the preexisting agenda of those voters, and he won the election because he was able to squeak by in the key swing states where people were disillusioned with Hillary. People also appreciated that finally someone was standing up to media attacks, after the milquetoast McCain and Romney.

I give 2 stars because Adams writes some witty sentences, but misses the big picture.

The biggest takeaway for me was right there on Page One: he was shunned personally, even by former friends, and almost ruined professionally, because that's what the Left will do to anyone who writes about its enemies in anything other than a negative light. What a scathing indictment of liberals.

Scott Adams has lost his mind. The premise of this book is that Donald Trump is some super influencer. If that were true, you’d expect he would have won the election with a huge majority, or at least not a minority of the popular vote. (Adams had predicted a Trump landslide). By that measure Hillary was even more influential. Scott should be looking at her skills. I was hoping the book would be well researched and footnoted, but it wasn’t. Disappointing, and not worth the time it took to read any of it.

If you start your book with an opinion such as people can't lose weight because they like to eat and smokers can't stop smoking because they like to smoke then I cannot take anything else you say seriously, Mr. Adams, you ignore both basic biology and addiction which means that everything else you say is questionable.

The author goes to extraordinary measures to show that we cannot grasp reality and all we experience is subjective reality. Somebody should tell scientists that, so they stop bothering with experiments and facts. Just kidding... we don't need to be absolutely unbiased in order to understand the concepts of "right vs. wrong" or "truth vs. lies." People can differentiate fact from fiction if they listen carefully and check all the information they are getting. Many intelligent people, critical thinkers, voted for Trump not because they loved his made up version of reality but because he promised things like lower taxes.

Yet another example of tactical thinking disguised as philosophical life lessons. In an effort to rationalize Mr. Adams’ prediction and the personal costs of his adamant belief in that decision (detailed by the author), I can only conclude This is effort to recoup that financial loss. The net takeaway of the 2016 election is that you can persuade a lot of people to do a lot of things when you are not bound by facts or held in check by journalists or the public. The same logic appears to apply to purchasing this book and the proffered lessons Mr Adams offers.

Talk about self-promotion. Scott Adams gives Donald Trump a run for his money.

Mr. Adams presents himself as the world's most insightful person, based on his grasp of the techniques of both persuasion and hypnotism. His insight is so profound, in fact, that he (and apparently he alone) knows what's inside President Trump's head.

The president's every statement and action is part of a grand master plan concocted by the greatest persuader who has ever lived. Want proof that Scott Adams knows what he's talking about? Well, he was, according to him, the first person on the planet to definitively predict Donald Trump would win the election. The rest of us morons were completely in the dark.

And by the way. Scott Adams is also exceptionally smart and rich and successful and a great writer too. How do I know? Because he says so repeatedly. Indeed, there is hardly a page in this book where the author isn't blowing his own horn and making references to his superior status in a world of mere mortals without his amazing set of skills.

I did you a service by holding my nose and reading this terrible book so that you don't have to. It might make a good door stop but little else.

A thousand times, we have questioned how Trump gets away with the horrible things that he says, especially on Twitter, but still finds loyalty in segments of the population. Buy this book because the answers are contained within.

A book with the word "Bigly," is not something that I want my friends to see on my bookshelf, but I learned a few things from it that are applicable to daily life. A horribly heated argument (unrelated to politics) was turned in my favor by utilizing what Adams calls the "High Ground Maneuver." I was the victor in a seemingly impossible situation. You possess valuable techniques involving language after reading it.

We all want to be helpful on a personal level in the fight against dark American politics. The tactics that Trump is using can be turned on him if we understand his use of language when we speak to his followers. Buy this book because it is a primer on the current state of humanity.

Sorry, but I did not like the book. Many reasons for example I don't like how the 'author' took advantage of Trump's win to write about persuasion power. Trump won because he was the better candidate and he showed that throughout this year. That's not only because of persuasion but by dealing and fighting the swamp and doing hard work while under constant attack by their minions. The people wanted change because they knew who was better. Anyone in the right mind rooted for him and after watching all those crowds day after day you could predict the outcome.
Written by an accomplished cartoonist with a big ego and a "part-time hypnotist",however, he is not a psychologist. Many pages are filled with contents from his blog, theory and self aggrandizing praise that he repeats ad nauseum. This opportunist uses Trump's victory to make money. If you want to read about Trump there are better books out there. But heck, buy it, if you really want to spend your money, and make Adams win bigly!

I am of two minds about this book, because it is at the same time a manual and an example of persuasion, and I think it excels only as the latter.

Adams practices what he preaches and some sections of the book are really well written. And by that I mean they are so good they would be presented in golden frames to university students, if it weren't for other reasons.

On the other hand, Adams cannot stop bragging about how he predicted the Trump victory correctly. His repetitions may be a persuasion technique but they are tiring nevertheless. The annoying thing is that it works. See, he tricked me into reminding you that he called the election correctly. It makes me so furious that I down-rated the book.

If you are new to Adams' persuasion teachings, you don't want to miss out on this book. Otherwise, be prepared for many repetitions and some fleshing out of what you already know.

If you are having doubts by now, you may still want to buy the book, because it contains a line that will make your skin crawl, believe me.

Huge waste of money! More BS than a tractor trailer full of fertilizer! Read a chapter in the bookstore and you will put this down Only book I have thrown in the trash! It sucked! I don't have the stomach to swallow that much self important BS! Need a refund!!

Truly a sad state of affairs for our country that we live in a world where facts don't matter, that a presidential candidate's character and actions don't matter. Scott Adams has a super size ego that became more annoying the more I read. Yuck!

If it were a choice to give zero stars I would. I completely regret spending money and 1 evening of my life reading this book. It's awful. It's everything you might imagine from an uniformed cartoonist trying to sound smart.

Adams uses a non-partisan approach in this book. He dissects the way Trump communicates and explains why it is so effective. This book is must-read for all entrepreneurs regardless of political preference.

Well, Adams failed to persuade me. He gets it wrong about why Trump won and about his impact on how people view things. Trump merely came along and gave voice to what many ignored people were already thinking. He took on the preexisting agenda of those voters, and he won the election because he was able to squeak by in the key swing states where people were disillusioned with Hillary. People also appreciated that finally someone was standing up to media attacks, after the milquetoast McCain and Romney.

I give 2 stars because Adams writes some witty sentences, but misses the big picture.

The biggest takeaway for me was right there on Page One: he was shunned personally, even by former friends, and almost ruined professionally, because that's what the Left will do to anyone who writes about its enemies in anything other than a negative light. What a scathing indictment of liberals.

Scott Adams has lost his mind. The premise of this book is that Donald Trump is some super influencer. If that were true, you’d expect he would have won the election with a huge majority, or at least not a minority of the popular vote. (Adams had predicted a Trump landslide). By that measure Hillary was even more influential. Scott should be looking at her skills. I was hoping the book would be well researched and footnoted, but it wasn’t. Disappointing, and not worth the time it took to read any of it.

If you start your book with an opinion such as people can't lose weight because they like to eat and smokers can't stop smoking because they like to smoke then I cannot take anything else you say seriously, Mr. Adams, you ignore both basic biology and addiction which means that everything else you say is questionable.

The author goes to extraordinary measures to show that we cannot grasp reality and all we experience is subjective reality. Somebody should tell scientists that, so they stop bothering with experiments and facts. Just kidding... we don't need to be absolutely unbiased in order to understand the concepts of "right vs. wrong" or "truth vs. lies." People can differentiate fact from fiction if they listen carefully and check all the information they are getting. Many intelligent people, critical thinkers, voted for Trump not because they loved his made up version of reality but because he promised things like lower taxes.

Yet another example of tactical thinking disguised as philosophical life lessons. In an effort to rationalize Mr. Adams’ prediction and the personal costs of his adamant belief in that decision (detailed by the author), I can only conclude This is effort to recoup that financial loss. The net takeaway of the 2016 election is that you can persuade a lot of people to do a lot of things when you are not bound by facts or held in check by journalists or the public. The same logic appears to apply to purchasing this book and the proffered lessons Mr Adams offers.

Talk about self-promotion. Scott Adams gives Donald Trump a run for his money.

Mr. Adams presents himself as the world's most insightful person, based on his grasp of the techniques of both persuasion and hypnotism. His insight is so profound, in fact, that he (and apparently he alone) knows what's inside President Trump's head.

The president's every statement and action is part of a grand master plan concocted by the greatest persuader who has ever lived. Want proof that Scott Adams knows what he's talking about? Well, he was, according to him, the first person on the planet to definitively predict Donald Trump would win the election. The rest of us morons were completely in the dark.

And by the way. Scott Adams is also exceptionally smart and rich and successful and a great writer too. How do I know? Because he says so repeatedly. Indeed, there is hardly a page in this book where the author isn't blowing his own horn and making references to his superior status in a world of mere mortals without his amazing set of skills.

I did you a service by holding my nose and reading this terrible book so that you don't have to. It might make a good door stop but little else.

A thousand times, we have questioned how Trump gets away with the horrible things that he says, especially on Twitter, but still finds loyalty in segments of the population. Buy this book because the answers are contained within.

A book with the word "Bigly," is not something that I want my friends to see on my bookshelf, but I learned a few things from it that are applicable to daily life. A horribly heated argument (unrelated to politics) was turned in my favor by utilizing what Adams calls the "High Ground Maneuver." I was the victor in a seemingly impossible situation. You possess valuable techniques involving language after reading it.

We all want to be helpful on a personal level in the fight against dark American politics. The tactics that Trump is using can be turned on him if we understand his use of language when we speak to his followers. Buy this book because it is a primer on the current state of humanity.

Sorry, but I did not like the book. Many reasons for example I don't like how the 'author' took advantage of Trump's win to write about persuasion power. Trump won because he was the better candidate and he showed that throughout this year. That's not only because of persuasion but by dealing and fighting the swamp and doing hard work while under constant attack by their minions. The people wanted change because they knew who was better. Anyone in the right mind rooted for him and after watching all those crowds day after day you could predict the outcome.
Written by an accomplished cartoonist with a big ego and a "part-time hypnotist",however, he is not a psychologist. Many pages are filled with contents from his blog, theory and self aggrandizing praise that he repeats ad nauseum. This opportunist uses Trump's victory to make money. If you want to read about Trump there are better books out there. But heck, buy it, if you really want to spend your money, and make Adams win bigly!

I am of two minds about this book, because it is at the same time a manual and an example of persuasion, and I think it excels only as the latter.

Adams practices what he preaches and some sections of the book are really well written. And by that I mean they are so good they would be presented in golden frames to university students, if it weren't for other reasons.

On the other hand, Adams cannot stop bragging about how he predicted the Trump victory correctly. His repetitions may be a persuasion technique but they are tiring nevertheless. The annoying thing is that it works. See, he tricked me into reminding you that he called the election correctly. It makes me so furious that I down-rated the book.

If you are new to Adams' persuasion teachings, you don't want to miss out on this book. Otherwise, be prepared for many repetitions and some fleshing out of what you already know.

If you are having doubts by now, you may still want to buy the book, because it contains a line that will make your skin crawl, believe me.

Huge waste of money! More BS than a tractor trailer full of fertilizer! Read a chapter in the bookstore and you will put this down Only book I have thrown in the trash! It sucked! I don't have the stomach to swallow that much self important BS! Need a refund!!