Lesson plan
Loserthink
Loserthink: How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America is a 2019 non-fiction book by Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip. Adams suggests that many otherwise intelligent people are trapped by unproductive ways of thinking which he terms as loserthink. The reason for this, he says, is they do not have experience across multiple domains and thus are not equipped to think more productively. Loserthink introduces readers to the most useful thought patterns in a variety of disciplines. Adams wants to help employees identify mental barriers and how to break through them, as well as escape from their own "mental prisons". Adams suggested two ideas for a calmer Internet, namely the "48-hour rule", where everyone should be given a grace period of a couple of days to retract any controversial statement they have made, and the "20-year rule", where everyone should be automatically forgiven for any mistakes they made more than two decades ago, with the exception of certain serious crimes.
Article summary
Loserthink: How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America is a 2019 non-fiction book by Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip. Adams suggests that many otherwise intelligent people are trapped by unproductive ways of thinking which he terms as loserthink. The reason for this, he says, is they do not have experience across multiple domains and thus are not equipped to think more productively. Loserthink introduces readers to the most useful thought patterns in a variety of disciplines. Adams wants to help employees identify mental barriers and how to break through them, as well as escape from their own "mental prisons". Adams suggested two ideas for a calmer Internet, namely the "48-hour rule", where everyone should be given a grace period of a couple of days to retract any controversial statement they have made, and the "20-year rule", where everyone should be automatically forgiven for any mistakes they made more than two decades ago, with the exception of certain serious crimes.
Key claims
No claims recorded.
Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
No sources recorded.
Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.