Reframe Your Brain by Scott Adams

As most of you already know Scott Adams, author of the Dilbert comic strip, died recently. We had many Dilbert books in our household and when I worked as a delivery driver in downtown San Diego, I would often see his strips taped to the wall in the mailrooms I frequented. He and I are the same age.

It was only in the last few years that I started seeing a side of Adams that I did not know existed. I’ve read, but don’t remember this, that in 2015 he predicted Trump’s victory in 2016 which didn’t win him any friends. Then he made a “racist” comment, that was really just a statistical inevitability, but as usual woke is not interested in facts, just outrage. This got Adams canceled. In his book, Reframe Your Brain: The User Interface for Happiness and Success, he wrote in the acknowledgements:

And thank you to the newspapers and publishing companies that canceled me. I didn’t realize how much I missed my artistic freedom until I got it back.²

What impressed me the most in recent years was his admission that the unvaccinated got it right. Initially he attributed the unvaccinated to getting lucky, that is making the choice to refuse the Covid vaccine was no more logical than choosing to get vaccinated (he got a lot of backlash for that). Eventually he changed his mind and admitted to the world that he got it wrong. Not many national, public figures would do that. Would any?

I bought Reframe Your Brain after reading Scott’s farewell letter after his death. At the end his letter he wrote:

I had an amazing life. I gave it everything I had. If you got any benefits from my work, I’m asking you to pay it forward as best you can. That is the legacy I want.

Be useful.

And please know I loved you all to the end.³

This is a “self-help” book. I haven’t read many of these in my lifetime. With this one I found myself sometimes thinking, “Damn! I’m 68, I should have learned this by now.” Scott would probably say to me, “Glen, Glen, Glen, you’re thinking about this all wrong. Let’s reframe it:”

Usual Frame: Damn! I’m 68, I should have learned this by now.
Reframe: Damn! I’m 68 and I’m still willing to learn!

Adams has 160 reframes in his book. A reframe is a different way to think about something, usually with a more positive or realistic take. Adams considers reframes as a way to reprogram your brain. After going through and explaining them he also puts them all in the last chapter of the book for easy access.

There are two things important to keep in mind while reading the book, two things Adams wants the reader to remember in order to use the reframes:

1. Reframes don’t have to be logical or even true, they just have to work.
2. These may not work for you, so create some that do.

On the first point, it reminds me of Pragmatism by William James. In it he essentially says, the most important component of a belief is whether or not it works. If it doesn’t work, move along to a belief that does. Lin Yutang in The Importance of Living writes something similar:

It has seemed to me that the final test of any civilization is, what type of husbands and wives and fathers and mothers does it turn out?  Besides the austere simplicity of such a question, every other achievement of civilization—art, philosophy, literature and material living—pales into insignificance.⁴

The book will help a lot of people and the younger you are the more potential for help. There’s a lot about career, romance, negative thoughts (Usual Frames are essentially negative thoughts), trauma, health and more. He admits that some of the reframes that have helped him, for example, viewing the world as a virtual simulation, may not have any basis in reality. He just knows thinking about it in that way has helped him in his life. That reframe may only make your life worse—so create or find some reframes that do not.

I like that about this book. Scott is not adamant that if you use these they will change your life. He calmly explains what has helped him and freely shares those insights with his readers fully aware that those with different personalities may not find them useful.

I will end with these reframes from Scott about death:

Usual Frame: Death is a tragedy, and I need to feel bad about it.
Reframe: The deceased has no more problems. How did I make this about me?⁵

Usual Frame: Death is a tragedy.
Reframe: It is an honor to help another pass.⁶

Here’s my own reframe regarding Scott:

Usual Frame: Scott Adams is dead. I’m sad.
Reframe: Scott Adams helped me laugh and think for decades. Thank you!

Rest in Peace, Scott.

Author’s Note: If these reframed Dilbert comics have any comedic merit, the credit and inspiration goes to Scott Adams. If they don’t, blame Trump.

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Notes

1. Adams, Scott. Reframe Your Brain: The User Interface for Happiness and Success, The Scott Adams Success Series, Kindle Edition, p. 111.
2. Ibid. p. 232.
3. Adams, Scott, Scott Adams on X (@ScottAdamsSays), Source. At this writing the letter has over 43 million views.
4. Yutang, Lin, The Importance of Living published by William Morrow and Company, Inc. 1998, originally published in 1937, paperback, 462 pages
5. Adams, Scott, Reframe Your Brain, p. 218.
6. Ibid.