21A Reading Reflection No. 2

What was the general theme or argument of the book?

     From my point of view the general theme of this book is advice on how to structure your life and priorities to succeed. He does this with a pretty simple set of steps. These steps are "look after yourself first," this involves staying healthy through sleep, exercise, and diet, "look after your economics," this means a stable job and financial well being because without that you become a burden on your family, and lastly, "look after all other things" once your life is stable then you can begin to prioritize the things outside of that.

How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT3003?

     One piece of advice the author gives is to find side projects that excite you enough to give you the energy to work on them. I feel like this is something that starting entrepreneurs feel about their ideas and is where the self motivation comes from. The author, Scott Adams, knows this from the experience of working in a corporate job for 16 years before creating the famous comic strip "Dilbert".

If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

     Scott Adams has this idea that "every skill you acquire doubles your odds of success." I would want to build an exercise around this by having student pick any kind of skill that they don't know already on the first day of class. It could be anything like playing an instrument, juggling, or in my case typing with all 10 fingers, etc. Then have progress reports throughout the semester on their progress, and finally a demonstration at the end. I think this is an assignment that could be a lot more interesting and engaging than just writing blog posts twice a week.

What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

     For me, it seemed that Adams had a very laid back view on success and that success is more about being a well rounded person than it is about being extraordinary at any one thing.