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Scott Adams has died

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Re: Scott Adams has died

#311

Post by jakevoytko »

afandian wrote: post #294
jakevoytko wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I followed his blog back when he started this descent, and I have a theory that it was hill climbing. He used to blog about pretty innocent stuff; his wife making fun of him for wearing pajama pants in public, behind the scenes on drawing comics, funny business interactions he'd had. But then he started getting taken out of context by various online-only publications, and he'd get a burst of traffic and a bunch of ha…

Can you define “hill climbing”? Is it a metaphor?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_climbing <-- applying this for getting more and more engagement

Re: Scott Adams has died

#312

Post by bentcorner »

dstroot wrote: post #233
jchallis wrote: post #188

Scott Adams died today. I want to acknowledge something complicated. He always felt culturally like family to me. His peaks—the biting humor about corporate absurdity, the writing on systems thinking and compounding habits, the clarity about the gap between what organizations say and what they do—unquestionably made me healthier, happier, and wealthier. If you worked in tech in the 90s and 2000s, Dilbert was a shared…

I will probably be downvoted for posting something that “doesn’t add value” but I have to say that is a beautiful post about a difficult topic. I could never put into words my feelings as well as you just did. I loved his art. I did not love the man.

Love the art, not the artist.

I loved reading the Belgariad as a young teen and was shocked upon learning more about the author as an adult.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#313

Post by antonvs »

jchallis wrote: post #188

Scott Adams died today. I want to acknowledge something complicated. He always felt culturally like family to me. His peaks—the biting humor about corporate absurdity, the writing on systems thinking and compounding habits, the clarity about the gap between what organizations say and what they do—unquestionably made me healthier, happier, and wealthier. If you worked in tech in the 90s and 2000s, Dilbert was a shared…

> the clarity of thought

I have difficulty reconciling this with the other side of the picture. It seems to me like true clarity of thought wouldn't have ended up in the places he did.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#314

Post by godzillabrennus »

k__ wrote: post #307
throw4436y54 wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment reminds me of when I talked to a few Chinese friends about their thoughts on Mao. They all acknowledged the failed policies which led to famine, yet they also admired that he basically gave Chinese people their pride back. They related him to an uncle figure who became a mean drunk.

Pride made it worth it?!

Having married a Chinese person. Yes. Despite the massive issues with the cultural revolution and communism in general, they are taught to be aware that it was Mao who threw off imperialism. Chinese are self governing because of him. Right or wrong, that is how they feel.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#315

Post by otabdeveloper4 »

spankalee wrote: post #301
spankalee wrote: post #290

I don't get "avoiding the ugliness" when someone dies. We need to acknowledge the ugliness and try to do better. Acting like "oh, he was trolling", or "it was just a small amount of hating Black people and women" is exactly how you get Steven Miller in the fucking White House. We need to make it shameful to be bigoted again, and that means calling out the bigotry even in death.

[flagged]

Well, mostly it's because you're turning an artist's death into a struggle session. Talk about yikes.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#316

Post by jimmydddd »

mjmsmith wrote: post #207
hyperhello wrote: post #181

He drew Dilbert for decades. He had a lot of comics and books in him. In his later life he was clearly trolling and dabbling in stirring up social media for fun, and it was hard to tell where the lines between that and his personal identity were. Goodbye born entertainer and funny dork.

[flagged]

Context?

Re: Scott Adams has died

#317

Post by alphazard »

app wrote: post #215

Growing up I read Dilbert in the paper every morning. At some point I got one of the compilation books and for some reason in an epilogue Adams included his alternate theory of gravity which was essentially that gravity as force didn't exist and things pressed down on each other because everything was expanding at the same rate. He said he had yet to find anyone who could refute this. Even at 12 I could tell this guy…

> things pressed down on each other because everything was expanding at the same rate

I don't think this originates with him, it sounds like an amusing joke a physicist would say because the math happens to be equivalent, and there is not an experiment to differentiate between the two.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#318

Post by diego_moita »

I stopped paying attention long before he became a freak.

After a couple of years his jokes became repetitive, formulaic, obvious,...

For some people that might be a good thing. Chuckling at an old joke is like trying again the food or music they used to love when they were young. Being funny or revealing isn't the point, being familiar and reassuring is what matters.

He had a moment at his time. A few more years and no one will remember him.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#319

Post by twalla »

"If you want an average successful life, it doesn’t take much planning. Just stay out of trouble, go to school, and apply for jobs you might like. But if you want something extraordinary, you have two paths:

1. Become the best at one specific thing. 2. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things."

I'm certain at least some small part of my own success can be attributed to my exposure to this idea, and for that I give my respects to Adams. As far as Adam's character (or lack thereof) is concerned, that's already being discussed elsewhere in this thread by others more eloquent than myself, so I'll leave that to them.

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