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Scott Adams has died

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Re: Scott Adams has died

#871

Post by networked »

jazzypants wrote: post #21

It's a sad moment for me. I got into Dilbert at the tender age of eight years old. I don't know why I liked it so much when half the jokes went over my head, but I loved computers and comics, and I plowed through every book at my local library. It was my real introduction to software engineering, and it definitely influenced me in many ways that certainly shaped the man that I am today. I never agreed with him politi…

Dilbert's Desktop Games (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilbert%27s_Desktop_Games) was part of my childhood. As a slightly older kid in Ukraine, while I hadn't heard of Dilbert, I could understand the setting with my knowledge of English and some idea of how tech companies worked. (I already wanted to be a programmer.) I thought Techno Raiders was a pretty cool game, but also, this game collection was an introduction to the idea that the world of office work was kind of ridiculous and people were kind of incompetent.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#872

Post by [deleted] »

Aurornis wrote: post #543
tartoran wrote: post #491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 language for everything broken about corporate life. Same to me wh…

Learning to appreciate someone's art while disagreeing with their politics is a rite of passage in the age of the internet. There are a few artists whose output I can't even enjoy any more because their vitriol became so out of control that I couldn't see their work without thinking of their awfulness, though. (Note: I'm not talking about Scott Adams. I'm honestly not that familiar with his later life social media)

[deleted]

Re: Scott Adams has died

#873

Post by mproud »

scioto wrote: post #642
Waterluvian wrote: post #144

I got to interact with Scott just once on Twitter. I shared one of his strips in response to a tweet he made. My intent was tongue-in-cheek and very inline with the themes of his work, but he reacted very aggressively and then blocked me. It was a bit of a crushing moment because inside my head I was thinking, "I know and love this guy's work. Surely if I just engage him at his level without being a jackass, we can a…

As John Scalzi once said, "The failure mode of clever is asshole." [1] That has prevented me from posting what I thought was a clever or cheeky response in case it didn't come across the way I wanted. --- [1] https://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/06/16/the-failure-state-of-...

I love that guy. Never having been an avid reader, I’m trying to read more, and my mission now is to read through most of his books.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#874

Post by maxlybbert »

ks2048 wrote: post #453
jpadkins wrote: post #404

I am glad he came to Jesus before the end.

Can't tell if this is sarcasm. This was his statement (he says "I'm not a believer"), Next, many of my Christian friends have asked me to find Jesus before I go. I'm not a believer, but I have to admit the risk-reward calculation for doing so looks attractive. So, here I go: I accept Jesus Christ as my lord and savior, and I look forward to spending an eternity with him. The part about me not being a believer should…

I'm positive he was trolling.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#875

Post by raincole »

nemomarx wrote: post #380
georgeburdell wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adams had a normal range of beliefs. Postulating that they arose from some extrinsic and extra-personal source is a condemnation of your own limited views. People get older and begin to care less about conformity, including keeping controversial thoughts to themselves, as society loosens its reins as your needs are met (to make money, to find a partner, to have a family, etc.)

The law of attraction / master persuader/ I can hypnotize large audiences stuff isn't that normal, I think? If you want an explanation for why he would try ivermectin for cancer treatment he had a lot of beliefs in that vein for a long time. I consider that tragic for him.

> The law of attraction

The Secret has sold 30 million copies.

And at the end of the day, it's prayer. 'Prayer helps, somehow' is a very common worldview.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#876

Post by raincole »

addaon wrote: post #445
twalla wrote: post #319

"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…

> 2. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things. Is this idea that top 25% is "very good" at something innumeracy, or a subtle insight I'm missing? There's got to be a million skills that you could assess rank at -- writing embedded C code, playing basketball, identifying flora, PacMan, archery, bouldering… I can't imagine ever being able to not continue this list -- and you should expect to be in the top 25% o…

It's (obviously) a random number pulled out from someone's ass. However, I think top 25% isn't that off. It means top 25% of people who actually tried.

If it still sounds easy, try to reach top 25% rank of a video game that you are not familiar with (diamond in Starcraft II or whatever). You'll find it's literally the workload of a full-time job.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#877

Post by gyomu »

didgetmaster wrote: post #748

Once upon a time, you could enjoy the works of a creative person at face value; mainly because you didn't know much of anything about their personal life. That seems to have all changed in this age of the Internet; where every aspect of your life is exposed for all the world to judge (at least if you are famous). All your words (written or spoken) are presented as proof positive that you and your works are not to be…

> Once upon a time, you could enjoy the works of a creative person at face value; mainly because you didn't know much of anything about their personal life.

This is a strawman and absolutely not backed by historical evidence.

Look into the lives of Caravaggio, Milton, Voltaire, Wilde, Verlaine, Goya, Balzac, Courbet, Rimbaud, Schubert, Manet, Wagner, Dickens, Zola, Tolstoy... and see how their personal lives and/or political views/positions negatively affected their standing despite the huge recognition their creative work had.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#878

Post by not_a_bot_4sho »

bawolff wrote: post #691
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…

Humans have a lot of trouble with realizing people aren't binary. People hate the idea that bad people can do good things.

My favorite (or perhaps most regrettable) example of this is Albert Einstein.

Obviously brilliant, but a real piece of shit when it came to women and fatherhood.

Still, I can appreciate his scientific work nonetheless.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#879

Post by The_President »

hearsathought wrote: post #529

Why does every other comment apologize for adams' political views? It's like a bunch of people were conditioned or brainwashed into reflexibly regurgitation nonsense.

Brainwashed, you say…

All you need is

A cup or a mug or a glass

A tankard chalace or stein

A cantine jug or flask

A vessel of any kind

Fill it with your favorite liquid, I like coffee

And join me now for the unparalled pleasure

The dopamine hit if the day

The thing that makes everything better

Its called the similtaneous sip

And it happens now

Re: Scott Adams has died

#880

Post by charlescearl »

mikkupikku wrote: post #622
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.

The famine stuff I could write off as honest mistakes by a misguided but well meaning leader. Mao's role in kicking off the Cultural Revolution as part of his internal power struggle with the CCP can hardly be excused the same way, it was profoundly evil. The CCP today can recognize some of the faults with Mao, and even acknowledge that the Cultural Revolution was a disaster, but shy away from acknowledging Mao's cau…

“Thus, the Communist and Cultural Revolutions represent some of the most radical attempts in human history to eliminate the advantages of the elite, and to eradicate inequality in wealth and formal education.”

http://davidyyang.com/pdfs/revolutions_draft.pdf

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