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Scott Adams has died

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Re: Scott Adams has died

#881

Post by PlanksVariable »

rsynnott wrote: post #591
CGMthrowaway wrote: post #573

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How or why Scott Adams went completely of the rails is perhaps something we'll sadly never understand He explains it himself, if you are open to primary source material.

A crazy person's account of how they went crazy should not generally be considered reliable.

I started paying attention to him when he got sick. He seemed very reasonable about most things, and extremely insightful about many things. I certainly don’t think he deserved the posthumous label “crazy person.”

Re: Scott Adams has died

#882

Post by PlanksVariable »

CrimsonCape wrote: post #485
mrweasel wrote: post #182

I loved Dilbert, having worked for more than one Dilbert-like company the humor frequently resonated with me. How or why Scott Adams went completely of the rails is perhaps something we'll sadly never understand. Was this opinions he'd always had, but suppressed, did he somehow become radicalized or was it perhaps medically induced, e.g. a stroke or something. It was incredibly sad to see him throw away his life's wo…

If I understand you correctly, you are considering Adams to be "off the rails" crazy and therefore you are condemning him, for having opinions?

No, no. It’s more nuanced than that. They were opinions that were different from my own.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#883

Post by 46493168 »

Scott had prostate cancer, probably for a few years since by the time he publicly announced having it (May 2025) there were signs of the cancer spread to his hip and lower vertebrae. Rather than treating it immediately with surgery, drugs, or traditional cancer therapy, he took ivermectin and other de-worming medication. He was begging RFK jr / trump to grant him access to an "experimental" cancer treatment in November. After being paralyzed and starting radiation therapy because the cancer had spread into his spine. The man's life is a prime example of how modern conservatism will rot your brain. Prostate cancer is one of the most survivable cancers in adults (especially men over the age of 60), and he died painfully over the course of years because he believed in grifters over doctors.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#884

Post by antod »

wtcactus wrote: post #651
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…

I don’t know Scott’s theory, but gravity as a force indeed doesn’t exist. That’s a classical physics concept. For the last century, the accepted theory is that gravity is indeed not a force but a manifestation of the space-time curvature. That’s one of the main points of general relativity.

My physics is very rusty and very basic, but I don't think classical physics said gravity was a force either. eg in Newton's 2nd law or engineering mechanics, gravity is the "a" or the "g" not the "F".

Re: Scott Adams has died

#885

Post by brigandish »

There's something very revealing about the need to caveat an expression of admiration for someone's work with "of course, he was a terrible man", and it's not revealing about the man in question.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#886

Post by brigandish »

techblueberry wrote: post #820
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.

I know three things about Scott Adams. He wrote comics, he wrote management books, he was passionate about his politics. He clearly very much wanted his politics to be part of his public persona, why is it wrong to make it part of the three things one eulogizes about him?

Because they're not eulogising him through his politics or eulogising his politics, and they're not really talking about him when they do it.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#887

Post by LeoPanthera »

DamnInteresting wrote: post #217

Scott Adams did me a considerable and unsolicited kindness almost 20 years ago, back in 2007. One day my site traffic logs showed an unexpected uptick in traffic, and recent referrals overwhelmingly pointed to his blog. Of course I recognized him from Dilbert fame, both the comic strip and The Dilbert Principle . I sent him a thank you email for the link, and he replied graciously. This began a conversation where he…

The Wayback Machine is an international treasure.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#888

Post by unwise-exe »

ActorNightly wrote: post #563
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.)

>Adams had a normal range of beliefs. Manifesting things into reality through writing them often enough is FAR from a normal belief. Dude was a bit looney from the get go

>>> Manifesting things into reality through writing them often enough is FAR from a normal belief.

Hey, propaganda is a thing and it works. That's totally and example of manifesting things into reality through writing them often enough.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#889

Post by mannanj »

cosmicgadget wrote: post #635
mannanj wrote: post #558

I loved this guy. His writing and book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big particularly impacted me early and exposed me to First Principles, biases, and in particular not giving a f*k about what people care so much. he was one of those people who was attacked during COVID and labeled and propagandized against as a scapegoat for the failings of our unaccountable leadership - the cancel culture was unfa…

Weird, he was a huge fan of that unaccountable leadership.

There's more unaccountable leadership than just the side you follow.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#890

Post by GiorgioG »

maxlin wrote: post #788
dennis_jeeves2 wrote: post #611

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's like a bunch of people were conditioned or brainwashed into reflexibly regurgitation nonsense. Has happened on a grander scale in the past in China, Germany, Russian and others. This is hardly anything.

How is one supposed to just accept this as part and parcel in the free world itself.

Humanity is imperfect/flawed…that’s how.
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