Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Scott Adams has died

youtube.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

921–930 of 1001 posts

Re: Scott Adams has died

#921

Post by lyu07282 »

rhgraysonii wrote: post #827

The creator of Dilbert, a comic strip about a man who hates his job, written by a man who hated everyone, has died. Hacker News convenes an emergency session of its Philosophy Department to determine the optimal framework for grieving a racist cartoonist.

The philosophy department of our post-political/ly illiterate community seem to mostly boil down to the question if his vile opinions and speech should matter, failing to comprehend the associated real world consequences of this bigotry. Particularly ironic considering he died of an illness he refused to be treated for due to his anti-scientific bogus medical beliefs, presently mirrored by the person in charge of health care in the fascist US government.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#922

Post by kristianp »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #143

I disagreed with him politically, especially during the last few years, but I'm very appreciative of Dilbert and in particular the Dilbert cartoon. The Knack is one of those clips that I keep coming back to and sharing with friends whenever someone shows signs.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=g8vHhgh6oM0

Re: Scott Adams has died

#923

Post by listenallyall »

mzl wrote: post #917
listenallyall wrote: post #903

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Asking someone to give a sharp dividing line in a multi-dimensional bimodal but not discontinuous distribution is just nonsense. In particular, being unable to give that strict difference (that does not exist) is not proof of not believing that the general bimodal groups exist, nor acknowledging that existence, nor saying that there is not general differences between the groups. It is not the gotcha that elementary s…

And you're essentially demonstrating my point. Your long, complicated, meaningless comment here - which boils down to sex being impossible to define - is now widely accepted (and is the basis of a Supreme Court case), while someone like Scott Adams who would claim that chromosomes or sex organs (at birth) are indeed sufficient in defining one's sex, is perceived to be "off the rails". It's absurd.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#924

Post by conradfr »

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.

AFAIK he tried it in addition to regular treatment but I could be wrong.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#925

Post by andyjohnson0 »

_carbyau_ wrote: post #775
stetrain wrote: post #522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s interesting how many responses to this comment seem to have interpreted it fairly differently to my own reading. There are many responding about “ignoring racism,” “whitewashing,” or the importance of calling out bigotry. I’m not sure how that follows from a comment that literally calls out the racism and describes it as “unambiguous.” Striving to “avoid the ugliness” in your own life does not mean ignor…

Ironically, a whole bunch of people have spent their formative years in a cancel-culture world and this now shapes their actions. But at an art gallery, Picasso is near worshipped despite his torrid misogyny and abuse in his personal life which was terrible even by the standards of his day. The views on his art were formed at a time before cancel-culture was a thing. Realising: - everyone has performed good and bad a…

I generally agree with your post, but:

> But at an art gallery, Picasso is near worshipped despite his torrid misogyny and abuse in his personal life which was terrible even by the standards of his day.

Picasso's work is the thing that is generally venerated, not so much the (rather loathsome) man himself. Similarly for Eric Gill, who produced great artistic work despite being an truly awful human being.

Scott Adams seems to have confined himself to merely expressing prejudiced views, amplified somewhat by his modest fame. But then his creative work doesn't in any way match Picasso's or Gill's either.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#926

Post by NedF »

rsynnott wrote: post #249
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…

I read one of his books once, written in the 90s or so. It included the idea that affirmations could literally change reality ("law of attraction"), and an _alternative theory of gravity_. At the time, I thought that these were probably attempts at jokes that didn't land very well, but... Once you believe one thing which is totally outside the pale, it is often very easy to start believing others.

[dead]

Re: Scott Adams has died

#927

Post by tomaytotomato »

RIP Scott Adams

I recently purchased his 2026 calendar for a family member who works in the consultancy world, they really enjoy it.

Starting my dev career in a big corporate telecom I used to attach Dilbert strips to the end of my presentations, sometimes people would laugh, others, normally execs didn't get the irony or commentary.

Then when I went to more modern and cool startups the same Dilbert comic strips still apply which I found hilarious.

A lot of our influences or heroes have faults and I hope we can all put them to rest and just remember Scott's great achievements with Dilbert and his many books on Management or Psychology.

I will just leave this scene from the Dilbert TV show, that describes the engineering curse:

"The Knack" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8vHhgh6oM0

Re: Scott Adams has died

#928

Post by kamens »

_zagj wrote: post #912
kamens wrote: post #402

The minimum recognition Scott Adams deserves should be having updated the world model of those who read his blog. It is hard to remember how thoroughly Trump's presidential run was seen as a joke in 2015. I bet most people can't remember and somehow think they always knew Trump stood a real chance. That is likely a lie. Scott made specific, reasoned, unique arguments about why Trump would win, with high conviction. T…

There's a saying in investing that a lot of analysts get famous for being right "once in a row."

Same question to you: did you read his blog and arguments in detail?

Re: Scott Adams has died

#929

Post by Mashimo »

lisper wrote: post #625
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 racism and the provocations were always there Were they? Can you cite an example? Because I also grew up with Dilbert, and I was never aware of it.

If you want to dig down deeper into his past, you can listen to a 2 part episode of "Behind the Bastards" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nyEkHqP65c

Re: Scott Adams has died

#930

Post by Mashimo »

sanity wrote: post #671
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…

> 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 work and go down a path most of us at least hadn't foreseen and die having alienated his fans. He has plenty o…

What is having fans and going of the rails have to do with each other?
Post reply on HN