Scott Adams

Scott Adams, the man most known for his Dilbert comic, died this morning.  I first became aware of Adams when Dilbert appeared in the comic section.  Of course, I didn't much like Dilbert.  I preferred The Far Side and Calvin & Hobbes.  More than 20 years later, I encountered his blog.  He had taken up political writing, which fell right into my field of interests.  Though I often disagreed with his views on subjects, he was quite engaging and often came at topics from an interesting angle.  He would often preface his opinions by saying "I'm a trained hypnotist."  To him, persuasion was the most important thing, while being right or wrong was often secondary.  Not that it wasn't important to be right, but an unpersuasive right will lose every time to a persuasive wrong.  This was keen observation, especially when facts are weak persuasion compared to emotion.

During the 2016 campaign, Scott became a key source for me.  His analysis frequently annoyed me, but all too often proved more accurate than I expected.  He and I were looking at things differently, but his views tracked better.  So I bought his book, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big.  Then I bought God's Debris.  Loserthink and Reframe Your Brain also joined my library.  He switched from blogging to streaming.  I watched his stream and was a paying member of his Locals channel for a while.  Though clearly a fan, I still couldn't get into Dilbert.  But that's okay.  He was so much more than the Dilbert guy.

RIP