Scott Adams

Scott Adams
Born (1957-06-08) June 8, 1957
Windham, New York, U.S.
Nationality American
Area(s) Cartoonist, writer
Notable works
 Dilbert

Scott Adams (born June 8, 1957) is the creator of the Dilbert comic strip and the author of several nonfiction works of satire, commentary, and business.

His Dilbert series came to national prominence through the downsizing period in 1990s America and was then distributed worldwide. Adams worked in various roles at big businesses before he became a full-time cartoonist in 1995. He writes in a satirical, often sarcastic, way about the social and psychological landscape of white-collar workers in modern business corporations.

Early life

Scott Raymond Adams was born in 1957 in Windham, New York, the son of Paul and Virginia (née Vining) Adams.[1][2] He is of half-German descent,[3] and he also has English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Dutch, and "a small amount" of American Indian ancestry.[4][5][6]

He was a fan of the Peanuts comics while growing up, and he started drawing his own comics at age six.[7] He won a drawing competition at age 11.[7]

Adams graduated valedictorian from Windham-Ashland-Jewett Central School in 1975 in a class of 39. He remained in the area and received a BA in economics from Hartwick College in 1979.[8] He moved to California a few months after his graduation.[7]

Career

Office worker

Adams worked closely with telecommunications engineers at Crocker National Bank in San Francisco between 1979 and 1986. Upon joining the organization, he entered a management training program after being held at gunpoint twice in four months as a teller.[7] Over the years, his positions included management trainee, computer programmer, budget analyst, commercial lender, product manager, and supervisor.[7] He earned an MBA in economics and management from the University of California, Berkeley in 1986.[9]

Adams created Dilbert during this period; the name came from ex-boss Mike Goodwin. Dogbert, originally named Dildog, was loosely based on his family's deceased pet beagle Lucy.[7] Submissions to various publications of both Dilbert and non-Dilbert comic panels failed to win publication. These included The New Yorker and Playboy. However, an inspirational letter from a fan persuaded Adams to keep trying.[7]

He worked at Pacific Bell between 1986 and June 1995; the personalities he encountered there became the inspiration for many of his Dilbert characters.[10] Adams first published Dilbert with United Media in 1989, while still employed at Pacific Bell. He had to draw his cartoons at 4 a.m. in order to work a full day at the company. His first paycheck for Dilbert was a monthly royalty check of $368.62.[7] Gradually, Dilbert became more popular, and was published by 100 newspapers in 1991 and 400 by 1994. Adams attributes his success to his idea of including his e-mail address in the panels, thus facilitating feedback from readers.[7]

Full-time cartoonist

Adams's success grew, and he became a full-time cartoonist with Dilbert in 800 newspapers. In 1996, The Dilbert Principle was released, his first business book.[7]

Logitech CEO Pierluigi Zappacosta invited Adams to impersonate a management consultant, which he did wearing a wig and false mustache. He tricked Logitech managers into adopting a mission statement that Adams described as "so impossibly complicated that it has no real content whatsoever".[11] That year, he won the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year and Best Newspaper Comic Strip of 1997, the most prestigious awards in the field.[7]

In 1998, Dilbert began as a TV series, but was canceled in 2000. By 2000, the comic was in 2,000 newspapers in 57 countries and 19 languages.[7]

Finally, I got the call. "You're number one." I still haven't popped the champagne. I just raise the bar for what would be the right moment, and tell myself how tasty it will be if I ever accomplish something special in my work. Apparently the thing inside me that makes me work so hard is the same thing that keeps me unsatisfied.[12]

Adams was a fan of the science fiction TV series Babylon 5, and he appeared in the season 4 episode "Moments of Transition" as a character named "Mr. Adams" who hires former head of security Michael Garibaldi to locate his megalomaniacal dog and cat.[13] He also had a cameo in "Review", a third-season episode of the TV series NewsRadio, in which Matthew Brock (played by Andy Dick) becomes an obsessed Dilbert fan. Adams is credited as "Guy in line behind Dave and Joe in first scene".[14]

Adams is the CEO of Scott Adams Foods, Inc., makers of the Dilberito and Protein Chef, and a co-owner of Stacey's Café in Pleasanton, California.[15]

Personal life

Adams is a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences and a former member of Mensa.[16]

In recent years, Adams has had two notable health problems. Since late 2004, he has suffered from a reemergence of focal dystonia, which has affected his ability to draw for lengthy periods on paper,[17] though it causes no real problem now that he draws the comic on a graphics tablet. He also suffered from spasmodic dysphonia, a condition that causes the vocal cords to behave in an abnormal manner. He recovered from this condition temporarily, but in July 2008 underwent surgery to reroute the nerve connections to his vocal cords.[18] The operation was successful, and Adams' voice is now completely functional.[19]

Adams is a vegetarian and trained as a hypnotist.[20] He credits his own success to affirmations, including Dilbert's success and achieving a ninety-fourth percentile on a difficult qualification exam for business school, among other unlikely events. He states that the affirmations give him focus.[21] He has described a method which he has used that he says gave him success. He pictured in his mind what he wanted, and wrote it down 15 times a day on a piece of paper.[22]

In addition to his cartoon work, he has written two books on religion, God's Debris (2001), and The Religion War (2004). God's Debris lays out a theory of Pandeism, in which God blows itself up to see what will happen, which becomes the cause of our universe.[23]

Adams married Shelly Miles in 2006. She has two children named Savannah and Justin Miles. In a February 2014 blog posting he revealed that he is no longer married.[24] Kristina Basham, a model and baker, is Adams' girlfriend with whom he lives. She has two daughters, and is vice president of WhenHub.[25]

Adams has often commented on political matters. Despite this, in 2016 he wrote on his blog "I don't vote and I am not a member of a political party."[26] In 2007, he suggested that Michael Bloomberg would make a good presidential candidate.[27]

Before the 2008 presidential election he said, "On social issues, I lean Libertarian, minus the crazy stuff",[28] but said in December 2011 that, if he were president, he would do whatever Bill Clinton advised him to do because that "would lead to policies that are a sensible middle ground".[29] In a blog post from September 2017, Adams considers himself to be "left of Bernie [Sanders], but with a preference for plans that can work."[30]

On October 17, 2012, he wrote "while I don't agree with Romney's positions on most topics, I'm endorsing him for president".[31]

2016 United States presidential election

In 2015, although Adams stated that he would not endorse a candidate for the 2016 elections, he repeatedly praised Donald Trump's persuasion skills, especially on his blog,[32][33] extensively detailing what he called Trump's "talent stack".[34] (Adams' talent stack actually refers not to talent, but rather to skill; moreover, the talents/skills are not ordered, and so they are not a stack, but rather a set: thus, a talent stack is actually what is commonly known as a skill set.)

Adams correctly predicted Trump would win the Republican nomination and the general election;[35] in the 2016 election campaign's final weeks, except for a temporary reversal in early October, Adams repeatedly said Trump would win.[36][37][38][39]

Adams has shared on his blog and elsewhere that men may feel emasculated by the nomination of a female candidate for president. Of the 2016 Democratic National Convention, he said the following: "If you're an undecided voter, and male, you're seeing something different. You're seeing a celebration that your role in society is permanently diminished. And it's happening in an impressive venue that was, in all likelihood, designed and built mostly by men."[40]

Adams said that he temporarily endorsed Hillary Clinton purely out of fear for his own life, stating he had received direct and indirect death threats.[41] In late September, however, Adams officially switched his endorsement from Clinton to Trump. Among his primary reasons for the switch were his respect for Trump's persuasion skills over Clinton's, Clinton's proposal to raise the inheritance tax to 65%, and his concerns over Clinton's health.[42] Adams states that writing about Donald Trump ended his speaking career and reduced his income by about 40%.[41]

The day after the election, Adams turned his predictive acumen to how Trump's demeanor and performance would win over skeptics:

Clinton’s team of cognitive scientists and professional persuaders did a terrific job of framing Trump as scary. The illusion will wear off – albeit slowly – as you observe Trump going about the job of President and taking it seriously. You can expect him to adjust his tone and language going forward. You can expect foreign leaders to say they can work with him. You can expect him to focus on unifying an exhausted and nervous country. And you can expect him to succeed in doing so. (He’s persuasive.) Watch as Trump turns to healing. You’re going to be surprised how well he does it.[43]

Publications

Dilbert compilations

Special compilations (annotated, favorites, etc.)

Other Dilbert books

  • Telling It Like It Isn't (1996)
  • You Don't Need Experience If You've Got Attitude (1996)
  • Access Denied: Dilbert's Quest for Love in the Nineties (1996)
  • Conversations With Dogbert (1996)
  • Work is a Contact Sport (1997)
  • The Boss: Nameless, Blameless and Shameless (1997)
  • The Dilbert Bunch (1997)
  • No You'd Better Watch Out (1997)
  • Please Don't Feed The Egos (1997)
  • Random Acts of Catness (1998)
  • You Can't Schedule Stupidity (1998)
  • Dilbert Meeting Book Exceeding Tech Limits (1998)
  • Trapped In A Dilbert World: Book Of Days (1998)
  • Work—The Wally Way (1999)
  • Alice in Blunderland (1999)
  • Dilbert Sudoku Comic Digest: 200 Puzzles Plus 50 Classic Dilbert Cartoons (2008)

Non-Dilbert publications

Awards

Adams has received recognition for his work, including the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award and Newspaper Comic Strip Award for 1997 for his work on Dilbert. He had also been climbing the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) rankings of the 50 most influential management thinkers placing 31st in 2001,[44] 27th in 2003,[45] and 12th in 2005,[46] but fell to 21st in 2007.[47] He did not place in 2009.[48]

He received the NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language for his participation in "Mission Impertinent" (San Jose Mercury News West Magazine, November 16, 1997).

Coined phrases

Adams has coined or popularized several words and phrases over the years, such as:

References

  1. ↑ "Virginia Adams obituary". Ancestry. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
  2. ↑ Adams, Scott (1999). El Futuro de Dilbert: Como Prosperar en el Siglo XXI Gracias a la Esupidez [Dilbert's future: how to prosper in the XXI Century thanks to stupidity] (in Spanish). Ediciones Granica. p. 5. ISBN 978-84-7577615-6. Retrieved July 21, 2016.
  3. ↑ Adams, Scott. "Let's Talk About Hitler". Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  4. ↑ Adams, Scott. "Immigration". Retrieved November 28, 2016.
  5. ↑ Adams, Scott. "I'm part Native American". Twitter. Retrieved November 28, 2016.
  6. ↑ Adams, Scott. "Joe Rogan Experience No. 874". You tube. Google. Retrieved November 28, 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Adams, Scott (2008). Dilbert 2.0: 20 years of Dilbert. Jamaica City: Andrews McMeel. ISBN 0-7407-7735-1.
  8. ↑ "About Scott Adams". Dilbert. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
  9. ↑ "Scott Adams MBA 86". Haas School of Business. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
  10. ↑ Spicer, André (November 23, 2017). "From inboxing to thought showers: how business bullshit took over". The Guardian.
  11. ↑ O'Brien, Tia (November 16, 1997). "Mission: Impertinent". San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on August 17, 2000. Retrieved April 14, 2014.
  12. ↑ "The Dilbert Blog". Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  13. ↑ Moments of Transition on IMDb
  14. ↑ Review on IMDb
  15. ↑ "About Us". eatatstaceys.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
  16. ↑ Adams, Scott (September 29, 2008). "Famous People Lists". Dilbert Blog. Retrieved June 12, 2010.
  17. ↑ Sordyl, Samantha (May 10, 2005). "Scott Adams, Drawing the Line". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 28, 2008.
  18. ↑ Zachary Kanin (October 29, 2008). "An Interview with the "Dilbert" Cartoonist Scott Adams". The New Yorker. Retrieved October 29, 2008.
  19. ↑ "'Dilbert' creator recovers from rare disorder". MSNBC. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
  20. ↑ Mentioned in Dilbert: A Treasury of Sunday Strips
  21. ↑ Mentioned in The Dilbert Future
  22. ↑ Robert Frank. "Can You Get Rich by Visualizing Yourself Rich?". The Wall Street Journal.
  23. ↑ Knujon Mapson, "A Brief History of Pandeism," Pandeism: An Anthology (2017), p. 31-32.
  24. ↑ Scott Adams (February 18, 2014). "What's the Goal with Robots Read News?". The Scott Adams Blog. Archived from the original on February 24, 2014. Retrieved February 18, 2014.
  25. ↑ Winter, Caroline (March 22, 2017). "How Donald Trump Hypnotized Scott Adams". Bloomberg L.P. Archived from the original on March 26, 2017.
  26. ↑ Scott Adams (March 24, 2016). "Who's Afraid of Donald Trump?". Scott Adams' Blog. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  27. ↑ Scott Adams (May 16, 2007). "Bloomberg for President?". The Dilbert Blog. Archived from the original on May 19, 2007. Retrieved February 14, 2011.
  28. ↑ "Commentary: Dilbert guy's economic poll on McCain, Obama — CNN". CNN. September 16, 2008. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  29. ↑ Scott Adams (December 5, 2011). "The Persuasive Candidate". The Dilbert Blog. Archived from the original on January 8, 2012. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
  30. ↑ "How a Silicon Valley Investor Does Leadership". Scott Adams' Blog. September 21, 2017. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  31. ↑ Scott Adams (October 17, 2012). "Firing Offense". The Dilbert Blog. Archived from the original on October 18, 2012. Retrieved January 10, 2018.
  32. ↑ "The Trump Master Persuader Index and Reading List".
  33. ↑ "Dilbert Creator Scott Adams on Donald Trump's "Linguistic Kill Shots"".
  34. ↑ "The Trump Talent Stack". blog.dilbert.com.
  35. ↑ Suebsaeng, Asawin (September 14, 2015). "'Dilbert' Creator on How Trump Is Like The Founding Fathers & Jesus". The Daily Beast.
  36. ↑ "The era of women". Scott Adams' Blog. October 13, 2016.
  37. ↑ "The bully party". Scott Adams' Blog. October 25, 2016. Today I put Trump's odds of winning in a landslide back to 98%.
  38. ↑ "The persuasion scorecard". Scott Adams' Blog. November 2, 2016. I predict Trump wins in a landslide
  39. ↑ "I don't want a government job". Scott Adams' Blog. November 6, 2016. On election day, should Trump win as I predict, I ask for Trump supporters to stay cool when the predictable riots erupt.
  40. ↑ "Selling Past the Close – Scott Adams' Blog". Retrieved September 13, 2016.
  41. 1 2 "When Persuasion Turns Deadly".
  42. ↑ "Why I Switched My Endorsement from Clinton to Trump". Scott Adams' Blog. September 25, 2016. Retrieved September 25, 2016.
  43. ↑ "The Dilbert Blog". Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  44. ↑ "2001 Results". The Thinkers 50. Archived from the original on July 25, 2011. Retrieved November 19, 2009.
  45. ↑ "2003 Results". The Thinkers 50. Archived from the original on July 25, 2011. Retrieved November 19, 2009.
  46. ↑ "2005 Results". The Thinkers 50. Archived from the original on July 25, 2011. Retrieved November 19, 2009.
  47. ↑ "2007Results". The Thinkers 50. Archived from the original on July 25, 2011. Retrieved November 19, 2009.
  48. ↑ "2009 Results". The Thinkers 50. Archived from the original on July 25, 2011. Retrieved November 19, 2009.
  49. ↑ "Fact Checking: Adams Law of Slow-Moving Disasters - Dilbert Blog". April 15, 2013.
  50. ↑ Philosotainment, The Dilbert Blog, February 2007.
  • Official website
  • Scott Adams Says at Periscope
  • Scott Adams on Charlie Rose
  • "Review". NewsRadio (S3E2 ed.). September 25, 1996. featuring Scott Adams
  • Works by or about Scott Adams in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
  • Adams, Scott (February 2006). "Answers to Your Questions". Dilbert blog. Archived from the original on February 21, 2006.
  • PR efforts for the October 2013 release of How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big
    • Rosen, Gary (October 12, 2013). "Scott Adams' Secret of Success: Failure" (video). Saturday Essay. Adam's essay and a video interview with Rosen
    • Adams, Scott (October 23, 2013). "I created Dilbert. Ask Me Anything". Reddit AMA. Reddit.
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