RIP Scott Adams

Scott Adams is dead. I’ll miss him. Much of the time he annoyed the hell out of me, but that was part of the fun. Even (particularly?) when he grated on me, it was thoughtful and I always appreciated it.

Half the time, Scott Adams pissed me off, but the other half was so insightful I was glad to have him. I believe he earnestly believed what he was saying and (unlike most happy believers) he was no dummy. Anyone who thinks deeply about anything should be treasured. It was worth wading through Scott’s ego because that was the price of getting to the good stuff.

His was the only podcast I’ve habitually listened to. He was smart as a whip and always interesting. He claimed to be a master persuader. Indeed sometimes I’d be persuaded by his ideas. “Yeah, that’s pretty spot on. I’ll have to revise my earlier conclusions.” Other times he’d venture into topics about which he knew little (at least compared to me) or he was just way off in “nerdland”. Those times it sounded like an eight year old discussing what adults did at work. (Listening to him talk about farming or food production was painful!)

Even when I was thinking “what fresh hell is that goofy egghead up to today?” I listened carefully. He might have cogent logic to sway me to his point of view. There is no higher praise.

If you meet someone and five minutes into it you know how they’ll frame every topic, there’s no point in engaging deeply with them. Adams was not that. Also, the dude burrowed into my brain enough that I used “framing” in a sentence. Well played Mr. Adams!

Like everyone, I enjoyed Dilbert. I once bought a Dilbert book in Portuguese translation (I can’t read Portuguese). I was amused that Dilbert was universal. Scott got cancelled, as many deep thinkers did. By now I distrust any public figure that didn’t get cancelled.

Like many, I started listening to Scott during the height of the COVID madness and kept on from there. Back then Scott planted his flag on “VAX!” . He diligently explained why I should agree with him. I listened, knowing my life would be better if I just agreed. But I couldn’t. He himself had provided the “two movies on one screen” concept which seemed to apply.

The dude was risk averse in a way I could never imagine for myself. He was locked in his house fretting over a pathogen while I rambled about on my dirtbike. He talked about his wife, a hot flight instructor and would be neurologist. She was doing aerobatics while he was too scared to travel. I thought “she’s gonna’ dump you”; and she did. He’s a millionaire and a genius. He could have done more than hid. He could have worked out logistics to get to her even in a zombie apocalypse. But that’s not how he rolled. Instead he did a podcast. Two movies in the same screen.

I bitch when cars have automatic transmission. He raved over the future of self driving cars. Intelligence does not mean “alike”.

We both saw the stats, he got the vax, I didn’t. Later he decided the vax was ineffective and possibly harmful. Nothing wrong with changing your mind. Yet he went with the “even if I was wrong, nobody that made a rational decision could have come to the opposite conclusion”. I imagined Vox Day dipping into his inkwell and writing “gamma” on Adam’s forehead. (Vox is another genius that got cancelled. He too is well worth wading through massive ego to glean knowledge.)

I’ll note that Adams embraced more humility as mortality loomed. In fact, he handled the ultimate challenge like an absolute boss. Well done sir.

I’m going to miss Scott. Not just when I see people doing stupid things en masse and my mind dredges up Scott’s ramblings about hypnosis. I’ll also miss him when I see smart people coming to their own conclusion; however unpopular. Society is weaker without his cheery yet thoughtful prognostications.