Scott Adams, author of the Dilbert comic strip and a number of thought provoking books, passed away today after a long struggle with cancer. This post has some observations on his books and essays
Scott Adams 1957 – 2026
Scott Adams was a keen observer of workplace culture, sharing humorous insights about life in cubicle land with the launch of his Dilbert comic strip in 1989. I was sorry to read a Jan-13-2026 8:40am tweet that began “If you are reading this things did not go well for me.” It had been drafted by Adams on Jan-1-2026.
It was not unexpected, he had been tweeting and broadcasting his “Coffee with Scott Adams” podcast from a hospital bed since a 7:34 AM Dec 12, 2025 with a tweet that read in part
My medical update: I’m still in Kaiser hospital. Day 2. I lost all ability to control my lower body yesterday. I don’t know if this is permanent or if it is growing. Legs have feeling and reflex but I have no control over them except the slightest toe wiggle. This is mostly from worsened since yesterday, but the leg numbing condition started over a month ago. […]
I did MRI and CT scans and blood tests but have heard no diagnosis. Nor do I know when I will hear results or from whom. I only know I need one more MRI because the lower back one revealed no obvious cause. I am now in a palliative care program, which gives me a single contact nurse to help coordinate this confusion. That looks promising. Will see if that can help today. […] My pain is well controlled.
Lots of details left out but those are the big points. Expecting the next MRI this morning but no one who is awake can confirm.
Scott
There were more than 7700 replies. Mine was:
Scott if you are in palliative care and not in pain that’s the best you can hope for.
You should focus on reconnecting with old friends, reflecting on your life, and capturing final thoughts or insights for posterity.
I wish you well, you have made a difference in my life.
I did not think I would be writing obituary posts when I started blogging in 2006 but life happens and so this is my effort to document the influence Scott Adams had on my writing and thinking. Probably the blog post that had the most impact on me was his “Holiday Story” from 2003
Holiday Story (2003)
by Scott Adams from Dilbert Newsletter 52.0 (Wed, 10 Dec 2003)
In the tradition of the Dilbert Newsletter, here is my special holiday story — the only non-cynical thing I write all year.
Recent True Story:
Midnight, Danville California, heart pounding, sound of sneakers on pavement, sockless, sweating, adrenaline pumping. Two minutes ago I was climbing into bed. Now I’m running down a pitch-black street, full speed, fearing the worst.
Neighbor’s sidewalk, dark, don’t trip. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. Doorbell too. DING-DONG-DING. C’mon, c’mon, wake up! There he is. Open the door. I blurt:
“THE HILL BEHIND YOUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE. I ALREADY CALLED 911!”
Two houses alerted. The next one is the hardest. It’s around the corner, nearest the blaze. Full sprint. Hope the fire hasn’t reached them yet. No sirens. How long has it been since I called 911? Damn moonless night. I can’t see anything but the fire, now only a patch of dry grass from the house. No lights. The occupants are oblivious, probably in bed. Front walkway is an obstacle course. Jump, guess, steps maybe. Got lucky, no sprains.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.
“THE HILL BEHIND YOUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE. I ALREADY CALLED 911!”
He’s fast with the garden hose. Does that ever work? One more house, then I’ll load the car for evacuation. Legs pump harder, pick it up a notch, sprint now, rest later, make a mental list of what to take, what to leave. Cats first, then unfinished Dilbert strips and art supplies. Computers. Photos. How much can the car hold?
The firemen have my address. Have to meet them out front. Gotta hurry, but save some energy for the evacuation. Nah, forget saving energy. Full throttle. Adrenalin will compensate. Siren approaching. They’re fast, maybe 5 minutes since I called. I wave my arms and point to the side street. The fire truck slows a beat, reads me and accelerates toward the fire.
One truck. ONE TRUCK???? The whole hill is on fire. I should have sounded more worried on the phone. It’s my fault if the neighborhood burns up. Okay, the arsonist’s too.
I fly up my stairs, three at a time. Quickly, survey belongings. Might not see any of this again. Pam already put two angry cats in the car; her arms are bleeding. I throw possessions in empty bins. Look out the window. I could hit the flames with a golf ball. Nothing but dry underbrush separates us. Stay calm. There’s still some room in the car. Think, think. What will I miss most? What am I forgetting?
The car is only half full. It’s surprising how little I “need” when it comes down to it. I sprint toward the fire to see who’s winning. A second fire truck passes me. Now it’s a fair fight.
The neighbors gather on the street, a ragtag theater of bed- hair, pajamas, and gym clothes, chatting, comparing stories. We watch, impressed, as the two fire crews beat down the fire one square foot at a time. They don’t even seem worried. A dozen dark shapes on the hill make quick work of the perimeter and methodically mop up the smaller pockets. My pulse slowly returns to normal. I unload the car and apologize to the cats.
I often think about that fire, and about the many ghosts that visited the neighborhood that summer night. I’m sure I felt the ghosts of engineers who created a technical miracle called the phone network, that later spawned the 911 system, so I could report the fire within 15 seconds of seeing it. And I know I saw the ghosts of engineers who designed the fire equipment that allowed two small teams of firefighters to conquer a burning hill. And there were the ghosts of all the firefighters who have lived before, having bequeathed their skills and traditions to each new generation. Most notably, that night I was also visited by the ghosts of September 11th, my old friends. Almost every day they visit to remind me to be more alert, to investigate strange smells, strange sounds, as I did that night, until finding one window view that revealed the flames.
Philosophers have many views of the human soul. In the end, it’s undefined, unfathomable. The only thing I know for sure is that no one really leaves.
Appreciate your ghosts, especially the ones you can still hug. Have a great holiday.
Scott Adams
Related Blog Posts
- Quotes for Thanksgiving (2006) includes an excerpt of Holiday Story
- Thanksgiving 2009 includes an excerpt of Holiday Story
- 1994 List of Resources for EDA Users (Time Capsule post published in 2009) included e-mail dilbert-request@internex.net to get on Scott Adams (scottadams@aol.com) Dilbert mailing list. Make the first line of e-mail read: subscribe dilbert_list first-name last-name
- Jack of All Trades (2010) highlighted a “Career Advice” blog post from 2007 that offered this advice
- If you want something extraordinary, you have two paths:
- Become the best at one specific thing.
- Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.
The first strategy is difficult to the point of near impossibility. Few people will ever play in the NBA or make a platinum album. I don’t recommend anyone even try. The second strategy is fairly easy. Everyone has at least a few areas in which they could be in the top 25% with some effort.
- If you want something extraordinary, you have two paths:
- Six Tips for Writing an E-Mail to a Prospect for Potential Partner (2013)
- I used a suggestion from “How To Tax the Rich“ a 2011 article by Adams in the Wall Street Journal: Write the Bad Version “I spent some time working in the television industry, and I learned a technique that writers use. It’s called “the bad version.” When you feel that a plot solution exists, but you can’t yet imagine it, you describe instead a bad version that has no purpose other than stimulating the other writers to imagine a better version. For example, if your character is stuck on an island, the bad version of his escape might involve monkeys crafting a helicopter out of palm fronds and coconuts. That story idea is obviously bad, but it might stimulate you to think in terms of other engineering solutions, or other monkey-related solutions. The first step in thinking of an idea that will work is to stop fixating on ideas that won’t. The bad version of an idea moves your mind to a new vantage point.”
- Pick Boring or Grinding over Losing Money (2015)
- In the Section “Scott Adams: Choose System over Goals or Passion” I quoted an excerpt from a 2013 Wall Street Journal article by Adams: “Secret of My Success: Failure”
“You often hear them say that you should “follow your passion.” That sounds perfectly reasonable the first time you hear it. Passion will presumably give you high energy, high resistance to rejection and high determination. Passionate people are more persuasive, too. Those are all good things, right?Here’s the counterargument: When I was a commercial loan officer for a large bank, my boss taught us that you should never make a loan to someone who is following his passion. For example, you don’t want to give money to a sports enthusiast who is starting a sports store to pursue his passion for all things sporty. That guy is a bad bet, passion and all. He’s in business for the wrong reason. - See also his blog post “Goals are For Losers and Passion is Bull” (Also expanded on in his book “How to Fail at Almost Everything an Still Win Big“)
- In the Section “Scott Adams: Choose System over Goals or Passion” I quoted an excerpt from a 2013 Wall Street Journal article by Adams: “Secret of My Success: Failure”
- Quotes for Entrepreneurs–January 2017
- “How to know your product will succeed: look for unexpected positive physical action from potential customers.”
Scott Adams in “How To Know If Your Product Will Succeed” (2017) - An interesting test, avoids mistaking casual support from friends or mild engagement for something that truly energizes people.
- “How to know your product will succeed: look for unexpected positive physical action from potential customers.”
- Quotes for Entrepreneurs–March 2017
- “If you want success, figure out the price, then pay it. […]
When you decide to be successful in a big way, it means you acknowledge the price and you’re willing to pay it.”
Scott Adams in “How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big” - I would reframe this as “determine the price of the success you seek and decide whether you are willing to pay it.”
- “If you want success, figure out the price, then pay it. […]
- Embrace Parkinson’s Law as a Constraint (2017) is an extended analysis of Chapter 26: New Company Model OA5 of “The Dilbert Principle“
- Quotes for Entrepreneurs Collected in August 2017
- “If you do something every day, it’s a system. If you’re waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it’s a goal.”
Scott Adams in “How to Fail at Everything and Still Win Big“
- “If you do something every day, it’s a system. If you’re waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it’s a goal.”
- Quotes For Entrepreneurs Collected in June 2018
- I am a big fan of Scott Adams “intersection” model where you develop three skills where you are in the top 20% but whose intersection puts you in the top 1%:
- “At least one of the skills in your mixture should involve communication, either written or verbal. And it could be as simple as learning how to sell more effectively than 75% of the world. That’s one. Now add to that whatever your passion is, and you have two, because that’s the thing you’ll easily put enough energy into to reach the top 25%. If you have an aptitude for a third skill, perhaps business or public speaking, develop that too. It sounds like generic advice, but you’d be hard pressed to find any successful person who didn’t have about three skills in the top 25%.”
Scott Adams in “Career Advice“ - I blogged about Adams’ perspective in “Jack of All Trades.“
- Quotes for Entrepreneurs Collected in February 2021
- “Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” Scott Adams
- Quotes for Entrepreneurs Curated in June 2022
- “Of course I don’t look busy, I did it right the first time.” Scott Adams in “The Dilbert Principle“
- Quotes for Entrepreneurs Curated in April 2023
- “Remember when personal computers made us so efficient we only had to work one day a week? AI will be like that.”
Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays)
- “Remember when personal computers made us so efficient we only had to work one day a week? AI will be like that.”
- Quotes for Entrepreneurs Curated in May 2024
- “Conversation is more than the sum of the words. It is also a way of signaling the importance of another person by showing your willingness to give that person your rarest resource: time. It is a way of conveying respect. Conversation reminds us that we are part of a greater whole, connected in some way that transcends duty or bloodline or commerce. Conversation can be many things, but it can never be useless.”
- Scott Adams in “God’s Debris“
- God’s Debris: Scott Adams Meditations on the Noosphere (2024) Scott Adams offers practical heuristics for living in “God’s Debris.” You don’t have to accept his cosmology, which I interpreted as an updated conceptualization of De Chardin’s Noosphere, to extract a number of useful insights.