Scott Adams facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Scott Adams
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Adams in 2017
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Scott Raymond Adams
June 8, 1957 Windham, New York, U.S.
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| Alma mater |
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| Occupation | Cartoonist, writer, political commentator |
| Years active | 1989–present |
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| YouTube information | |
| Years active | 2018–present |
| Subscribers | 150,000 |
| Total views | 50 million |
| Subscriber and view counts updated as of September 10, 2023. | |
Scott Raymond Adams (born June 8, 1957) is an American author and cartoonist. He is famous for creating the Dilbert comic strip. He has also written several non-fiction books. These books cover topics like business, social comments, and satire.
Before becoming a full-time cartoonist in 1995, Adams worked in various office jobs. He created Dilbert in 1989 while working at Pacific Bell. By the mid-1990s, the comic strip became very popular in America and around the world. Dilbert stayed popular for many years, leading Adams to write several books based on it.
Adams uses satire to write about the social and psychological experiences of white-collar workers. These are people who work in offices in modern companies. He has also written books on other topics. These include a spiritual story called God's Debris and books about politics and management, like Loserthink.
In February 2023, many newspapers stopped publishing Dilbert. Its distributor, Andrews McMeel Syndication, also ended their partnership. This happened after Adams made some controversial comments in a video. Adams later relaunched Dilbert as a webcomic on his locals.com website.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Scott Adams was born on June 8, 1957, in Windham, New York. His parents were Paul and Virginia Adams. He has said he is "about half German" and also has English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, and Dutch family roots.
As a child, he loved Peanuts comics. He started drawing his own comics when he was six years old. At age 11, he won a drawing competition.
Adams finished high school at Windham-Ashland-Jewett Central School in 1975. He was the top student in his class. He then earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Hartwick College in 1979. After college, he moved to California for work. In 1986, Adams earned a master's degree in business from the University of California, Berkeley. He also took a course called Dale Carnegie Training, which he found very helpful.
Career Journey
Office Work and Comic Creation
From 1979 to 1986, Adams worked at Crocker National Bank in San Francisco. He started as a bank teller. After a few months, he joined a management training program. He held many different jobs there, including computer programmer and product manager.
Later, he moved to work at Pacific Bell. To find a new career path, he started waking up at 4 a.m. every day. He tried different things, and drawing cartoons became the most successful. During this time, Adams created Dilbert. His former boss, Mike Goodwin, suggested the name "Dilbert."
Adams worked at Pacific Bell until 1995. The people he met there inspired many of his Dilbert characters. In 1989, Dilbert began to be published by United Media. Adams kept drawing his cartoons early in the morning to keep his income. His first payment for Dilbert was about $368 a month.
Dilbert slowly became more popular. By 1991, it was in 100 newspapers. By 1994, it was in 400 newspapers. Adams believes his success came from including his email address in the comic panels. This allowed readers to send him ideas and feedback.
Full-Time Cartoonist and Author
As Dilbert became more successful, appearing in 800 newspapers, Adams became a full-time cartoonist. In 1996, he released his first business book, The Dilbert Principle. This book explained his idea of the Dilbert principle, which is about how companies sometimes promote the least competent employees to management.
In 1997, Adams won two awards from the National Cartoonists Society. These were the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist and Best Newspaper Comic Strip. By 2000, Dilbert was in 2,000 newspapers in 57 countries and 19 languages.
Dilbert was even made into a TV show. It started in 1999 and ran for two seasons on UPN. Adams was an executive producer for the show. The TV show won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1999.
Besides his comic work, Adams has written other books. These include books on self-improvement and religion. His book God's Debris (2001) shares a unique theory about how the universe began. In The Religion War (2004), he explores ideas about religious beliefs. Adams has said that his books on religion, not Dilbert, might be his most important work in the future.
Real Coffee with Scott Adams
In 2015, Adams started writing blog posts about Donald Trump's persuasion skills. He predicted Trump had a high chance of winning the presidency. These posts became popular, and Adams started writing about this topic regularly.
Soon, he began a daily video show called Real Coffee with Scott Adams. He shares these videos on platforms like YouTube and Locals. On the show, he talks about current events, politics, persuasion, and ways to succeed.
Many guests have appeared on Real Coffee with Scott Adams. These include Naval Ravikant, Dave Rubin, and Greg Gutfeld. In 2018, Kanye West shared clips from one of Adams's Coffee episodes on Twitter. In 2020, President Trump also shared an episode where Adams made fun of Joe Biden.
Adams offers paid subscriptions for special content on Locals. In 2020, he mentioned that his Dilbert income might decrease. He said he was rethinking his career for a "post-coronavirus world," and the Locals platform was a big part of his new plan.
Other Ventures
In 1999, Adams started Scott Adams Foods, Inc. This company made food products like the Dilberito. However, the products did not sell well, and he sold off his part of the business in 2003. He also owned a restaurant for a while, starting in 1997, but later left that business.
Adams also helped create a service called WhenHub. This service was similar to Cameo. It allowed people to have live chats with experts on different topics. The WhenHub website is currently not active.
Adams has appeared in TV shows. He had a small role in the science fiction series Babylon 5. He also had a cameo in an episode of the TV series NewsRadio.
He has been a guest on many podcasts, including Making Sense with Sam Harris and The Tim Ferriss Show. He has also appeared on TV shows like Real Time with Bill Maher and Fox News.
Views and Opinions
Politics and Social Issues
Adams often shares his thoughts on political and social topics. In 2016, he wrote on his blog that he does not vote and is not part of a political party. In 2007, he suggested that Michael Bloomberg would be a good presidential candidate.
Before the 2008 election, he said he leans towards libertarian ideas on social issues. In 2011, he joked that if he were president, he would follow Bill Clinton's advice. He thought this would lead to sensible middle-ground policies. In 2012, he supported Mitt Romney for president, even though he disagreed with Romney on most topics.
In 2017, Adams described himself as "left of Bernie Sanders" but preferred plans that could actually work. In April 2023, he announced he had registered with the Democratic Party. He stated that his party choice would not decide who he supports.
In 2015, Adams praised Donald Trump's persuasion skills. He correctly predicted that Trump would win the 2016 Republican nomination and the general election. In 2018, Adams also praised the persuasion skills of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Adams has made some predictions that did not come true. For example, in March 2020, he predicted that Trump, Sanders, and Joe Biden would all get COVID-19 and one would die by the end of the year. All three men survived, though Trump did get the virus. In 2021, he also tweeted about a prediction he made in 2020 that if Biden won, Republicans would be in danger. He later admitted this prediction was "100% off."
Changes to Dilbert
In September 2022, Dilbert comic strips made fun of certain company strategies. Part of the story involved an African-American character who "identified as white." According to Adams, 77 newspapers stopped publishing Dilbert that week.
In February 2023, Dilbert was dropped by many newspapers across the country. This included major papers like the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post. This happened after Adams made controversial statements in a video. Andrews McMeel Syndication, the company that distributed Dilbert, ended its partnership with Adams. His book publisher also decided not to release his upcoming non-Dilbert book.
Adams announced that on March 13, 2023, the comic strip would return as Dilbert Reborn. It is now available on the subscription website Locals. Adams regained the rights to Dilbert and his books.
Personal Life
Since late 2004, Adams has had a condition called focal dystonia. This has made it hard for him to draw for long periods. He now uses a graphics tablet to draw. He also had spasmodic dysphonia, which affected his voice. In 2008, he had surgery to fix his vocal cords, and his voice is now fully working.
Adams married Shelly Miles on July 22, 2006. They met at a gym. Adams and Miles divorced in 2014 but remained friends.
On Christmas Day in 2019, Adams announced he was engaged to Kristina Basham. They married on July 11, 2020. Kristina is a model and baker and has two daughters. In March 2022, Adams announced they were getting divorced.
Adams has trained as a hypnotist. He believes that using affirmations has helped him achieve many things. He says affirmations help him focus. He described a method where he pictured what he wanted and wrote it down 15 times a day. This technique was even used by Dogbert in an early Dilbert comic strip.
Adams continues to live in Pleasanton, California. He is active in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Recognition
Scott Adams has received several awards for his work. He won the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award and Newspaper Comic Strip Award in 1997 for Dilbert.
He has also been recognized as an influential management thinker. He received the Orwell Award in 1998 for an article he wrote for San Jose Mercury News West Magazine.
Images for kids
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Adams in 2017
See also
In Spanish: Scott Adams para niños
