The passing of Scott Adams (creator of the "Dilbert" comic strip) and some Economic/Business connections to his work

I'm going to start this post with a few excerpts from Scott Adams's final statement, read by his ex-wife on his final podcast episode after his death. I find it interesting that very few media outlets (liberal OR conservative) have chosen to include this in their obituaries, given how many times we get to hear the "final thoughts" of celebrities and politicians. Guess that's what happens when you become "controversial". Again, I'm not including the whole thing but will link it below:

A Final Message From Scott Adams

If you are reading this, things did not go well for me.

I have a few things to say before I go.

My body failed before my brain. I am of sound mind as I write this, January 1st, 2026. If you wonder about any of my choices for my estate, or anything else, please know I am free of any coercion or inappropriate influence of any sort. I promise.

Next, many of my Christian friends have asked me to find Jesus before I go. I’m not a believer, but I have to admit the risk-reward calculation for doing so looks attractive. So, here I go: I accept Jesus Christ as my lord and savior, and I look forward to spending an eternity with him. The part about me not being a believer should be quickly resolved if I wake up in heaven. I won’t need any more convincing than that. And I hope I am still qualified for entry.

...once (my) marriage unwound, I needed a new focus. A new meaning. And so I donated myself to “the world,” literally speaking the words out loud in my otherwise silent home. From that point on, I looked for ways I could add the most to people’s lives, one way or another. By then, I believed I had amassed enough life lessons that I could start passing them on.

I had an amazing life. I gave it everything I had. If you got any benefits from my work, I’m asking you to pay it forward as best you can. That is the legacy I want.

Be useful. And please know I loved you all to the end.

Next, I wanted to include a few Dilbert-connected behavioral economics references, accumulated from several articles written years ago (when Dilbert was in wide distribution) . . .

• The Dilbert Principle: Instead of the Peter Principle (people promoted to incompetence), the Dilbert Principle suggests incompetent individuals are promoted to management to get them out of productive roles, a bad economic move for the firm.

• Managerial Inefficiency: Cartoons satirize pointless meetings, bureaucracy, and managers who value perceived "busyness" over actual work, wasting company resources.

• Employee Cynicism & Morale: The comic illustrates how disengaged, cynical employees (like Dilbert) respond to poor management, leading to reduced productivity and innovation.

• Opportunity Cost: Adams often highlights how time spent on trivial tasks or inefficient processes represents lost value, a core economic concept.

• Financial Illiteracy: Dilbert shows how workers remain trapped in cycles, serving the capitalist system by being too financially illiterate to demand better or recognize their lack of power.

• The "Double Bind": The comic captures the paradoxes employees face, where following management directives leads to failure, but not following them leads to punishment.

Finally, two sets of links - one to articles with economics and/or business connections to Dilbert, and then a second set (for those of you interested) to Scott Adams resources on the Internet:

Economics/Business Connections to "Dilbert":

"9 Career Lessons From Dilbert Comic Strips", Business Insider, May 2011, https://www.businessinsider.com/scott-adams-dilbert-2011-5

"10 Dilbert Cartoons That Get Project Management Just Right", Capterra, Dec 2015, https://www.capterra.com/resources/10-dilbert-cartoons-that-get-project-management-just-right/

"Cartoons: What Can Dilbert Teach Us About Investing?", NextGen Personal Finance (NGPF) blog (article written by Tim Ranzetta), Jul 2017, https://www.ngpf.org/blog/cartoons/cartoons-can-dilbert-teach-us-investing/

"Dilbert Does Behavioral Economics: The Dilbert comic strip offers a case study on common behavioral biases", Psychology Today, Jan 2014, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/markets-in-mind/201401/dilbert-does-behavioral-economics

"The Dilbert Principles Of Personal Finance – An Infographic!" (based on advice in Scott Adams' book Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel), The Retirement Manifesto, Mar 2017, https://www.theretirementmanifesto.com/the-dilbert-principles-of-personal-finance-an-infographic/

"Goodbye, Dilbert: ‘The Rise of the Naked Economy’", Knowledge at Wharton (A business journal from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania), Jan 2014, https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/goodbye-dilbert-rise-naked-economy/

"The Top 4 Lessons in Behavioral Economics From Dilbert", Yahoo News (originally written by Business2Community, but the article is no longer available on their site), Dec 2014, https://www.yahoo.com/news/top-4-lessons-behavioral-economics-dilbert-011908556.html

NOTE - Below is a cartoon that Scott Adams created for AEI (American Enterprise Institute) in 2015 . . .

Scott Adams Resources on the Internet (at least for now):

"Coffee With Scott Adams" podcast videos, https://scottadams.locals.com/landing/video

Official Dilbert Site, https://dilbert.com/

Amazon's "Scott Adams" author page, listing (currently) 173 titles in various languages - https://www.amazon.com/stores/Scott-Adams/author/B004N47QVK

SHORT Interview - "Scott Adams Explains 'How To Fail At Almost Everything' (Except Dilbert)", Morning Edition from NPR, Oct 2013, https://www.npr.org/2013/10/21/236207605/scott-adams-explains-how-to-fail-at-almost-everything-except-dilbert

LONG Interview - "How To Fail At Almost Everything With Scott Adams", Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson (from the Hoover Institution), Sep 2017, https://www.hoover.org/research/how-fail-almost-everything-scott-adams

WRITTEN Interview - "Dilbert's Doctrines: Cartoonist Scott Adams on cubicles, capitalism, and the angst of the knowledge worker", Reason Magazine, Feb 1999, https://reason.com/1999/02/01/the-dilbert-doctrines-an-inter/

Video segments from the old "Dilbert" animated series (most 1-2 minutes long), https://www.youtube.com/@dilbert/videos

"Scott Adams showed the world how laughable office life could be" (obituary with perspective on his impact), The Economist, Jan 2026, https://www.economist.com/culture/2026/01/15/scott-adams-showed-the-world-how-laughable-office-life-could-be

Scott Adams's full final statement (transcribed) - https://www.facebook.com/DonaldTrump4President/posts/a-final-message-from-scott-adamsif-you-are-reading-this-things-did-not-go-well-f/1313552200800806/