Scott Adams Talks Dilbert and Success

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There is quite bit of wisdom, some off-handed, and humor, some wry, in Scott Adams' advice for people.  For example, as cartoonist par excellence, he says, don't take advice from a cartoonist.  But he's not offering advice, he clarifies, but simply offering information.  We can take that information, however we please.

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This is a brilliant formula (i.e., algorithm).  He admits to having a collection of just mediocre skills, that is, in drawing, writing and joking.  But only the sum of these, along with his business knowledge, make his offering valuable.

If you have a choice, success is better than failure.  But, he goes on, life is messy, and we're all bound to fail at some point.  Then he suggests something that is at the heart of Theory of Algorithms and The Core Algorithm: Focus on tasks or challenges, where, no matter what the outcome, you can learn some key things and build some skills.  In which case, there is no failure.  Just good positioning for an eventual success.

In communication, less is more.  So many of us in the workplace feel the need to run down every detail of an idea, concept or lesson.  I have certainly seen PowerPoint presentations that have so much content that there is no way an audience can pick it all up in a matter of seconds, especially when you have a conference room full of people where it's more difficult for anyone of them to concentrate and absorb.