Scott Adams

“Pointy Haired Boss,” “Confusopolies,” “Induhviduals,” or “Qualicide” are not terms from some unknown alien planet. It’s actually quite the opposite. These are things everyone in the corporate world would recognize; some people just haven’t encountered the exact words yet. But for the millions of other followers of The Dilbert comic series, this lingo and tons of other office life parodies simply capture the humor in the otherwise dreary workplace. Scott Adams has created a cultural icon out of the average American employee.

Scott Raymond Adams is a native of Windham, New York. He graduated with a B.A. degree in Economics from Hartwick in Oneonta, New York. After accomplishing his Masters in the Haas School of Business (University of California- Berkeley), he proceeded to join the American workforce. He spent the next eight years in “a variety of humiliating and low-paying jobs.” One of his most famous anecdotes tells of how the San Francisco bank he worked in got robbed, twice in six months, while he was held at gunpoint. When he realized he wasn’t happy being constantly at the firing end of a weapon, Scott Adams left the bank for a post in Pacific Bell. From 1986-1995 he began drawing as a personal outlet for all the things he would later on use as satirical material for his comic strips.

Upon recommendation he read up on how to have a major career shift to professional drawing. In 1988 he sent out some of his best comic strips to different publications. He was rejected by big names The New Yorker and Playboy. He, however, just wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. Eventually, United Media’s division, the United Feature Syndicate, Inc. gave him an offer. Within the year Dilbert was published in around 35 newspapers. At present, his work is published in more than 2,000 newspapers in 65 countries.

For more than 20 years, Scott Adams has one New York Times Bestseller after another. He has been awarded the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award and Newspaper Comic Strip Award in 1997. Since 2001, he has consistently been considered one of the Top 50 Most Influential Management Thinkers by the Suntop Media and the European Foundation for Management Development. He is also a member of MENSA, the elite organization of intellectuals.

Quotations of Scott Adams

Review of Scott Adams book Seven Years of Highly Defective People

Scott Adams answers questions in the New York Times column Freakonomics.