Reflections with Pleasanton’s Scott Adams

Dressed casually for the summer heat and wearing shades, Scott Adams obviously doesn’t mind less attention in the quaint downtown Pleasanton restaurant that he frequents for a tranquil meal during lunch.

Adams is well-known internationally as the original creator of the “Dilbert” comic strip, which has reached over 2,000 newspapers in 57 countries and 19 languages. Dilbert, the main character, is a white-collar office employee who navigates the ins and outs of daily corporate politics and satirizes the micromanagement of his superiors — messages that remain relevant for readers three decades after that first Dilbert strip.

“Every year since day one I have been telling myself my comic career only has five years left, tops,” Adams said. “But here we are.”

By April of next year, Dilbert will be celebrating its 30-year anniversary. Adams expressed pride in his work and notes that the comic is still going strong in both national and local papers.

A native of Windham, a small town in upstate New York, Adams found an early career in business and finance in the Bay Area while working for Crocker National Bank — where he was held at gunpoint as a teller twice — before achieving an MBA at Haas Business School at UC Berkeley.

Adams drew his inspiration for Dilbert Comics in the 1980s, and the name was drawn from an ex-boss, while the dog, named Dogbert, came from a family pet that had just passed away.

His decade at Pacific Bell also provided new ideas for character development in Dilbert Comics, which debuted in print on April 16, 1989. Adams recalled having to draw his first comics at 4 a.m. in the morning in order to work a full day at the company.

By 1996, Dilbert had reached over 800 newspapers in the entire nation, and Adams became a full-time cartoonist who had also released his first book, “The Dilbert Principle.” Adams famously included his email in all of his drawings, which facilitated responses from his fans suggesting new ideas for the comic strip.

A year later, Dilbert became the first website featuring a daily syndicated comic strip. Dilbert also won the Reuben Award, the highest honor for cartoons. An attempt to make a Dilbert TV series lasted for about two years before shutting down.

The appeal of Dilbert Comics isn’t so much about the illustrative detail as it is the use of office humor. Dilbert is relatable across age demographics and finds devoted followings across different cultures and career sectors. A recent comic, titled “Comparing Things,” exaggerates the difficulty of changing minds in a competitive workplace environment.

After living in San Francisco for about a decade, Adams moved around the Bay Area and resided in Alameda, Dublin and Blackhawk before permanently settling down in Pleasanton by 2009.

His current house, a 7,000-square-foot mansion, was designed in partnership with an architect and features a Dilbert-shaped wall, an indoor basketball court and an acre-large backyard.

Adams owned Stacey’s Cafe in downtown Pleasanton before it closed a few years ago, and he currently manages WhenHub (a business venture that uses an app to connect people with cryptocurrency experts), and Scott Adams Foods, Inc., famous for its “Dilberito.”

Despite being relatively well-known since the early 1990s, Adams grew an even larger national profile during the course of the 2016 presidential election. Early on in 2015, Adams predicted that then-candidate Donald Trump would successfully win the GOP primaries and defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the general election.

Adams said he initially endorsed Trump for president mainly due to his “master persuasion skills,” but because of death threats changed to rotating endorsements between Clinton and Libertarian Gary Johnson before settling back in the Trump camp about a month before the election. After Trump’s election victory in November of 2016, Adams’ Twitter following grew by over 50%.

Politically, Adams describes himself as an “ultraliberal to the left of Bernie Sanders.” He favors recreational marijuana legalization, reparations to African-Americans for slavery and no government interference on the ongoing abortion debate. Adams also claims to have very “libertarian leanings” on social issues. Despite this, his strong support for President Trump has more to do with “Trump’s unique rhetorical abilities” rather than policy proposals.

Currently, Adams hosts a daily Periscope broadcast on Twitter and can boast over 10,000 live listeners on average. Similar to Trump, Adams said he admires social media for its ability to “cut through media noise” and get his message directly to his followers without the “spin and filter” of journalists or opinion writers.

During his Periscope broadcasts (and a daily online blog he updates on the Dilbert website), Adams discusses random headlines in the news, generally political or economic in nature. He offers his own interpretation of the news and oftentimes generates interesting insight with his own perspective on the President’s actions or motives.

Adams is also occasionally in direct contact with Trump, and the Pleasanton resident was photographed visiting him in the Oval Office during the first weekend of August, which he posted on his Twitter feed.

As a trained hypnotist, Adams said he places great value on the concept of “master persuasion.” In his book “Win Bigly” (published 2017), Adams repeatedly brings up this concept to explain why Trump, despite being so polarizing in more liberal parts of the nation, was able to sweep the Electoral College and appeal to so many disaffected voters in middle America or “flyover country.”

“Basically in this country you have two sides watching two different movies,” Adams said. “In Movie 1, which is liberal America, Trump is a racist, fascist, misogynist, Islamophobe and xenophobe. Everything he does, good or bad, they view it through this filter. On the other hand, in Movie 2, which is Trump’s America, supporters view his actions as always putting ‘America First’ … They don’t see Trump along standard racial or gender related terms, but rather as an aggressive leader who is finally willing to put political correctness aside and do what’s best for the country.”

“In such a situation, it is virtually impossible to reconcile either side with reality because they are watching literally two different movies of the same man,” Adams added.

However, all of this pro-Trump commentary has come at a cost, Adams said. He acknowledges that he continues to regularly receive death threats online via social media. And he said he refuses to make any public appearances at speeches or other events, fearing for personal safety, which caused a significant loss in revenue.

“I don’t participate at all in local politics,” Adams added. “It’s just not something that interests me very much. I tend to be more fascinated with the persona and persuasion skills of leaders rather than partisanship and policy-making.”

Adams is fairly comfortable living in the “City of Planned Progress” and there are no signs that he plans to move elsewhere. He still broadcasts his daily videos on Periscope from his Dilbert-themed office in his home and is sometimes spotted in downtown Pleasanton enjoying a meal at a restaurant.

And as far as Dilbert comics goes, Adams isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Occasionally, Adams hosts drawing lessons on his Periscope and takes his viewers on a virtual tour around his art studio.

“Dance like it hurts. Love like you need money. Work when people are watching.” –Dogbert’s motto.

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