Scott Adams, the Dilbert guy, on why systems trump goals and passion is pointless

Scott Adams is the creator of Dilbert and a guy who has failed at many things in life and still won big.

He first came to my attention with this WSJ article which says to ignore passion and instead focus on building “systems” (which I interpret as creating good habits and applying them over time).

Then he was a guest on James Altucher’s podcast where he elaborated on the same themes. Scott is a funny, honest, successful and very quotable guy. Here are my notes from that podcast.

NOTES

• on Dilbert
  • Dilbert started as a doodle during his day job at PacBell
  • he reached out to a famous cartoonist, who told him: “don’t give up”
  • he received endless rejections for Dilbert, including one that suggested he hire an artist to draw the cartoons!
  • he usually does 2 comics in the morning (in rough form), and spends the afternoon/evening on less taxing work (e.g., filling in the cartoons)
  • “a writer should have element of danger in their writing”
  • Dilbert provides employees a voice, making it harder for management to get away with ridiculous stuff
  • “the funnier something is, the more you can get away with”
• goals are bullshit, live by systems/themes
  • why? 100 years ago, goals were simpler to set and execute (eg, a farmer’s goal to clear land by day’s end), but today goals are too complex, if you pick a goal and say “5 years from now, I want to achieve X”, what are the odds the world will be the same in 5 years? instead, improve odds in a general way, through the right systems
  • one part of his system is try lots of stuff; he has failed at many, many projects (including investing a minor fortune in Webvan in the late 90s)
  • another part is to maximize personal energy through diet and fitness
  • another part is combining skills (he isn’t the world’s best at anything, but he has decent drawing skills, decent writing skills, and a corporate insider’s stories/experience, together they make Dilbert unique)
  • on why after all the success, he still works hard: “don’t think there’s anything worse than getting rich and quitting”
  • have lots of ideas
    • “people can’t tell a good idea”
    • * “bad ideas have value” — they help you think of better ones, your ideas can cross-pollinate, “get to good ideas through bad ideas”
• passion is pointless
  • you enjoy the things you succeed at, you get better with success (for example, when he got his first cartooning contract, his drawing skills went from abysmal to “not terrible”)

  <-- I agree!!

  • “people are not great at knowing what they’re good at”
  • “passion comes from things that work”