I learned of Scott's passing this morning.
While the pundits will debate his legacy, for me, Scott brought light into the darkest part of my professional life.
I always considered myself a glass half full, make lemonade from lemons, kind of guy.
Yet the grind of deadlines, high stakes of errors, minimal recognition and feedback, and getting weeks of work tossed in the trash ate at my soul.
Then, in a bookstore in a mall, The Dilbert Principle fell into my lap.
As he introduced the book, he shared his epiphany about the reason people and corporations do dumb things. PEOPLE ARE IDIOTS. It seems harsh at first, but he quickly follows with "INCLUDING ME..."
To elaborate further:
“Everyone is an idiot, not just the people with low SAT scores. The only difference among us is that we’re idiots about different things at different times.”
AND
"Life is just too complicated to be smart all the time."
The rest of the Dilbert Principleis a tour de force with humorous quips on everything corporate: meetings, marketing, vision statements, and of course management.
I devoured the book and suddenly, everything that I was taking SO seriously was put to a funhouse soundtrack. It made life bearable again. I saw my coworkers in a new light. We were all dancing monkeys in a way.
This didn't mean that the work we did was unimportant or had no value. Rather, I felt like I was given permission to have FUN. And so I did.
I added quirky signatures to out-of-office messages. I made the month-end meetings a vocabulary contest. We tried to catch buzzwords at townhalls.
And in this, a new purpose was forged. I didn't come to work to do a job anymore. I came to the cubicle zoo with the intent to bring joy and spread happiness. I learned to approach my work as a way to make somebody's life better. And turns out making people laugh and smile is a great way to get through the day.
Between The Spreadsheets emerged as a cross between The Onion and Scott Adams. It has evolved a bit more into some otherstuff, but the undercurrent remains. I am always scanning for ways to spotlight absurdity and bring a smile to the world.
And I have Scott to thank for that.
