Scott Adams' Blog

The Christmas Chair

Posted December 22nd, 2014 @ 8:14am in #General Nonsense

When I was 12-years old, my mother and I worked together to build a chair out of parts from other chairs. It was our little mom-and-son project. We took the top of an old painted chair with legs and attached it to the swivel bottom from a different chair. My mother reupholstered the back and I refinished the wood and added new wheels.

We did not possess any of the skills necessary to make a new chair from old chairs, and the result showed. The caster wheels would often fall out. The chair was wobbly and unstable. To an unfamiliar sitter it was a death trap.

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Microsoft Goes After Fake Tech Support Scammers

Posted December 19th, 2014 @ 10:39am in #General Nonsense

I don’t know if this has anything to do with my recent computer problems but you can see from this story why a Microsoft tech support number has to be viewed with skepticism.

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Sony and the Hackers

Posted December 19th, 2014 @ 9:31am in #General Nonsense

[Update: Wow, did I get suckered by the media. Please ignore everything I wrote below because it was based on faulty media reporting. Apparently Sony doesn’t have the ability to release a movie that theaters reject. So it was never the case that Sony decided to cancel release of the movie. The reality is that the theaters rejected it and Sony is simply regrouping to figure out how to release without theaters. Everyone from me to President Obama got suckered on that one. Even Obama thinks Sony can release a movie over the objections of the theaters. It was never the case.

I haven’t read all of the comments but I hope one of you called me on this before I figured it out on my own. And if you were not aware of these facts until reading them here, what does that tell you about the news? I only learned it trom Sony’s press release. Apparently it is a fact that theaters wouldn’t run it. — Scott]

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Does Science Work?

Posted December 18th, 2014 @ 10:52am in #General Nonsense

Earlier this year I worked with Dr. Carmen Simon at Rexi Media to create a memorable SlideShare presentation of my latest book. Did Dr. Simon’s double-doctorate and fancy brain science make any difference to the outcome?

Today I learned that out of millions of presentations on the SlideShare site, our work was picked as a Best of 2014.

Given that my book was not a best-seller or even close, one has to assume my sparkling content was not the reason for the achievement. Science wins again.

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Boring Little Story About My Windows Computer

Posted December 17th, 2014 @ 11:30am in #General Nonsense

I wouldn’t bother reading this if I were you. I’m just venting.

The story goes like this…

Bought a Gateway computer from Best Buy

It breaks, as electronics do when near me.

Independent computer repair guy replaces a bad board.

Windows thinks I have a new machine because it doesn’t see the same hardware mix. I have learned that Windows checks the hardware

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Ineffective Government

Posted December 15th, 2014 @ 10:36am in #General Nonsense

Nearly 100% of the well-informed and honest citizens of the United States agree that the Federal Government should not be in the business of weed-policing in states that allow medical marijuana.

That’s an easy law to change, right? I mean, if something like 80% of voters agree on an issue, it’s a no-brainer.

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An Opportunity to Shout at Assholes

Posted December 12th, 2014 @ 12:20am in #General Nonsense

Recently I wasn’t paying attention and clicked something I shouldn’t have. I got a [update: not the Conduit virus] virus on my Windows machine and it dug in deep.

[Update 2: Called the “fake” Microsoft number a third time today just to see why commenters keep saying it is real. This time the rep told me to do a Windows+R command and enter SLUI_3 and enter my existing Windows license. (The last two days I called the rep told me the “network was down globally. Call back tomorrow.”

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Diet Science in 2014

Posted December 10th, 2014 @ 10:03am in #General Nonsense

I can accurately predict whether you will meet your weight loss goals by the way you talk about it.

I mean that literally. I think I could devise a controlled experiment in which I pick weight-loss winners and losers in advance based on nothing but a transcript of folks talking about their fitness goals.

I’ll give you some examples. What follows is a list of things you will hear from people that have no legitimate chance of losing weight and keeping it off. Yes, your thing is probably on this list and it pisses you off to see it. But stay with me and I’ll change your life by the end of this post.

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The Human Mind

Posted December 8th, 2014 @ 10:12am in #General Nonsense

If you needed to describe the human mind to aliens from another planet, what would be the simplest way to do it? Assume the aliens speak English.

I would tell the aliens that humans form strong bonds with sports teams and enthusiastically cheer for victory. Then I would walk away, done. The aliens, having learned all there is to know about humans, get back in their spacecraft and continue their search for intelligent life.

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Can Your Phone Make You Fat?

Posted December 4th, 2014 @ 9:36am in #General Nonsense

There has been a lot of research on willpower in recent years. The gist of it is that willpower is a limited resource during any given day, so if you use your willpower resisting one temptation you might not have enough to resist the next.

I don’t know about you, but my biggest drain on willpower during any given day is my iPhone 6. It calls to me continuously during the day. Often I need to be focusing on something more important, or it would be socially impolite to check my text messages, or I am driving and it would be dangerous. These situations come up all day long. It’s mentally exhausting. The conversation in my head goes like this: “Look at phone. DON’T LOOK AT PHONE! Look at phone. DON’T LOOK AT PHONE!” And so on

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