[plax512]

It's dangerous business for him to be saying stuff like this. I mean, are we all going to go out and be lucky enough to have a successful comic strip? No, it's a fluke. It worked for him, great, but shut up and take your success. Don't tell others what they should do.

[krstck]

The title is sensationalist. The point is that even the best laid plans require an element of luck, so it's better to develop systems of successful habits rather than attaching your hopes and dreams towards a specific "goal". He's not talking about how you, too, can be a comic book artist, he's saying that you need to learn as many useful skills as you can. In his book he devoted considerable time to detailing just how serendipitous the success of Dilbert was. I enjoyed it.

[gress]

Why is his opinion to be muzzled, rather than those who suggest having a career plan? How do we know a career plan is good advice for everyone?

[was_hellbanned]

Career plans are wonderful for those whose career goes according to plan. ;-)

[plax512]

nothing is perfect for every single person, which is what I'm saying

[6d0debc071]

No advice is perfect for everyone, therefore never give advice? That'd be a pretty terrible idea.

The question is how many people the advice would be useful to vs how many it would harm, and to what degree. Framing it otherwise just inflicts a massive loss of utility on all the people who would have benefited from it - i.e. you'd be choosing a world with more misery to live in.

[Nzen]

Clearly a case of tl;dr. Adams did a bunch of foolish stuff before becoming successful. Most of it was in pursuit of goals like 'get rich quick' (via a patent). He recommends adopting a system of principles that allow for a more flexible focus. Don't tell others what they should do. eyeroll

[SimHacker]

Foolish stuff like posing as his biggest fan on message boards to say how brilliant he is and how stupid everyone else is for not seeing that? "If an idiot and a genius disagree, the idiot generally thinks the genius is wrong. He also has lots of idiot reasons to back his idiot belief. That's how the idiot mind is wired. It's fair to say you disagree with Adams. But you can't rule out the hypothesis that you're too dumb to understand what he's saying. And he's a certified genius. Just sayin'."

Foolish stuff like saying things like "Women are treated differently by society for exactly the same reason that children and the mentally handicapped are treated differently. It’s just easier this way for everyone"?

Should I go on? I could go on and on and on, quoting him making a total douchbag of himself. He never stops, he just keeps digging deeper.

[chris_wot]

I could go on and on and on

And you do!

[plax512]

what are you saying?