Scott Adams, the man behind Dilbert, dies at 68 leaving a final farewell message: ‘Be useful’

Scott Adams, the creator of the globally popular comic strip Dilbert who later became one of America’s most polarising cultural commentators, has died at the age of 68.

His death was announced during the latest episode of his podcast, Coffee With Scott Adams. The broadcast opened with his former wife, Shelly Miles, speaking through tears as she told listeners that “he’s not with us anymore.” She then read a final message Adams had written and left behind, dated January 1, 2026, a reflective and unsparing account of his life, work and beliefs, framed explicitly as a farewell.

“If you are reading this, things did not go well for me,” Adams wrote. “My body failed before my brain. I am of sound mind as I write this.”

Born in Windham, New York, in 1957, Adams rose to prominence after launching Dilbert in 1989. Drawing on his own experiences in corporate America, the strip skewered managerial jargon, workplace absurdities and the quiet frustrations of office life. It struck a nerve with readers, becoming a staple of newspapers around the world and turning Adams into one of the most recognisable cartoonists of the late 20th century.

In his final message, Adams described the arc of his life as a deliberate search for meaning. He wrote that his early years were focused on being “a worthy husband and parent,” before his priorities shifted after his marriage ended.

“Once the marriage unwound, I needed a new focus. A new meaning,” he wrote. “And so I donated myself to ‘the world.’”

That impulse shaped his later career. Beyond Dilbert, Adams reinvented himself as an author and commentator, publishing a series of self-help and persuasion-focused books, including

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big

, Win Bigly, Loserthink and Reframe Your Brain. Of his first major success in that genre, he wrote simply: “My plan to be useful was working.”

The idea of usefulness runs throughout his farewell. “I had an amazing life. I gave it everything I had,” he wrote. “If you got any benefits from my work, I’m asking you to pay it forward as best you can. That is the legacy I want.”

In his later years, Adams became an increasingly divisive public figure, particularly for his political commentary and social media remarks. In 2023, many newspapers dropped Dilbert, with critics accusing him of promoting harmful views and supporters defending him as an unfiltered provocateur. Adams appeared largely unapologetic, framing disagreement and backlash as an inevitable part of public life.

The final message also touched on faith. Though he described himself as “not a believer,” Adams wrote that he had accepted Jesus Christ before his death, adding with characteristic irony that the question of belief would be “quickly resolved if I wake up in heaven.”

Adams had spoken publicly about serious health problems in recent years, and reports indicate he spent his final days in hospice care at his home in Northern California.

He closed his message with a directive that distilled both his work and his worldview: “Be useful. And please know I loved you all to the end.”