I corresponded with a friend today about the particularly sharp Dilbert today. He noted that it has been apocryphally said of Adams:
I remember someone saying the scary thing about Scott Adams was that he clearly must work in the same office but he had never met him. How true! How is it he seems to be inside every office?
How does he seem to get it right so often, my friend mused.
I responded:
People email him what they experience ever day by the hundreds. I have sent him at least five stories over the years, and in the early days -- 1995 -- he actually responded thoughtfully and wisely to an interview list of questions I sent him for a listserv where I was a frequent contributor.
I emailed him when I got a job at Internet World and then again the job at Gartner to tell him that his openness and willingness to respond had really moved me and given me the confidence to enter the industry on my own merits instead of fearing it. Each time, he responded with good wishes. I think he's a truly sympathetic person, and just seems to grasp universality in work environments. Pattern recognition in the cube farm.