The Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca once wrote about making the most of out of life:
The life we are given isn’t short but we make it so; we’re not ill provided but we are wasteful of life. Just as impressive and princely wealth is squandered in an instant when it passes into the hands of a poor manager, but wealth however modest grows through careful deployment if it is entrusted to a responsible guardian, just so our lifetime offers ample scope to the person who maps it out well.
I thought about this quote from Seneca’s On The Shortness of Life, when I heard the news yesterday that Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert cartoons and nonfiction author, passed away at age 68 after a battle with prostate cancer.
He was a controversial figure, and I didn’t always agree with his politics, but he was one of the most original and vocal thinkers of our time. He used the latter part of his life building a name for himself beyond his original fame as a cartoonist, writing books on persuasion, storytelling, and life lessons.
His estate posted his final letter on X. It’s worth a read in its entirety, but I wanted to call out the final passage, where he wrote:
“I had an amazing life. I gave it everything I had.”
We should all aspire to look back on our lives, in our final moments, and be able to say the same.