The creator of Dilbert, the fastest-growing comic strip in the nation (syndicated in nearly 1000 newspapers), takes a look at corporate America in all its glorious lunacy. Lavishly illustrated with Dilbert strips, these hilarious essays on incompetent bosses, management fads, bewildering technological changes and so much more, will make anyone who has ever worked in an office laugh out loud in recognition.
The Dilbert Principle: The most ineffective workers will be systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage — management.
Since 1989, Scott Adams has been illustrating this principle each day, lampooning the corporate world through Dilbert, his enormously popular comic strip. In Dilbert, the potato-shaped, abuse-absorbing hero of the strip, Adams has given voice to the millions of Americans buffeted by the many adversities of the workplace.
Now he takes the next step, attacking corporate culture head-on in this lighthearted series of essays. Packed with more than 100 hilarious cartoons, these 25 chapters explore the zeitgeist of ever-changing management trends, overbearing egos, management incompetence, bottomless bureaucracies, petrifying performance reviews, three-hour meetings, the confusion of the information superhighway and more. With sharp eyes, and an even sharper wit, Adams exposes — and skewers — the bizarre absurdities of everyday corporate life. Readers will be convinced that he must be spying on their bosses, The Dilbert Principle rings so true!
Our most profitable cartoon after The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes. Pointless projects, endless meetings, and random downsizing make up the Dilbert world. This themed collection centers on the inept colleagues who invariably cause office and economic ruin.
In Problem Identified: And You're Probably Not Part of the Solution, cartoonist Scott Adams affectionately ridicules inept office colleagues—those co-workers behind the pointless projects, interminable meetings, and ill-conceived "downsizings"—in this thematically linked collection of Dilbert comic strips.
Dilbert, the benchmark of office humors, continues to use its considerable powers of humor for the greater good, helping us to fight the good fight at work despite those around us whose job descriptions seem to include undercutting morale and generally doing everything possible to lead us into economic ruin.
AMP's Dilbert calendars are the best-selling calendars in the world, with sales over 400,000 every year. Pointless projects, endless meetings, and random downsizing make up the Dilbert world.
He's the icon of millions of corporate workers, the most popular cubicle dweller on this planet. He spends his days in endless meetings with incompetent supervisors, performing perfunctory tasks mixed with the occasional team-building, brainstorming, or management fad-of-the-day session. He has entertained us for more than two decades: He's Dilbert.
Created in 1989 by Adams, in his own cubicle as a doodle distraction, Dilbert has found a home in the workplace, this generation's home away from home. Adams amuses readers with his portrayal of the absurdities of this environment with unfailing accuracy and precision. As readers of more than 2,000 newspapers, millions of books, and the newly revamped Dilbert.com site know, the familiar mouthless character with the upturned tie, his dog, Dogbert, the pointy-haired Boss, over-achieving Alice and underachieving Wally, Human Resources director Catbert, depict a world that's all too easy to recognize, complete with shrinking cubicles, clueless co-workers, focus groups and ill-conceived management concepts.
In this all-new chronological collection, Adams further exploits the fodder of workaday life, making even the most cynical cubicle dweller laugh at our shared, absurd work lives.
All too often, new managers make mistakes such as rewarding good work with good pay, communicating clearly and improving departmental efficiency. Dogbert shows that this could have devastating consequences: Employees begin to expect fair treatment and compensation, productive workers show results (making managers look bad by comparison), and the department's future budget allotment could be decreased because it spends only what it needs.
Drawing from his years of experience tormenting Dilbert and advising his boss, our Machiavellian mutt uses pithy essays, illustrated by scores of comic strips, to teach neophyte managers such potent practices as:
The power of verbal instructions: Sound like a boss while maintaining complete deniability!
Empty promises of promotion: all the motivational benefits, none of the costs!
Pretending to care: Learn how to hear without listening!
Incentives: Inspire employees by giving them worthless knickknacks!
Once again firmly establishing Scott Adams as the spokesman for the absurdities of the workplace (and Dogbert as the guru of sticking it to the masses), Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook is the perfect gift for all cubicle dwellers and their bosses.
Scott Adams "is a VERY tough act to follow." —Suzanne Tobin, Washington Post
In the tradition of The Complete Far Side and The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, Dilbert 2.0 celebrates the 20th anniversary of Scott Adams's Dilbert, the touchstone of office humor.
This special slipcased collection-weighing in at more than ten pounds with 600 pages and featuring almost 4,000 strips-takes readers behind the scenes and into the early days of Scott Adams's life pre-Dilbert and on to the success that followed when Dilbert became an internationally syndicated sensation.
Divided into five different epochs, Dilbert 2.0 gives readers a glance at some of Adams's earliest strips, like those created for Playboy, and a peek at an abundance of special content ranging from numerous rejection letters to Adams's first cartooning check, and more.
Adams personally selected the material for this collection and offers original comments and humorous asides throughout. Also included is a piracy-protected disc that contains every Dilbert comic strip to April 2008.
Maybe, just maybe, the reason Scott Adams is able to so completely and utterly skewer the absurdities of the modern workplace is that deep down he really enjoyed his many years as a cubicle dweller. Perhaps his comic strip Dilbert is nothing more than a cleverly disguised 17-year-long love letter to corporate America.
And maybe, just maybe, monkeys will fly out of Donald Trump's butt.
In Try Rebooting Yourself, AMP's 28th Dilbert collection, the world's most dysfunctional office family is back and doing what it does best. Wally adroitly steers clear of new assignments—and perfects his "work grimace." The Pointy-Haired Boss (PHB) thinks of new ways to demoralize and disenfranchise his employees. (As part of a new strategy to make the pension plan solvent, he reminds employees "Smoking is cool.") Dogbert continues his lucrative consulting business. And Dilbert, alas, he soldiers and smolders on, searching for intelligent life in the corporate universe—and maybe, just maybe, a little action. (Fat chance.)
This time out, the gang is joined by a host of odd (but strangely familiar) guest characters including the clueless Hammerhead Bob, and Petricia, the PHB's fawning but ferocious sycophant. All office workers may now nod knowingly.
In God's Debris, best-selling author and creator of Dilbert Scott Adams fashioned a thought-provoking exploration of life's great mysteries (everything from quantum physics and God to psychic phenomena and dating) that quickly captured the attention and imaginations of readers everywhere. The intriguing story of a deliveryman who meets the world's smartest person and learns the secret of reality is threaded with a variety of hypnosis techniques that Adams, a certified hypnotist, used to induce a feeling of euphoric enlightenment in readers to mirror the main character's feelings as he discovers the true nature of the universe.Launched to coincide with the hardcover publication of its sequel, The Religion War (see opposite page), this first paperback edition of God's Debris will soon make the leap to a broader audience. As Adams designed it, the book will "make your brain spin around inside your skull" and drive readers toward The Religion War as they seek to confirm or deny the dizzying impressions and chaotic memories of reading God's Debris.The book provides one of the most compelling visions of reality ever experienced on the printed page. Along the way, readers will enjoy the Thought Experiment: Trying to discover what's wrong with the sage's explanation of reality. This is a book, as Adams says, to be shared and savored with smart friends.
What does it feel like to suddenly understand everything? God's Debris isn't the final answer to the Big Questions. But it might be the most compelling vision of reality you will ever read.
"Since Adams parted company with Pacific Bell in 1995, the business he has built out of mocking business has turned into the sort of success story that the average cartoon hero could only dream of."—The London Financial Times
"Go ahead and cut that Dilbert cartoon. Pin it to the wall of your claustrophobic cubicle. Laugh at it around the water cooler, remarking how similar it is to the incomprehensible memos and ludicrous management strategies at your own company."—The Washington Post
Dilbert, Dogbert, and the rest of the world's favorite cubicle dwellers are sure to leave you rolling in your workspace with Scott Adams's cartoon collection, Journey to Cubeville.
Dilbert creator Scott Adams has something special for everyone who thinks their workplace is a living monument to inefficiency—or, for those who have been led to believe unnecessary work is like popcorn for the soul.
Adams lampoons everything in the business world that drives the sane worker into the land of the lunacy:
*Network administrators who have the power to paralyze an entire business with a mere keystroke
*Accountants who force you to battle ferociously to get reimbursed for a $2.59 ham sandwich you scarfed while traveling
*Managers obsessed with perfect-attendance certificates, dead-end projects, and blocking employees from fun web sites and decent office supplies
*Companies spending piles of dough on projects deeply rooted in stupidity, as well as a myriad of stupid consultants
"Dilbert is easily one of the most clever and consistently funny comics in current circulation. Like all great comic strips, it provides a much-needed daily dose of comedy and, most importantly, keeps its finger firmly planted on the pulse of truth while doing so." Some might think that the corporate scandals of 2002 could make it difficult to find anything funny about today's business world. But When Body Language Goes Bad proves it will take more than that to slow down the inventive wit of Scott Adams, who clearly is never at a loss for finding hysterical things to mock in corporate life.
This marks the 21st collection of Adams' wildly popular comic strip, Dilbert, which is featured in more than 2,000 newspapers worldwide. This book updates loyal readers on the so-called careers of Dilbert, Alice, Wally, Asok the intern, and other regulars as they wallow through pointless projects, mismanaged company takeovers, futile team-building exercises, and other inane company initiatives like the "name the rest room" contest.
In addition to the strips' familiar characters, this collection showcases Adams' masterful ability to create hilarious "guest stars." There's the network design engineer known as Psycho Hillbilly, who was going for the gentle biker look until he decided it was overdone. Then, there's M. T. Suit, who is merely an empty suit walking the office halls spewing corporatese, such as "promising to enhance core competencies by leveraging platforms."
Adams says that about 80 percent of his initial ideas come from his 150 million-plus readers. Those worldwide readers are sure to celebrate the humor found in When Body Language Goes Bad, his latest satirical look at the modern workplace.
As fresh a look at the inanity of office life as it brought to the comics pages when it first appeared in 1989, this 40th AMP Dilbert collection comically confirms to the working public that we all really know what's going on. Our devices might be more sophisticated, our software and apps might be more plentiful, but when it gets down to interactions between the worker bees and the clueless in-controls, discontent and sarcasm rule, as only Dilbert can proclaim.
No office can function without a little humor and craziness. Adams turns mundane office issues into excruciatingly funny office moments.
In Freedom's Just Another Word for People Finding Out You're Useless, fans get a hilarious collection of great Dilbert strips that are anything but useless. From office politics and reams of red tape, to mayhem due to new technologies and, of course, the crazy cast of co-workers, Dilbert gets it done.
In this frenetically paced sequel to Adams' best-selling "thought experiment," God's Debris, the smartest man in the world is on a mission to stop a cataclysmic war between Christian and Muslim forces and save civilization. The brilliantly crafted, thought-provoking fable raises questions about the nature of reality and just where our delusions are taking us.
With publication of The Religion War, millions of long-time fans of Scott Adams' Dilbert cartoons and business best sellers will have to admit that the literary world is a better place with Adams on the loose spreading new ideas and philosophical conundrums.
Unlike God's Debris, which was principally a dialogue between its two main characters, The Religion War is set several decades in the future when the smartest man in the world steps between international leaders to prevent a catastrophic confrontation between Christianiy and Islam. The parallels between where we are today and where we could be in the near future are clear.
According to Adams, The Religion War targets "bright readers with short attention spans-everyone from lazy students to busy book clubs." But while the book may be a three-hour read, it's packed with concepts that will be discussed long after the last page is turned, including a list of "Questions to Ponder in the Shower" that reinforce the story's purpose of highlighting the most important-yet most ignored-questions in the world.
"Adams scrapes his pen across the fears and absurdities of an age we entered when we weren't paying attention-the age of the bureaucratic vacuum." Dilbert is the Everyman in the down-sized, techno-centered workplace. He's the corporately innocent engineer who experiences the absurdities and oddities of office life from his (sometimes shrinking) cubicle. Complemented by his sarcastic and power-hungry dog, Dogbert (aspiring Supreme Ruler of the Earth whose secret happiness is "High expectations and your own bag of chips"), Dilbert provides humor on one of life's most insidious subjects: work. It's Obvious You Won't Survive by Your Wits Alone features nearly two years of Dilbert comic strips (including Sunday cartoons!) that have never appeared in book form.
Dilbert is the Everyman in the down-sized, techno-centered workplace of the '90s, who experiences the absurdities and oddities of office life from his cubicle. This collection of cartoons, starring Dilbert and his sarcastic and power-hungry canine companion Dogbert, features nearly two years of strips that have never before appeared in book form.
From mountain and valley, from hill and dale, people are asking, "How can I have more Dilbert in my life?" Help is at hand with a blast from the past in Scott Adams' very first compilation of Dilbert comic strips, Always Postpone Meetings with Time-Wasting Morons.
It is tempting to compare Adams' work to that of Leonardo da Vinci. The differences are striking. Adams displays good jokes and strong character development, whereas da Vinci has been skating for years on his ability to do shading. Advantage: Adams.
And though it may seem boorish to point this out, da Vinci wrote backwards. And he's dead. Advantage: Adams.
The choice is clear. Fans looking for a book which will stand the test of time, even beyond the time you spend flipping through it in the bookstore (for which the author receives no royalties whatsoever), should buy this book. Those who are not good comparison shoppers can buy the Mona Lisa.
The latest collection from best-selling cartoonist Scott Adams that touches on the subject of underperforming and sneaky co-workers.
Inside Your Accomplishments Are Suspiciously Hard to Verify, Adams tackles the subjects of Elbonian slave labor, faulty product recalls, less-than-anonymous employee surveys, and more.
If you've ever looked among your co-workers and thought, "I hope feral cats eat every one of you," or briefly celebrated a well-deserved promotion only to realize that the word "promotion" now means that you're responsible for doing two jobs for the price of one, then chances are you find the corporate cubicle culture represented inside Dilbert alive and well inside your own work environment—and that's exactly what makes Dilbert so topical and funny.
From Dilbert's invention of a portable brain scanner (with a popcorn microwave option) to his moonlighting as a professional corporate crime scene cleaner, Your Accomplishments Are Suspiciously Hard to Verify chronicles pointless projects, interminable meetings, and ill-conceived office policies one Dilbert strip at a time.
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