author : Scott Adams

A fun collection of early-ish Dilbert cartoons, selected to illustrate various Dogbertian themes, such as "Group Writing", "Understanding Technical People" and "The Joy of Feedback", with commentary by that management guru, Dogbert himself.

Early stuff: Dilbert is an electronics nerd, and has not yet evolved into the programmer nerd we all know and recognise. He can't get a date, but begins to understand why when he stumbles over a book called Attractive Women's Secret Guide to Avoiding Dilbert. And we find out where Bob and Dawn, the dinosaurs living in Dilbert's house, came from...

More about engineer-nerd Dilbert's failed attempts to get a date, his dog Dogbert's failed attempts to become Supreme Ruler of the World, and his live-in dinosaurs Bob and Dawn's fear of unexpected Ice Ages. Right at the end we meet Ratbert, an escapee from a research lab, bred to have absolutely no will power

By now, Dilbert is a working mainly as a programmer (except for a short stint when he is trapped in Accounting), though still inventing gizmos at home. It's a good job one of those is a cloning machine, because Mother Nature kills him for ruining the planet (with a nice homage to Garry Larson). Dogbert is still dreaming about world domination, but hasn't yet moved into Consulting... And there are some good jokes about crop circles.

Yet a further collection of the excellent cartoons.

Yet a further collection of the excellent cartoons. These mainly concentrate on the manager-worker interaction, with special emphasis on "downsizing", with fewer of the fantasy elements of the earlier collections. These cartoons are nearly up to date (indeed, I remember reading some of them on the Web originally): Dilbert is now a programmer in a cubicle rather than a dabbler in electronics, and the pointless boss has evolved into full pointy-haired-ness.

The title sums up the contents. There is some of Dogbert being a consultant (As luck would have it, your core competency is "giving money to consultants") and ruling the world, Catbert the Evil HR Director, and even a token appearance from Bob the dinosaur. But it's mainly about the clueless Pointy-Haired Boss making Dilbert, Wally, and Alice's lives cubical-hell, and their occasional successful revenge. Brilliant.

Yet a further collection of the great cartoons. A slightly lower rating this time because there is no fantasy (no dinosaurs, no Mother Nature, no Accounting Trolls), just straightforward work -- of course, I'm still thinking of Dogbert and Catbert as real...

More everyday struggles with clueless management, with non-existent morale, with uncooperative colleagues, and with Catbert the Evil HR Director. (I was going to say there is less "fantasy" in this volume, because there's no Elbonia, and only a hint of a dinosaur -- then I realised I was thinking of Catbert as being real...)

Yet a further collection of the great cartoons. It's a time when the engineers are fighting back, because there is a shortage of them for hire. The fight may give them a small sense of satisfaction, but it doesn't actually get them anywhere with Catbert the Evil HR director, or with the PHB

Yes, yet a further collection of the excellent cartoons. (But it is a pity when the colour Sunday strip occasionally interrupts a 'story'.)

The first half has some strips whose sole purpose is to lead to a dreadful pun, but towards the latter half we are getting back into the surrealistic office politics we all know and love. Dogbert is still trying to rule the world, or just become a business consultant; Dilbert gets tried for killing a colleague, has a food fight with a senior executive, and goes on more unsuccessful dates; Ratbert is still trying to get Dilbert to see him as more than a rat; Mother Nature plays a few pranks.

Yet a further collection of the excellent cartoons.

Yet more of the excellent cartoons -- and I'm catching up, as I remember previously reading some of these on The Dilbert Zone.

Scott Adams, tired of being a cartoonist, has decided to jump on the 'Management theory' bandwagon with his own book. Hilarious, and very bitter, stuff!. He bases his management theory on the Dilbert Principle, one up in cynicism from the Peter Principle. He provides a manual on how to survive in the workplace, from 'Machiavellian methods' to 'How to tell if your company is doomed'. All illustrated with anecdotes, cartoons, and emails from afflicted workers.

His last chapter is, in fact, serious. It's his prescription for how to run a successful company, mainly by treating the employees well, and allowing them to do their jobs as easily as possible. If followed, it would probably succeed. But then, if most modern management theory was followed, it would probably succeed, too. The problem is that it gets lost in the translation, and everybody ends up slavishly following the letter, whilst never seeming to grasp the spirit, of the law.

Being printed in the smaller format of a hardcover book, some of the cartoons are a little hard on the eyes. Despite that, I did notice that some occur more than once, illustrating different points!

Following on from The Dilbert Principle, Scott Adams describes what life will be like in the future: a future full of InDuhViduals and unworkable technology. The humour gets ever more acid: is Adams falling into the trap of beginning to preach rather than to entertain? But there are still some really great extrapolations and observations -- especially the one about where all the clever people are...

And as in The Dilbert Principle, he ends up with a 'serious' chapter. Here it is his take on science, psychics and 'Affirmations' as a life style, which is definitely well into the realms of pseudoscience. I remain unconvinced by his arguments and examples: I believe those events he describes that appear significant can be explained adequately by 'bad statistics' and 'selection effects'.