Dilbert has become one of the most successful strips in the world because Scott Adams feels your pain. He's seen the leadership firsthand. And he knows that to successfully navigate the ludicrous world of business you can't expect common sense to prevail, you need to keep a sense of humour and, above all, you must always look before you leap...
Don't Step in the Leadership is the latest Dilbert collection from the creator responsible for uniting cubicle dwellers across the world, for giving them hope... er, well, at least a big laugh. So be a pal and help Scott Adams be a good provider to his pets -- buy this book. Leave it out on your desk to annoy the pointy-haired person in your life. Featuring cartoons from January to October 1998, it's a far better bargain than dinner and a movie.
Adams was born in Windham, New York in 1957 and received his Bachelor's degree in Economics from Hartwick College in 1979.
He also studied economics and management for his 1986 MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
In recent years, Adams has been hurt with a series of debilitating health problems. Since late 2004, he has suffered from a reemergence of his focal dystonia which has affected his drawing. He can fool his brain by drawing using a graphics tablet. On December 12, 2005, Adams announced on his blog that he also suffers from spasmodic dysphonia, a condition that causes the vocal cords to behave in an abnormal manner. However, on October 24, 2006, he again blogged stating that he had recovered from this condition, although he is unsure if the recovery is permanent. He claims to have developed a method to work around the disorder and has been able to speak normally since. Also, on January 21, 2007, he posted a blog entry detailing his experiences with treatment by Dr. Morton Cooper.
Adams is also a trained hypnotist, as well as a vegetarian. (Mentioned in, "Dilbert: A Treasury of Sunday Strips 00).
Along with Zits!, another comic strip I loved was Dilbert. Yes, I was the little kid who spent Sunday morning reading Dilbert. Did I understand everything? No, of course not. But I wanted to. I had this innate need to understand this world and I kept returning to the comics as I grew older. Obviously as an adult I understand a great deal more; not everything but at least I know that my passion for cynical humour was there since childhood.
Scott Adams has created the perfect replica of our world without the pretty wrapping paper. It is the coal you receive as a gift. The realization of your impending adulthood. The little dashing of hope we give ourselves to make our lives meaningful. The rat race many love to romanticize under the name of “life”. Dilbert is, human history.
Any work in any organization -- the bigger the work place, the worse it is -- entails dealing with piles and piles of leadership. Do NOT step in it; get the shovel and try to use it as fertilizer . . . Or better still, leave the leadership in the hallway, quit, and take the shovel with you to go work in a garden. You will be outdoors, doing productive work that bears fruit, a better, more healthy, person for it.
There's plenty of work to be avoided amidst the cubicles, but the Pointy-Haired Boss will do what he can to lead his inferiors in the right direction - even if that direction involves zany antics and possible fatal casualties. Adams keeps the laughs coming with another hilarious collection of comics sure to draw fans back again and again. What sort of troubles will come from this particular ego trip?
We all might have started out like Calvin with a great view of life. But after hitting the workforce we all somewhat become Dilbert. Everyone knows someone like one of the characters in the strips. Highly recommended
I love Dilbert and this book is one of his best in the series. The great thing is, you don't have to work in the IT business to still get the management puns and daily work life. A great laugh!
Unless you read Scott Adams' foreword, in which he refers to his AOL email address, it's very hard to tell that this book is 15 years old, and the strips even older.