Optimism Sounds Exhausting

Dilbert #43

by Scott Adams

Does Scott Adams really have a hidden camera in your cubicle?

Dilbert, the cubicle-dwelling drone, is at his satirical best with this new collection of cartoons. Dilbert has managed to keep up with technology like iPads and Twitter over the years, as well as advanced systems like the Disaster Preparedness Plan that has its followers eating the crumbs from their keyboards. It doesn’t get any more sophisticated than that.
 
It’s an office code violation to be this good after so many years, but Dilbert keeps doing what he does best: passive-aggressively out-witting his superiors and exercising conflict avoidance. And he is so good. No wonder office drones and workforce automatons alike can’t resist the cold embrace of Dilbert’s workplace.

Genres: Comics, Humor, Comic Strips, Graphic Novels, Fiction

168 pages, Hardcover

First published November 10, 2015

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Scott Adams was a defining voice of the American white-collar experience who transitioned from a prominent cartoonist into a polarizing political commentator. After earning an MBA from UC Berkeley and spending years in management at Pacific Bell, Adams launched the comic strip Dilbert in 1989. The strip’s sharp satire of corporate bureaucracy and the "Dilbert Principle"—the idea that incompetent employees are promoted to management to minimize their damage—resonated globally, eventually appearing in 2,000 newspapers and winning the prestigious Reuben Award. Beyond the funny pages, Adams explored philosophy and persuasion in works like God's Debris and Win Bigly, the latter of which analyzed Donald Trump’s rhetorical strategies during the 2016 election. His career took a dramatic turn during the mid-2010s as he shifted focus to his daily "Real Coffee" livestream, where he combined his background in hypnosis and corporate strategy to comment on the "culture wars." This period of independent commentary culminated in 2023 when he reacted to a poll regarding racial tensions with a series of inflammatory remarks. Labeling Black Americans a "hate group" and advocating for racial segregation, Adams faced immediate and widespread repercussions; hundreds of newspapers dropped his strip, and his publisher canceled his upcoming projects. Undeterred, he moved his work to the subscription-based platform Locals, rebranding his comic as Dilbert Reborn. In his final years, he faced severe health challenges, including stage IV prostate cancer and vocal cord issues, yet he remained a prolific presence on social media. He eventually announced the end of his hand-drawn work due to focal dystonia but continued to direct the strip's vision. Adams’s legacy remains a complex study in the power of branding, the evolution of digital influence, and the volatile intersection of creative genius and political provocation in the modern era.

Reviews

[Carol McCarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like Dilbert comics, so this was a fun read.

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Viewing work/office culture with a pinpoint wry ability, while laughing at the universal irony of it all. I loved it.

[SKP · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of fun—I love all the Dilbert collections, especially when they are like this one, and don’t seem to repeat from other collections I’ve read. There were a lot of good strips in this one, and some standouts that featured Wally.

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Isn't there a little bit of Wally in all of us?

[Jayme · Rating 4 out of 5]

Provided lots of laughs at a time when I need them

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great wisdom here.

[Bruce Colella · Rating 5 out of 5]

We’ve All Worked at Dilbert’s Company

And we’ve all had a pointy haired boss who was clueless about how we did our job but made sure it was harder than it needed to be.

[Cale · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a collection of Dilbert comics - what else really needs to be said? Considering how long the strip has been going, and how many strips are collected, it's surprising how many still manage to be dead on target and also how many still manage to be funny. There's a lot of ground that gets trod multiple times, but the dynamics of the office have changed over the years - now that Pointy-haired boss has his big head boss that is equally useless, but in marvelous new ways, there's lots of fertile ground here. If you're tired of Dilbert, this won't change your mind, but it still has a surprising amount of bite left in it.

[Rex Libris]

I enjoyed this book as I enjoy all things Dilbert. However, i do not enjoy it quite as much as I did when I worked at Career Education Corp. At that point in my life Dilbert was very therapeutic, as Adams captured life at CEC quite realistically.

Fortunately RSNA is nothing like the world of Dilbert.

[Michael Britt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read Dilbert.

Dilbert funny. Dilbert good.

Why the hell can't I just give a star rating and submit? I'm even required to provide a discrete word count before the Submit button activates? I don't care what strangers think about much of anything especially my book choices. If this was a tool review it'd be a different case.

Just let me enter stars and submit.

[Marsha Altman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know if I've been just too influenced by reading the MRA Dilbert Tumblr, or if his writing has gotten stale, but I didn't enjoy much of this book.

[C.E. G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scott Adams seems like a bit of a nut, but there were a few comics here that hit the nail on the head for working in a bureaucracy.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scott Adams is the best. He's a good American and a great cartoonist. This newest book is fun because it seems to feature Wally more, my favorite character.
If you love Dilbert, you should catch up with your favorite engineer with this book!