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Dilbert #13
Don't Step in the Leadership
"For the armies of American office workers, Dilbert is a reminder that they are not alone." — Chicago Tribune
"Cruel and incompetent bosses, plus the pervasive stupidity of people Adams calls 'in-duh-viduals,' are favorite targets in the strip, which appears...on the Internet, in best-selling books, and on refrigerator magnets, coffee mugs, desk calendars, software, neckties, and even underwear." — Playboy magazine
Does Dilbert creator Scott Adams have a hidden camera in your office—or is he just completely in tune with the inept managers, wacky office politics, and nonsensical leadership practices that seem to run wild at your company?
Stop looking for the camera. Dilbert has become a hugely successful strip because Adams feels your pain. How? Because this former employee of a major telecommunications company has been there. 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 humor, and above all, you must always look before you leap.
The strip's enormous popularity stems from the fact that its millions of readers easily identify with the crazy plots and wacky characters found within the corporate environment of collections like this one, Don't Step on the Leadership . Sure, most companies don't have a bespectacled engineer with a tie permanently curled up, a cynical talking dog, and a manager with two pointy tufts of hair. But it's the outrageous things Dilbert characters do and say that leave readers knowingly nodding their heads and, of course, laughing uproariously. The antics of Dilbert 's cast are based not only on Adams' own corporate experiences, but on the more than 300 e-mails he receives each day about the office dramas of his devoted fans.
"Cruel and incompetent bosses, plus the pervasive stupidity of people Adams calls 'in-duh-viduals,' are favorite targets in the strip, which appears...on the Internet, in best-selling books, and on refrigerator magnets, coffee mugs, desk calendars, software, neckties, and even underwear." — Playboy magazine
Does Dilbert creator Scott Adams have a hidden camera in your office—or is he just completely in tune with the inept managers, wacky office politics, and nonsensical leadership practices that seem to run wild at your company?
Stop looking for the camera. Dilbert has become a hugely successful strip because Adams feels your pain. How? Because this former employee of a major telecommunications company has been there. 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 humor, and above all, you must always look before you leap.
The strip's enormous popularity stems from the fact that its millions of readers easily identify with the crazy plots and wacky characters found within the corporate environment of collections like this one, Don't Step on the Leadership . Sure, most companies don't have a bespectacled engineer with a tie permanently curled up, a cynical talking dog, and a manager with two pointy tufts of hair. But it's the outrageous things Dilbert characters do and say that leave readers knowingly nodding their heads and, of course, laughing uproariously. The antics of Dilbert 's cast are based not only on Adams' own corporate experiences, but on the more than 300 e-mails he receives each day about the office dramas of his devoted fans.
128 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1999
4 people are currently reading
162 people want to read
About the author
Scott Adams
281 books1,307 followersLibrarian 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
August 8, 2020
General good fun with Dilbert!
August 6, 2019
5/5
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.
Review Continued Here
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.
Review Continued Here
January 20, 2020
Є декілька цікавих і смішних коміксів, але більшість вже застаріла
December 7, 2019
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.
September 10, 2017
Another good collection of Dilbert comics. I'm more than certain this one had a comic that also appeared in the other collection I just read.
October 25, 2018
Dilbert Cartoons - the life of engineers in cubicles, continued.
January 11, 2019
And it went from funny to depressing.
April 12, 2019
The irony is the accuracy!
April 24, 2019
Excellent advice on leadership, one of the best books on the subject.
April 25, 2020
These remind me of how much worse I could have things and what type of manager I don't want to be.
June 25, 2022
You can't go wrong with a book of Dilbert comic strips!!
December 21, 2023
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?
January 23, 2016
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
June 11, 2007
Great read and a good laugh for all office workers. Especially if you are in an IT company.
There are times when you will say to yourself - "OMG... that happened to me!"
There are times when you will say to yourself - "OMG... that happened to me!"
December 1, 2008
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!
February 10, 2009
I really have started to appreciate the humor of Dilbert since working in an office.
January 3, 2013
Classic Dilbert. Love Scott Adams & this strip. A great way to relax in-between dark mysteries.
May 21, 2012
The jokes get better the more time you spend in an office with a bunch of engineers.
April 28, 2014
One of the world's great volumes of philosophy. Should be required reading for anyone who wishes to get a job working for someone else.
August 7, 2014
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.
Still funny, yo.
Still funny, yo.
June 14, 2015
A management-focused collection which i found highly entertaining. Lots of catbert.
March 26, 2009
dilbert is fun.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews