I recently reread Dogberts Management Handbook, a book I thought was hilarious when I was fifteen, but I’ve found it also didn’t age well. It’s written by “Dogbert,” and Adams definitely uses that guy to say some pretty upsetting things.
Ditto with the Dogbert “Clues for the clueless” guide. In between every goofy joke about modern life are five ways to insult people who aren’t as smart as you because they haven’t read this brilliant book. Adams seems to think that recognizing odd social inconsistencies elevates him far above those normie dopes who just accept that life sometimes doesn’t make perfect sense.
There are plenty of hack comedians who like to trot out the old “why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?” or “why are hot dogs sold in packs of ten but buns are sold in packs of eight?” gags, but even most of those guys are smart enough to realize that noticing how life can be messy and sometimes frustrating doesn’t make them Ozymandias from “Watchmen.”
The most shocking thing about Scott Adams for me was finding out he apparently meant the Pointy Haired Boss to be role model.
It’s worse than that: the dumbass boss started out as a dumbass boss, but as Adams rose in power, his perception changed and he started seeing only dumbass employees while the boss became sympathetic and shrewd.
Fuck that guy.
i had the scott adams book anthology and tossed it when i moved out to free myself of 5lbs of shit. reading this… i have regrets about not going through the shit. Almost
I got this book as a kid from a Canadian library, so socialism deserves blame for spreading the grift just as much as Santa.
You can thank the people of Brooklyn for paying a decent amount of taxes to their library for this book to be gone. The more money libraries have, the faster they can shuffle out old, slow moving items.
Though it’s hard to think any book that isn’t local history or something from 1997 being on a shelf anywhere at a public library.
*Is a librarian*
I read this when I was around ten. I remember thinking how lame it was that it was in the voice of Dogbert because he was boring and sucked. I think this was where I learned that affirmations were a thing as well.
Oh, and there were also sections where Scott Adams talks about fucking and I really didn’t like that. Fuck this book.
Scott Adams fucks like he writes; aggressively, quickly, and without checking if anything he’s doing is ok.
Alex, thank you for writing this. I felt like you were writing FOR me, because I too have been a passenger on the Scott Adam’s rollercoaster. My book was “The Dilbert Principle” but it really makes no difference as all of his books are basically the same exact thing with a different cover.
Jrod in his 20’s thought Scott Adam’s was an oracle who probably worked for Oracle at some point.
Scott Adams thinks human reproduction is complicated because he’s never even been breathed on by a woman.
This is the most vile book ever reviewed by 1-900-HOTDOG.
Wait, he’s a eugenicist who also think evolution will be disproven? That’s a pretty wild take, unless he means just the parts of evolutionary theory that disprove eugenics bs.
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13 replies on “Nerding Day: The Dilbert Future”
I recently reread Dogberts Management Handbook, a book I thought was hilarious when I was fifteen, but I’ve found it also didn’t age well. It’s written by “Dogbert,” and Adams definitely uses that guy to say some pretty upsetting things.
Ditto with the Dogbert “Clues for the clueless” guide. In between every goofy joke about modern life are five ways to insult people who aren’t as smart as you because they haven’t read this brilliant book. Adams seems to think that recognizing odd social inconsistencies elevates him far above those normie dopes who just accept that life sometimes doesn’t make perfect sense.
There are plenty of hack comedians who like to trot out the old “why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?” or “why are hot dogs sold in packs of ten but buns are sold in packs of eight?” gags, but even most of those guys are smart enough to realize that noticing how life can be messy and sometimes frustrating doesn’t make them Ozymandias from “Watchmen.”
The most shocking thing about Scott Adams for me was finding out he apparently meant the Pointy Haired Boss to be role model.
It’s worse than that: the dumbass boss started out as a dumbass boss, but as Adams rose in power, his perception changed and he started seeing only dumbass employees while the boss became sympathetic and shrewd.
Fuck that guy.
i had the scott adams book anthology and tossed it when i moved out to free myself of 5lbs of shit. reading this… i have regrets about not going through the shit. Almost
I got this book as a kid from a Canadian library, so socialism deserves blame for spreading the grift just as much as Santa.
You can thank the people of Brooklyn for paying a decent amount of taxes to their library for this book to be gone. The more money libraries have, the faster they can shuffle out old, slow moving items.
Though it’s hard to think any book that isn’t local history or something from 1997 being on a shelf anywhere at a public library.
*Is a librarian*
I read this when I was around ten. I remember thinking how lame it was that it was in the voice of Dogbert because he was boring and sucked. I think this was where I learned that affirmations were a thing as well.
Oh, and there were also sections where Scott Adams talks about fucking and I really didn’t like that. Fuck this book.
Scott Adams fucks like he writes; aggressively, quickly, and without checking if anything he’s doing is ok.
Alex, thank you for writing this. I felt like you were writing FOR me, because I too have been a passenger on the Scott Adam’s rollercoaster. My book was “The Dilbert Principle” but it really makes no difference as all of his books are basically the same exact thing with a different cover.
Jrod in his 20’s thought Scott Adam’s was an oracle who probably worked for Oracle at some point.
Scott Adams thinks human reproduction is complicated because he’s never even been breathed on by a woman.
This is the most vile book ever reviewed by 1-900-HOTDOG.
Wait, he’s a eugenicist who also think evolution will be disproven? That’s a pretty wild take, unless he means just the parts of evolutionary theory that disprove eugenics bs.
Nah, he’s probably not that aware