Brilliant Collection, 17 Nov 2008
The product description here does not do this magnificent collection justice - to lift and shift from the better description on the US Amazon:
"This special slipcased collection--weighing in at more than ten pounds with 600 pages and featuring almost 4,000 strips--takes readers behind the scenes and into the early days of Scott Adams's life pre-Dilbert and on to the success that followed when Dilbert became an internationally syndicated sensation.
Divided into five different epochs, Dilbert 2.0 gives readers a glance at some of Adams's earliest strips, like those created for Playboy, and a peek at an abundance of special content ranging from numerous rejection letters to Adams's first cartooning check, and more.
Adams personally selected the material for this collection and offers original comments and humorous asides throughout. Also included is a piracy-protected disc that contains every Dilbert comic strip to date and that can be updated as new cartoons are released"
This is a fantastic bit of work, worth the money just for the book, but to also get the disc with every single strip published to date is a real bonus. To those of us who endure an office based life, Scott Adams sees straight through the nonsense and produces cartoons that makes you wonder if he is sitting in on your Board meetings.
If you are a fan (and if not, why not?) then this collection is an absolute must.


Dilbert gets the Deluxe treatment, 29 Oct 2008
Like many of the recent Dilbert releases this is reusing the old material, BUT this is something special. It's a nicely bound huge book (9pounds, over 4kg) with a sturdy slipcover.

Collection starts with small biography of Scott Adams along with drawings from his childhood and adult life before Dilbert. Then it's divided into different "ages" of Dilbert, as in the early strips it really wasn't a workplace comic and then evolves into workplace and so on.

Collection has over 2 000 strips from the 6000+ Dilbert catalog. Included on the back page of the book is also a DVD containing every single strip from 1989 to 2008 and a code that allows you to download future strips from their site.

Brilliant Collection, 17 Nov 2008
The product description here does not do this magnificent collection justice - to lift and shift from the better description on the US Amazon:
"This special slipcased collection--weighing in at more than ten pounds with 600 pages and featuring almost 4,000 strips--takes readers behind the scenes and into the early days of Scott Adams's life pre-Dilbert and on to the success that followed when Dilbert became an internationally syndicated sensation.
Divided into five different epochs, Dilbert 2.0 gives readers a glance at some of Adams's earliest strips, like those created for Playboy, and a peek at an abundance of special content ranging from numerous rejection letters to Adams's first cartooning check, and more.
Adams personally selected the material for this collection and offers original comments and humorous asides throughout. Also included is a piracy-protected disc that contains every Dilbert comic strip to date and that can be updated as new cartoons are released"
This is a fantastic bit of work, worth the money just for the book, but to also get the disc with every single strip published to date is a real bonus. To those of us who endure an office based life, Scott Adams sees straight through the nonsense and produces cartoons that makes you wonder if he is sitting in on your Board meetings.
If you are a fan (and if not, why not?) then this collection is an absolute must.


Dilbert gets the Deluxe treatment, 29 Oct 2008
Like many of the recent Dilbert releases this is reusing the old material, BUT this is something special. It's a nicely bound huge book (9pounds, over 4kg) with a sturdy slipcover.

Collection starts with small biography of Scott Adams along with drawings from his childhood and adult life before Dilbert. Then it's divided into different "ages" of Dilbert, as in the early strips it really wasn't a workplace comic and then evolves into workplace and so on.

Collection has over 2 000 strips from the 6000+ Dilbert catalog. Included on the back page of the book is also a DVD containing every single strip from 1989 to 2008 and a code that allows you to download future strips from their site.

usual (high) Dilbert quality humour, 11 Jan 2005
If you are a Dilbert fan you will love this standard collection of Scott Adams humour. Nothing unexpected...the feeling of reading this comic book is that of familiar comfort--to the extreme!

One of the masters best !!!, 07 Jul 2004
Just finished reading this book and thought it one of the best from the master himself. It will incite spasms of recognition with anyone in any way connected to a large organisation. Its frightfully accurate but very funny. Meetings for the sake of meeting and cringe-worthy mission statements. I also read Management by Vice - its not very good and no match for the master himself. A bit boring in fact.

The only area not covered by 'Dilbert' is all that touchy feely 'Human Resource Management' stuff (BS) which has got to be the waffle of waffle - hopefully we'll see it covered soon.

Very Funny Office Humor!, 12 Mar 2001
I enjoyed this book. It presents a lively collection of very funny management and cubicle worker situations. However, though aspects of managerial bungling are protrayed in Dilbert's unique style, "Ramdom Acts of Management" does not address managerial short-comings throughout the corporate structure or the diverse candid opinions of employees. To read about a somewhat more complete perspective on company-wide mis-management, from project managers to glib CEOs and their interactions with their feisty and/or frustrated technical staff, I definitely recommend the hilarious and insightful episodes in the frank, true-to-life American satire, "Management by Vice" (by C.B. Don). It's not just a compilation of cartoon strips, but real a book with episodes, witty verses and accompanying sharp illustrations! With these two books, you can always have a good laugh and thus be prepared for anything management throws your way from the office to the R&D setting, right the way through the corporate culture and up the company ladder!

Another Scott Adams' masterpiece..., 11 Dec 2000
exagerrating? Maybe but I never had satisfaction below expectations from a Adams Dilbert book. Sometimes it even predicts something that's about to really happen in... minutes! Working in a big corporation is just like that!

It's no the best Dilbert book... but it's not bad..., 15 Jun 2000
A lot of the strips I had already seen on the dilbert web site, so they didn't seem as funny second time around. Personally I prefered The Dilbert future... but this is still a good read for £5...

Brilliant Collection, 17 Nov 2008
The product description here does not do this magnificent collection justice - to lift and shift from the better description on the US Amazon:
"This special slipcased collection--weighing in at more than ten pounds with 600 pages and featuring almost 4,000 strips--takes readers behind the scenes and into the early days of Scott Adams's life pre-Dilbert and on to the success that followed when Dilbert became an internationally syndicated sensation.
Divided into five different epochs, Dilbert 2.0 gives readers a glance at some of Adams's earliest strips, like those created for Playboy, and a peek at an abundance of special content ranging from numerous rejection letters to Adams's first cartooning check, and more.
Adams personally selected the material for this collection and offers original comments and humorous asides throughout. Also included is a piracy-protected disc that contains every Dilbert comic strip to date and that can be updated as new cartoons are released"
This is a fantastic bit of work, worth the money just for the book, but to also get the disc with every single strip published to date is a real bonus. To those of us who endure an office based life, Scott Adams sees straight through the nonsense and produces cartoons that makes you wonder if he is sitting in on your Board meetings.
If you are a fan (and if not, why not?) then this collection is an absolute must.


Dilbert gets the Deluxe treatment, 29 Oct 2008
Like many of the recent Dilbert releases this is reusing the old material, BUT this is something special. It's a nicely bound huge book (9pounds, over 4kg) with a sturdy slipcover.

Collection starts with small biography of Scott Adams along with drawings from his childhood and adult life before Dilbert. Then it's divided into different "ages" of Dilbert, as in the early strips it really wasn't a workplace comic and then evolves into workplace and so on.

Collection has over 2 000 strips from the 6000+ Dilbert catalog. Included on the back page of the book is also a DVD containing every single strip from 1989 to 2008 and a code that allows you to download future strips from their site.

usual (high) Dilbert quality humour, 11 Jan 2005
If you are a Dilbert fan you will love this standard collection of Scott Adams humour. Nothing unexpected...the feeling of reading this comic book is that of familiar comfort--to the extreme!

One of the masters best !!!, 07 Jul 2004
Just finished reading this book and thought it one of the best from the master himself. It will incite spasms of recognition with anyone in any way connected to a large organisation. Its frightfully accurate but very funny. Meetings for the sake of meeting and cringe-worthy mission statements. I also read Management by Vice - its not very good and no match for the master himself. A bit boring in fact.

The only area not covered by 'Dilbert' is all that touchy feely 'Human Resource Management' stuff (BS) which has got to be the waffle of waffle - hopefully we'll see it covered soon.

Very Funny Office Humor!, 12 Mar 2001
I enjoyed this book. It presents a lively collection of very funny management and cubicle worker situations. However, though aspects of managerial bungling are protrayed in Dilbert's unique style, "Ramdom Acts of Management" does not address managerial short-comings throughout the corporate structure or the diverse candid opinions of employees. To read about a somewhat more complete perspective on company-wide mis-management, from project managers to glib CEOs and their interactions with their feisty and/or frustrated technical staff, I definitely recommend the hilarious and insightful episodes in the frank, true-to-life American satire, "Management by Vice" (by C.B. Don). It's not just a compilation of cartoon strips, but real a book with episodes, witty verses and accompanying sharp illustrations! With these two books, you can always have a good laugh and thus be prepared for anything management throws your way from the office to the R&D setting, right the way through the corporate culture and up the company ladder!

Another Scott Adams' masterpiece..., 11 Dec 2000
exagerrating? Maybe but I never had satisfaction below expectations from a Adams Dilbert book. Sometimes it even predicts something that's about to really happen in... minutes! Working in a big corporation is just like that!

It's no the best Dilbert book... but it's not bad..., 15 Jun 2000
A lot of the strips I had already seen on the dilbert web site, so they didn't seem as funny second time around. Personally I prefered The Dilbert future... but this is still a good read for £5...

Genius!, 29 Apr 2004
Great book came across Dilbert when doing a management module for my Unicourse in a OB textbook! Fantastic and enlighting insight into the stupid corporate world!
Simply Genius!

Great1, 06 Mar 2004
You like Dilbert ?
Why are you reading this review ?

Just buy it

Dilbert: Things You Don't Want to Hear During Your Annual..., 19 Jan 2004
Very good, hilarious...
Collection of Dilbert comic strips..

Pure genius, 25 Nov 2003
You have to work in an office to really appreciate Scott Adams, if you do then the cartoons here will mean something to you as the stupidity of office life is reflected with brilliant accuracy. Every one is a gem and no wonder it is a rare office that does not have a fair few Dilbert cartoons stuck up on the noticeboards.

The only thing that holds this back from getting 5 stars is that it is not new stuff but an updated collection, and that a non office based audience may not appreciate this as much.

Having said that, Mr Adams is a genius and we are not worthy.

Brilliant Collection, 17 Nov 2008
The product description here does not do this magnificent collection justice - to lift and shift from the better description on the US Amazon:
"This special slipcased collection--weighing in at more than ten pounds with 600 pages and featuring almost 4,000 strips--takes readers behind the scenes and into the early days of Scott Adams's life pre-Dilbert and on to the success that followed when Dilbert became an internationally syndicated sensation.
Divided into five different epochs, Dilbert 2.0 gives readers a glance at some of Adams's earliest strips, like those created for Playboy, and a peek at an abundance of special content ranging from numerous rejection letters to Adams's first cartooning check, and more.
Adams personally selected the material for this collection and offers original comments and humorous asides throughout. Also included is a piracy-protected disc that contains every Dilbert comic strip to date and that can be updated as new cartoons are released"
This is a fantastic bit of work, worth the money just for the book, but to also get the disc with every single strip published to date is a real bonus. To those of us who endure an office based life, Scott Adams sees straight through the nonsense and produces cartoons that makes you wonder if he is sitting in on your Board meetings.
If you are a fan (and if not, why not?) then this collection is an absolute must.


Dilbert gets the Deluxe treatment, 29 Oct 2008
Like many of the recent Dilbert releases this is reusing the old material, BUT this is something special. It's a nicely bound huge book (9pounds, over 4kg) with a sturdy slipcover.

Collection starts with small biography of Scott Adams along with drawings from his childhood and adult life before Dilbert. Then it's divided into different "ages" of Dilbert, as in the early strips it really wasn't a workplace comic and then evolves into workplace and so on.

Collection has over 2 000 strips from the 6000+ Dilbert catalog. Included on the back page of the book is also a DVD containing every single strip from 1989 to 2008 and a code that allows you to download future strips from their site.

usual (high) Dilbert quality humour, 11 Jan 2005
If you are a Dilbert fan you will love this standard collection of Scott Adams humour. Nothing unexpected...the feeling of reading this comic book is that of familiar comfort--to the extreme!

One of the masters best !!!, 07 Jul 2004
Just finished reading this book and thought it one of the best from the master himself. It will incite spasms of recognition with anyone in any way connected to a large organisation. Its frightfully accurate but very funny. Meetings for the sake of meeting and cringe-worthy mission statements. I also read Management by Vice - its not very good and no match for the master himself. A bit boring in fact.

The only area not covered by 'Dilbert' is all that touchy feely 'Human Resource Management' stuff (BS) which has got to be the waffle of waffle - hopefully we'll see it covered soon.

Very Funny Office Humor!, 12 Mar 2001
I enjoyed this book. It presents a lively collection of very funny management and cubicle worker situations. However, though aspects of managerial bungling are protrayed in Dilbert's unique style, "Ramdom Acts of Management" does not address managerial short-comings throughout the corporate structure or the diverse candid opinions of employees. To read about a somewhat more complete perspective on company-wide mis-management, from project managers to glib CEOs and their interactions with their feisty and/or frustrated technical staff, I definitely recommend the hilarious and insightful episodes in the frank, true-to-life American satire, "Management by Vice" (by C.B. Don). It's not just a compilation of cartoon strips, but real a book with episodes, witty verses and accompanying sharp illustrations! With these two books, you can always have a good laugh and thus be prepared for anything management throws your way from the office to the R&D setting, right the way through the corporate culture and up the company ladder!

Another Scott Adams' masterpiece..., 11 Dec 2000
exagerrating? Maybe but I never had satisfaction below expectations from a Adams Dilbert book. Sometimes it even predicts something that's about to really happen in... minutes! Working in a big corporation is just like that!

It's no the best Dilbert book... but it's not bad..., 15 Jun 2000
A lot of the strips I had already seen on the dilbert web site, so they didn't seem as funny second time around. Personally I prefered The Dilbert future... but this is still a good read for £5...

Genius!, 29 Apr 2004
Great book came across Dilbert when doing a management module for my Unicourse in a OB textbook! Fantastic and enlighting insight into the stupid corporate world!
Simply Genius!

Great1, 06 Mar 2004
You like Dilbert ?
Why are you reading this review ?

Just buy it

Dilbert: Things You Don't Want to Hear During Your Annual..., 19 Jan 2004
Very good, hilarious...
Collection of Dilbert comic strips..

Pure genius, 25 Nov 2003
You have to work in an office to really appreciate Scott Adams, if you do then the cartoons here will mean something to you as the stupidity of office life is reflected with brilliant accuracy. Every one is a gem and no wonder it is a rare office that does not have a fair few Dilbert cartoons stuck up on the noticeboards.

The only thing that holds this back from getting 5 stars is that it is not new stuff but an updated collection, and that a non office based audience may not appreciate this as much.

Having said that, Mr Adams is a genius and we are not worthy.

Should replace the induction manual, 13 Oct 2007
As a practical guide to how modern business works, this is pretty much essential. Yes, it's funny (so funny that in places I hurt with laughter) but it's deadly serious too.

As well as reading some of the wittiest cartoon strips ever, you'll absorb some deep wisdom and get plenty of practical ideas for making the corporate life more bearable.

You must buy this is you work in an office (or ever have done), 06 Feb 2007
I read this book in 2001, and every so often even now in 2007 I burst out laughing as I remember one of his comments. If you have ever worked in an office, particularly for a large company, you will find this hilarious. The other thing about it is that although it is supposedly a joke, there is a lot of truth in it, and it can actually help your career!

Good, but "The Dilbert Future" is better., 30 Nov 2006
This book is quite simply a comic way of looking at management stupidity.
I think the phrase "it's funny because it's true" might as well have been invented for this book. Scott Adams you prompt you with pearls of common sense so you can see just how silly middle management can be.
Although this is often regarded as the definitive Dilbert book, I found it slightly less fun to read than the Dilbert Future. That book took a more global view of stupidity, rather than concentrating solely on the workplace.

So real it is scary, 07 Jul 2005
This book is so real that it is scary. You can tell that Scott Adams has spent time. His description of cube life is still relevant today.

I have been trying to justify the Peter Principle and could not make it fit but after reading this book all things became clear. It is impossible to keep a straight face in meetings with out seeing the different types of personalities doing their thing. I can even anticipate what they are going to say and the reactions.

Usually as most books and movies you recognize everyone but yourself. The most obnoxious person will laugh at his stereotype or just not get the point when it comes to movies and books. However this book is scary in the fact that I could see myself when Scott was describing engineers. And it took a little while to realize what he was talking about the ringing device that knows when to break your concentration.

I am going to leave a copy on QA's desk.

MY next must read is "Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook"

So good they should ban it, 30 Nov 2004
Books like this really shouldn't be allowed. They impart dangerous information to receptive minds and reveal things about management that a whole industry has been labouring for years to keep hidden.

The chapter on writing your own appraisal, for example, is very, very dangerous. I have never allowed any of my staff to see it, although I did make use of it when preparing my own appraisal for my boss's signature.

Simple tricks like the 'big picture manouvre' are just too good and useful to be dished out in paperback format.

Scott Adams takes 'the Peter Principle' into an entirely new space. Instead of writing about managers who have been promoted to their level of incompetence, he takes on whole corporate cultures which have grown to their level of incompetence. Everybody who has ever recommended 'concentrating our assets across the board' or, indeed, 'zooming in on the big picture', ought to read this book. Everybody who has ever considered punishing staff for having poor morale should read it. And every pointy haired manager who believes that anything he doesn't understand can't be very difficult should read it.

But workers? They should not be allowed to read it. It should be removed from their bookshelves and libraries. People buying this book online should have to prove that they are management grades before they complete their purchases.

Books like this are just too dangerous.

Brilliant Collection, 17 Nov 2008
The product description here does not do this magnificent collection justice - to lift and shift from the better description on the US Amazon:
"This special slipcased collection--weighing in at more than ten pounds with 600 pages and featuring almost 4,000 strips--takes readers behind the scenes and into the early days of Scott Adams's life pre-Dilbert and on to the success that followed when Dilbert became an internationally syndicated sensation.
Divided into five different epochs, Dilbert 2.0 gives readers a glance at some of Adams's earliest strips, like those created for Playboy, and a peek at an abundance of special content ranging from numerous rejection letters to Adams's first cartooning check, and more.
Adams personally selected the material for this collection and offers original comments and humorous asides throughout. Also included is a piracy-protected disc that contains every Dilbert comic strip to date and that can be updated as new cartoons are released"
This is a fantastic bit of work, worth the money just for the book, but to also get the disc with every single strip published to date is a real bonus. To those of us who endure an office based life, Scott Adams sees straight through the nonsense and produces cartoons that makes you wonder if he is sitting in on your Board meetings.
If you are a fan (and if not, why not?) then this collection is an absolute must.


Dilbert gets the Deluxe treatment, 29 Oct 2008
Like many of the recent Dilbert releases this is reusing the old material, BUT this is something special. It's a nicely bound huge book (9pounds, over 4kg) with a sturdy slipcover.

Collection starts with small biography of Scott Adams along with drawings from his childhood and adult life before Dilbert. Then it's divided into different "ages" of Dilbert, as in the early strips it really wasn't a workplace comic and then evolves into workplace and so on.

Collection has over 2 000 strips from the 6000+ Dilbert catalog. Included on the back page of the book is also a DVD containing every single strip from 1989 to 2008 and a code that allows you to download future strips from their site.

usual (high) Dilbert quality humour, 11 Jan 2005
If you are a Dilbert fan you will love this standard collection of Scott Adams humour. Nothing unexpected...the feeling of reading this comic book is that of familiar comfort--to the extreme!

One of the masters best !!!, 07 Jul 2004
Just finished reading this book and thought it one of the best from the master himself. It will incite spasms of recognition with anyone in any way connected to a large organisation. Its frightfully accurate but very funny. Meetings for the sake of meeting and cringe-worthy mission statements. I also read Management by Vice - its not very good and no match for the master himself. A bit boring in fact.

The only area not covered by 'Dilbert' is all that touchy feely 'Human Resource Management' stuff (BS) which has got to be the waffle of waffle - hopefully we'll see it covered soon.

Very Funny Office Humor!, 12 Mar 2001
I enjoyed this book. It presents a lively collection of very funny management and cubicle worker situations. However, though aspects of managerial bungling are protrayed in Dilbert's unique style, "Ramdom Acts of Management" does not address managerial short-comings throughout the corporate structure or the diverse candid opinions of employees. To read about a somewhat more complete perspective on company-wide mis-management, from project managers to glib CEOs and their interactions with their feisty and/or frustrated technical staff, I definitely recommend the hilarious and insightful episodes in the frank, true-to-life American satire, "Management by Vice" (by C.B. Don). It's not just a compilation of cartoon strips, but real a book with episodes, witty verses and accompanying sharp illustrations! With these two books, you can always have a good laugh and thus be prepared for anything management throws your way from the office to the R&D setting, right the way through the corporate culture and up the company ladder!

Another Scott Adams' masterpiece..., 11 Dec 2000
exagerrating? Maybe but I never had satisfaction below expectations from a Adams Dilbert book. Sometimes it even predicts something that's about to really happen in... minutes! Working in a big corporation is just like that!

It's no the best Dilbert book... but it's not bad..., 15 Jun 2000
A lot of the strips I had already seen on the dilbert web site, so they didn't seem as funny second time around. Personally I prefered The Dilbert future... but this is still a good read for £5...

Genius!, 29 Apr 2004
Great book came across Dilbert when doing a management module for my Unicourse in a OB textbook! Fantastic and enlighting insight into the stupid corporate world!
Simply Genius!

Great1, 06 Mar 2004
You like Dilbert ?
Why are you reading this review ?

Just buy it

Dilbert: Things You Don't Want to Hear During Your Annual..., 19 Jan 2004
Very good, hilarious...
Collection of Dilbert comic strips..

Pure genius, 25 Nov 2003
You have to work in an office to really appreciate Scott Adams, if you do then the cartoons here will mean something to you as the stupidity of office life is reflected with brilliant accuracy. Every one is a gem and no wonder it is a rare office that does not have a fair few Dilbert cartoons stuck up on the noticeboards.

The only thing that holds this back from getting 5 stars is that it is not new stuff but an updated collection, and that a non office based audience may not appreciate this as much.

Having said that, Mr Adams is a genius and we are not worthy.

Should replace the induction manual, 13 Oct 2007
As a practical guide to how modern business works, this is pretty much essential. Yes, it's funny (so funny that in places I hurt with laughter) but it's deadly serious too.

As well as reading some of the wittiest cartoon strips ever, you'll absorb some deep wisdom and get plenty of practical ideas for making the corporate life more bearable.

You must buy this is you work in an office (or ever have done), 06 Feb 2007
I read this book in 2001, and every so often even now in 2007 I burst out laughing as I remember one of his comments. If you have ever worked in an office, particularly for a large company, you will find this hilarious. The other thing about it is that although it is supposedly a joke, there is a lot of truth in it, and it can actually help your career!

Good, but "The Dilbert Future" is better., 30 Nov 2006
This book is quite simply a comic way of looking at management stupidity.
I think the phrase "it's funny because it's true" might as well have been invented for this book. Scott Adams you prompt you with pearls of common sense so you can see just how silly middle management can be.
Although this is often regarded as the definitive Dilbert book, I found it slightly less fun to read than the Dilbert Future. That book took a more global view of stupidity, rather than concentrating solely on the workplace.

So real it is scary, 07 Jul 2005
This book is so real that it is scary. You can tell that Scott Adams has spent time. His description of cube life is still relevant today.

I have been trying to justify the Peter Principle and could not make it fit but after reading this book all things became clear. It is impossible to keep a straight face in meetings with out seeing the different types of personalities doing their thing. I can even anticipate what they are going to say and the reactions.

Usually as most books and movies you recognize everyone but yourself. The most obnoxious person will laugh at his stereotype or just not get the point when it comes to movies and books. However this book is scary in the fact that I could see myself when Scott was describing engineers. And it took a little while to realize what he was talking about the ringing device that knows when to break your concentration.

I am going to leave a copy on QA's desk.

MY next must read is "Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook"

So good they should ban it, 30 Nov 2004
Books like this really shouldn't be allowed. They impart dangerous information to receptive minds and reveal things about management that a whole industry has been labouring for years to keep hidden.

The chapter on writing your own appraisal, for example, is very, very dangerous. I have never allowed any of my staff to see it, although I did make use of it when preparing my own appraisal for my boss's signature.

Simple tricks like the 'big picture manouvre' are just too good and useful to be dished out in paperback format.

Scott Adams takes 'the Peter Principle' into an entirely new space. Instead of writing about managers who have been promoted to their level of incompetence, he takes on whole corporate cultures which have grown to their level of incompetence. Everybody who has ever recommended 'concentrating our assets across the board' or, indeed, 'zooming in on the big picture', ought to read this book. Everybody who has ever considered punishing staff for having poor morale should read it. And every pointy haired manager who believes that anything he doesn't understand can't be very difficult should read it.

But workers? They should not be allowed to read it. It should be removed from their bookshelves and libraries. People buying this book online should have to prove that they are management grades before they complete their purchases.

Books like this are just too dangerous.

Wally's World, 26 Aug 2006
Although this volume (number 27 in the series) is a rehash of old cartoon strips, it has been cleverly done, focussing on our little friend Wally, in all his lazy, work-avoiding glory! Not much of the really early Dilbert strips here (you can tell by the drawing style). Notwithstanding the fact it is a re-run of old material, it works extremely well, focussing on the one character - you definitely develop a love for the little man in spectacles as you work through the book! Overall, very good, and highly recommended.

Fun but a lot of old material here, 22 Aug 2006
Good to see a collection of Dilbert strips where Wally is featured in every one. However, I should have realised when ordering it - Duh - that this would include a large number of older strips, many or even most of which I'd seen before. I'd recommend it if you only have a small Dilbert collection, but if, like me, you already have a shelf full then you'll probably find little new stuff to entertain here.

Brilliant Collection, 17 Nov 2008
The product description here does not do this magnificent collection justice - to lift and shift from the better description on the US Amazon:
"This special slipcased collection--weighing in at more than ten pounds with 600 pages and featuring almost 4,000 strips--takes readers behind the scenes and into the early days of Scott Adams's life pre-Dilbert and on to the success that followed when Dilbert became an internationally syndicated sensation.
Divided into five different epochs, Dilbert 2.0 gives readers a glance at some of Adams's earliest strips, like those created for Playboy, and a peek at an abundance of special content ranging from numerous rejection letters to Adams's first cartooning check, and more.
Adams personally selected the material for this collection and offers original comments and humorous asides throughout. Also included is a piracy-protected disc that contains every Dilbert comic strip to date and that can be updated as new cartoons are released"
This is a fantastic bit of work, worth the money just for the book, but to also get the disc with every single strip published to date is a real bonus. To those of us who endure an office based life, Scott Adams sees straight through the nonsense and produces cartoons that makes you wonder if he is sitting in on your Board meetings.
If you are a fan (and if not, why not?) then this collection is an absolute must.


Dilbert gets the Deluxe treatment, 29 Oct 2008
Like many of the recent Dilbert releases this is reusing the old material, BUT this is something special. It's a nicely bound huge book (9pounds, over 4kg) with a sturdy slipcover.

Collection starts with small biography of Scott Adams along with drawings from his childhood and adult life before Dilbert. Then it's divided into different "ages" of Dilbert, as in the early strips it really wasn't a workplace comic and then evolves into workplace and so on.

Collection has over 2 000 strips from the 6000+ Dilbert catalog. Included on the back page of the book is also a DVD containing every single strip from 1989 to 2008 and a code that allows you to download future strips from their site.

usual (high) Dilbert quality humour, 11 Jan 2005
If you are a Dilbert fan you will love this standard collection of Scott Adams humour. Nothing unexpected...the feeling of reading this comic book is that of familiar comfort--to the extreme!

One of the masters best !!!, 07 Jul 2004
Just finished reading this book and thought it one of the best from the master himself. It will incite spasms of recognition with anyone in any way connected to a large organisation. Its frightfully accurate but very funny. Meetings for the sake of meeting and cringe-worthy mission statements. I also read Management by Vice - its not very good and no match for the master himself. A bit boring in fact.

The only area not covered by 'Dilbert' is all that touchy feely 'Human Resource Management' stuff (BS) which has got to be the waffle of waffle - hopefully we'll see it covered soon.

Very Funny Office Humor!, 12 Mar 2001
I enjoyed this book. It presents a lively collection of very funny management and cubicle worker situations. However, though aspects of managerial bungling are protrayed in Dilbert's unique style, "Ramdom Acts of Management" does not address managerial short-comings throughout the corporate structure or the diverse candid opinions of employees. To read about a somewhat more complete perspective on company-wide mis-management, from project managers to glib CEOs and their interactions with their feisty and/or frustrated technical staff, I definitely recommend the hilarious and insightful episodes in the frank, true-to-life American satire, "Management by Vice" (by C.B. Don). It's not just a compilation of cartoon strips, but real a book with episodes, witty verses and accompanying sharp illustrations! With these two books, you can always have a good laugh and thus be prepared for anything management throws your way from the office to the R&D setting, right the way through the corporate culture and up the company ladder!

Another Scott Adams' masterpiece..., 11 Dec 2000
exagerrating? Maybe but I never had satisfaction below expectations from a Adams Dilbert book. Sometimes it even predicts something that's about to really happen in... minutes! Working in a big corporation is just like that!

It's no the best Dilbert book... but it's not bad..., 15 Jun 2000
A lot of the strips I had already seen on the dilbert web site, so they didn't seem as funny second time around. Personally I prefered The Dilbert future... but this is still a good read for £5...

Genius!, 29 Apr 2004
Great book came across Dilbert when doing a management module for my Unicourse in a OB textbook! Fantastic and enlighting insight into the stupid corporate world!
Simply Genius!

Great1, 06 Mar 2004
You like Dilbert ?
Why are you reading this review ?

Just buy it

Dilbert: Things You Don't Want to Hear During Your Annual..., 19 Jan 2004
Very good, hilarious...
Collection of Dilbert comic strips..

Pure genius, 25 Nov 2003
You have to work in an office to really appreciate Scott Adams, if you do then the cartoons here will mean something to you as the stupidity of office life is reflected with brilliant accuracy. Every one is a gem and no wonder it is a rare office that does not have a fair few Dilbert cartoons stuck up on the noticeboards.

The only thing that holds this back from getting 5 stars is that it is not new stuff but an updated collection, and that a non office based audience may not appreciate this as much.

Having said that, Mr Adams is a genius and we are not worthy.

Should replace the induction manual, 13 Oct 2007
As a practical guide to how modern business works, this is pretty much essential. Yes, it's funny (so funny that in places I hurt with laughter) but it's deadly serious too.

As well as reading some of the wittiest cartoon strips ever, you'll absorb some deep wisdom and get plenty of practical ideas for making the corporate life more bearable.

You must buy this is you work in an office (or ever have done), 06 Feb 2007
I read this book in 2001, and every so often even now in 2007 I burst out laughing as I remember one of his comments. If you have ever worked in an office, particularly for a large company, you will find this hilarious. The other thing about it is that although it is supposedly a joke, there is a lot of truth in it, and it can actually help your career!

Good, but "The Dilbert Future" is better., 30 Nov 2006
This book is quite simply a comic way of looking at management stupidity.
I think the phrase "it's funny because it's true" might as well have been invented for this book. Scott Adams you prompt you with pearls of common sense so you can see just how silly middle management can be.
Although this is often regarded as the definitive Dilbert book, I found it slightly less fun to read than the Dilbert Future. That book took a more global view of stupidity, rather than concentrating solely on the workplace.

So real it is scary, 07 Jul 2005
This book is so real that it is scary. You can tell that Scott Adams has spent time. His description of cube life is still relevant today.

I have been trying to justify the Peter Principle and could not make it fit but after reading this book all things became clear. It is impossible to keep a straight face in meetings with out seeing the different types of personalities doing their thing. I can even anticipate what they are going to say and the reactions.

Usually as most books and movies you recognize everyone but yourself. The most obnoxious person will laugh at his stereotype or just not get the point when it comes to movies and books. However this book is scary in the fact that I could see myself when Scott was describing engineers. And it took a little while to realize what he was talking about the ringing device that knows when to break your concentration.

I am going to leave a copy on QA's desk.

MY next must read is "Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook"

So good they should ban it, 30 Nov 2004
Books like this really shouldn't be allowed. They impart dangerous information to receptive minds and reveal things about management that a whole industry has been labouring for years to keep hidden.

The chapter on writing your own appraisal, for example, is very, very dangerous. I have never allowed any of my staff to see it, although I did make use of it when preparing my own appraisal for my boss's signature.

Simple tricks like the 'big picture manouvre' are just too good and useful to be dished out in paperback format.

Scott Adams takes 'the Peter Principle' into an entirely new space. Instead of writing about managers who have been promoted to their level of incompetence, he takes on whole corporate cultures which have grown to their level of incompetence. Everybody who has ever recommended 'concentrating our assets across the board' or, indeed, 'zooming in on the big picture', ought to read this book. Everybody who has ever considered punishing staff for having poor morale should read it. And every pointy haired manager who believes that anything he doesn't understand can't be very difficult should read it.

But workers? They should not be allowed to read it. It should be removed from their bookshelves and libraries. People buying this book online should have to prove that they are management grades before they complete their purchases.

Books like this are just too dangerous.

Wally's World, 26 Aug 2006
Although this volume (number 27 in the series) is a rehash of old cartoon strips, it has been cleverly done, focussing on our little friend Wally, in all his lazy, work-avoiding glory! Not much of the really early Dilbert strips here (you can tell by the drawing style). Notwithstanding the fact it is a re-run of old material, it works extremely well, focussing on the one character - you definitely develop a love for the little man in spectacles as you work through the book! Overall, very good, and highly recommended.

Fun but a lot of old material here, 22 Aug 2006
Good to see a collection of Dilbert strips where Wally is featured in every one. However, I should have realised when ordering it - Duh - that this would include a large number of older strips, many or even most of which I'd seen before. I'd recommend it if you only have a small Dilbert collection, but if, like me, you already have a shelf full then you'll probably find little new stuff to entertain here.

25th Dilbert Book - Still Hilarious!!, 09 Aug 2005
Just fabulous. Dilbert's 26th volume shows no sign of weakening in quality - Adams remains on top form. Buy it if you want to laugh out loud!

Highly recommended!

Scott Adams' latest work is not a collection of Dilbert cartoons (though recycled strips are liberally sprinkled throughout); it's a dialogue between the man and his fans disguised as a tongue-in-cheek guide to surviving the corporate life. There are chapters on "Office Pranks," "Surviving Meetings," and "Managing Your Co-Workers," with enough weird stories and practical jokes to make any middle manager nervous, especially as many of the tricks and tips come from e- mails sent to Adams by his fans (one tip: never let anyone else use your computer). If these messages are any indication, the creative tide has turned, and now the corporate world is following Dilbert's lead. In the office blocks of America, life is imitating art imitating life, creating a pleasantly postmodern working environment. The final chapter of The Joy of Work, "Handling Criticism," includes a response to Norman Solomon's The Trouble with Dilbert, which accuses Adams of selling out and supporting the corporate hierarchy that he claims to satirise. Adams' response is thorough and convincing, with just enough nastiness (jokes about Solomon's hair, for example) to demonstrate that though Dilbert may not have a mouth, he certainly has teeth. --Simon Leake, Amazon.com

Brilliant Collection, 17 Nov 2008
The product description here does not do this magnificent collection justice - to lift and shift from the better description on the US Amazon:
"This special slipcased collection--weighing in at more than ten pounds with 600 pages and featuring almost 4,000 strips--takes readers behind the scenes and into the early days of Scott Adams's life pre-Dilbert and on to the success that followed when Dilbert became an internationally syndicated sensation.
Divided into five different epochs, Dilbert 2.0 gives readers a glance at some of Adams's earliest strips, like those created for Playboy, and a peek at an abundance of special content ranging from numerous rejection letters to Adams's first cartooning check, and more.
Adams personally selected the material for this collection and offers original comments and humorous asides throughout. Also included is a piracy-protected disc that contains every Dilbert comic strip to date and that can be updated as new cartoons are released"
This is a fantastic bit of work, worth the money just for the book, but to also get the disc with every single strip published to date is a real bonus. To those of us who endure an office based life, Scott Adams sees straight through the nonsense and produces cartoons that makes you wonder if he is sitting in on your Board meetings.
If you are a fan (and if not, why not?) then this collection is an absolute must.


Dilbert gets the Deluxe treatment, 29 Oct 2008
Like many of the recent Dilbert releases this is reusing the old material, BUT this is something special. It's a nicely bound huge book (9pounds, over 4kg) with a sturdy slipcover.

Collection starts with small biography of Scott Adams along with drawings from his childhood and adult life before Dilbert. Then it's divided into different "ages" of Dilbert, as in the early strips it really wasn't a workplace comic and then evolves into workplace and so on.

Collection has over 2 000 strips from the 6000+ Dilbert catalog. Included on the back page of the book is also a DVD containing every single strip from 1989 to 2008 and a code that allows you to download future strips from their site.

usual (high) Dilbert quality humour, 11 Jan 2005
If you are a Dilbert fan you will love this standard collection of Scott Adams humour. Nothing unexpected...the feeling of reading this comic book is that of familiar comfort--to the extreme!

One of the masters best !!!, 07 Jul 2004
Just finished reading this book and thought it one of the best from the master himself. It will incite spasms of recognition with anyone in any way connected to a large organisation. Its frightfully accurate but very funny. Meetings for the sake of meeting and cringe-worthy mission statements. I also read Management by Vice - its not very good and no match for the master himself. A bit boring in fact.

The only area not covered by 'Dilbert' is all that touchy feely 'Human Resource Management' stuff (BS) which has got to be the waffle of waffle - hopefully we'll see it covered soon.

Very Funny Office Humor!, 12 Mar 2001
I enjoyed this book. It presents a lively collection of very funny management and cubicle worker situations. However, though aspects of managerial bungling are protrayed in Dilbert's unique style, "Ramdom Acts of Management" does not address managerial short-comings throughout the corporate structure or the diverse candid opinions of employees. To read about a somewhat more complete perspective on company-wide mis-management, from project managers to glib CEOs and their interactions with their feisty and/or frustrated technical staff, I definitely recommend the hilarious and insightful episodes in the frank, true-to-life American satire, "Management by Vice" (by C.B. Don). It's not just a compilation of cartoon strips, but real a book with episodes, witty verses and accompanying sharp illustrations! With these two books, you can always have a good laugh and thus be prepared for anything management throws your way from the office to the R&D setting, right the way through the corporate culture and up the company ladder!

Another Scott Adams' masterpiece..., 11 Dec 2000
exagerrating? Maybe but I never had satisfaction below expectations from a Adams Dilbert book. Sometimes it even predicts something that's about to really happen in... minutes! Working in a big corporation is just like that!

It's no the best Dilbert book... but it's not bad..., 15 Jun 2000
A lot of the strips I had already seen on the dilbert web site, so they didn't seem as funny second time around. Personally I prefered The Dilbert future... but this is still a good read for £5...

Genius!, 29 Apr 2004
Great book came across Dilbert when doing a management module for my Unicourse in a OB textbook! Fantastic and enlighting insight into the stupid corporate world!
Simply Genius!

Great1, 06 Mar 2004
You like Dilbert ?
Why are you reading this review ?

Just buy it

Dilbert: Things You Don't Want to Hear During Your Annual..., 19 Jan 2004
Very good, hilarious...
Collection of Dilbert comic strips..

Pure genius, 25 Nov 2003
You have to work in an office to really appreciate Scott Adams, if you do then the cartoons here will mean something to you as the stupidity of office life is reflected with brilliant accuracy. Every one is a gem and no wonder it is a rare office that does not have a fair few Dilbert cartoons stuck up on the noticeboards.

The only thing that holds this back from getting 5 stars is that it is not new stuff but an updated collection, and that a non office based audience may not appreciate this as much.

Having said that, Mr Adams is a genius and we are not worthy.

Should replace the induction manual, 13 Oct 2007
As a practical guide to how modern business works, this is pretty much essential. Yes, it's funny (so funny that in places I hurt with laughter) but it's deadly serious too.

As well as reading some of the wittiest cartoon strips ever, you'll absorb some deep wisdom and get plenty of practical ideas for making the corporate life more bearable.

You must buy this is you work in an office (or ever have done), 06 Feb 2007
I read this book in 2001, and every so often even now in 2007 I burst out laughing as I remember one of his comments. If you have ever worked in an office, particularly for a large company, you will find this hilarious. The other thing about it is that although it is supposedly a joke, there is a lot of truth in it, and it can actually help your career!

Good, but "The Dilbert Future" is better., 30 Nov 2006
This book is quite simply a comic way of looking at management stupidity.
I think the phrase "it's funny because it's true" might as well have been invented for this book. Scott Adams you prompt you with pearls of common sense so you can see just how silly middle management can be.
Although this is often regarded as the definitive Dilbert book, I found it slightly less fun to read than the Dilbert Future. That book took a more global view of stupidity, rather than concentrating solely on the workplace.

So real it is scary, 07 Jul 2005
This book is so real that it is scary. You can tell that Scott Adams has spent time. His description of cube life is still relevant today.

I have been trying to justify the Peter Principle and could not make it fit but after reading this book all things became clear. It is impossible to keep a straight face in meetings with out seeing the different types of personalities doing their thing. I can even anticipate what they are going to say and the reactions.

Usually as most books and movies you recognize everyone but yourself. The most obnoxious person will laugh at his stereotype or just not get the point when it comes to movies and books. However this book is scary in the fact that I could see myself when Scott was describing engineers. And it took a little while to realize what he was talking about the ringing device that knows when to break your concentration.

I am going to leave a copy on QA's desk.

MY next must read is "Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook"

So good they should ban it, 30 Nov 2004
Books like this really shouldn't be allowed. They impart dangerous information to receptive minds and reveal things about management that a whole industry has been labouring for years to keep hidden.

The chapter on writing your own appraisal, for example, is very, very dangerous. I have never allowed any of my staff to see it, although I did make use of it when preparing my own appraisal for my boss's signature.

Simple tricks like the 'big picture manouvre' are just too good and useful to be dished out in paperback format.

Scott Adams takes 'the Peter Principle' into an entirely new space. Instead of writing about managers who have been promoted to their level of incompetence, he takes on whole corporate cultures which have grown to their level of incompetence. Everybody who has ever recommended 'concentrating our assets across the board' or, indeed, 'zooming in on the big picture', ought to read this book. Everybody who has ever considered punishing staff for having poor morale should read it. And every pointy haired manager who believes that anything he doesn't understand can't be very difficult should read it.

But workers? They should not be allowed to read it. It should be removed from their bookshelves and libraries. People buying this book online should have to prove that they are management grades before they complete their purchases.

Books like this are just too dangerous.

Wally's World, 26 Aug 2006
Although this volume (number 27 in the series) is a rehash of old cartoon strips, it has been cleverly done, focussing on our little friend Wally, in all his lazy, work-avoiding glory! Not much of the really early Dilbert strips here (you can tell by the drawing style). Notwithstanding the fact it is a re-run of old material, it works extremely well, focussing on the one character - you definitely develop a love for the little man in spectacles as you work through the book! Overall, very good, and highly recommended.

Fun but a lot of old material here, 22 Aug 2006
Good to see a collection of Dilbert strips where Wally is featured in every one. However, I should have realised when ordering it - Duh - that this would include a large number of older strips, many or even most of which I'd seen before. I'd recommend it if you only have a small Dilbert collection, but if, like me, you already have a shelf full then you'll probably find little new stuff to entertain here.

25th Dilbert Book - Still Hilarious!!, 09 Aug 2005
Just fabulous. Dilbert's 26th volume shows no sign of weakening in quality - Adams remains on top form. Buy it if you want to laugh out loud!

Highly recommended!

This brings together two totally incompatible concepts - joy and work , 29 Dec 2006
Another book by Scott Adams all about the joy of work - yes, you heard it "THE JOY OF WORK". About 250 pages on work, and nothing but work - from managing your boss (in itself an admirable objective), through laughing at the expense of others (another excellent pastime), to managing your co-worker (just you try, and see what I do to you!). In this book we wander from one strategy to another - from withhold information (everyone knows this), through boss deletion (I like it!!!!), to the sublime joys of sarcasm (otherwise know as common sense). This book is so true it is positively alien (Is he watching us all the time? Where are the cameras installed? He must have an army of little-Dilbert's reviewing all the footage?). For example, how does he know that bosses don't read their emails, or that bosses need to feel that they have "helped", or that everyone dreams of strategy 14 - how to turn you boss into a mindless zombie slave (let's face it, bosses come pre-packed as mindless zombies, so just adding the slave bit should not be that difficult). I refuse to comment on the chapter entitled the joys of work (as a matter of principle), but the chapter on managing your co-workers is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of modern business practices. Cubicle flatulence offered a new avenue of investigation for me, but dealing with irrational co-workers added little to my arsenal of techniques. The section on how to harness the power of your own incompetence was an eye opener; I had never thought to approach the problem by re-defining the meaning of corporate efficiency.
A person who can write more about office pranks (44 pages) then about "surviving meetings" (6 pages) is a must for any self-respecting middle management wallah. A must read for 20% of all Europeans, and 99% of all Americans (of those that can read of course).

so true, 25 Dec 2003
scott adams has the pulse by the short and curles when it comes to office life and this book builds on the Dilbert principle very nicely indeed.

Funny and Useful, 21 Oct 2003
Not just funny and with a few cartoon strips thrown in, like all of Scott Adams books he actually manages to teach something about life as well by talking about the things he knows.

funny but a bit harsh, 04 Jan 2002
Although this is a very funny book, it lacks the warmth of 'The Dilbert Principle'; this book seems to concentrate more on 'how to get one over on your colleagues/ boss' whereas 'The Dilbert Principle' records staff-related idiocy in a slightly more benign way.

I enjoyed the Office Pranks suggestions, although I felt they went a little too far - perhaps this is the 'dark side' of Dilbert !

Certainly there is plenty of genuinely useful information, and it is very very funny.

essential to keep sane, 15 Sep 2001
At first i was dubious about a Dilbert book without many cartoons but as soon as i picked it up, i found it impossible to put down. I found the jokes hilarious and clever. Not only that but they are easy to adapt to life outside the office, for example at school. i would certainly recommend this book to anyone who wants to see the bright side of work.

Brilliant Collection, 17 Nov 2008
The product description here does not do this magnificent collection justice - to lift and shift from the better description on the US Amazon:
"This special slipcased collection--weighing in at more than ten pounds with 600 pages and featuring almost 4,000 strips--takes readers behind the scenes and into the early days of Scott Adams's life pre-Dilbert and on to the success that followed when Dilbert became an internationally syndicated sensation.
Divided into five different epochs, Dilbert 2.0 gives readers a glance at some of Adams's earliest strips, like those created for Playboy, and a peek at an abundance of special content ranging from numerous rejection letters to Adams's first cartooning check, and more.
Adams personally selected the material for this collection and offers original comments and humorous asides throughout. Also included is a piracy-protected disc that contains every Dilbert comic strip to date and that can be updated as new cartoons are released"
This is a fantastic bit of work, worth the money just for the book, but to also get the disc with every single strip published to date is a real bonus. To those of us who endure an office based life, Scott Adams sees straight through the nonsense and produces cartoons that makes you wonder if he is sitting in on your Board meetings.
If you are a fan (and if not, why not?) then this collection is an absolute must.


Dilbert gets the Deluxe treatment, 29 Oct 2008
Like many of the recent Dilbert releases this is reusing the old material, BUT this is something special. It's a nicely bound huge book (9pounds, over 4kg) with a sturdy slipcover.

Collection starts with small biography of Scott Adams along with drawings from his childhood and adult life before Dilbert. Then it's divided into different "ages" of Dilbert, as in the early strips it really wasn't a workplace comic and then evolves into workplace and so on.

Collection has over 2 000 strips from the 6000+ Dilbert catalog. Included on the back page of the book is also a DVD containing every single strip from 1989 to 2008 and a code that allows you to download future strips from their site.

usual (high) Dilbert quality humour, 11 Jan 2005
If you are a Dilbert fan you will love this standard collection of Scott Adams humour. Nothing unexpected...the feeling of reading this comic book is that of familiar comfort--to the extreme!

One of the masters best !!!, 07 Jul 2004
Just finished reading this book and thought it one of the best from the master himself. It will incite spasms of recognition with anyone in any way connected to a large organisation. Its frightfully accurate but very funny. Meetings for the sake of meeting and cringe-worthy mission statements. I also read Management by Vice - its not very good and no match for the master himself. A bit boring in fact.

The only area not covered by 'Dilbert' is all that touchy feely 'Human Resource Management' stuff (BS) which has got to be the waffle of waffle - hopefully we'll see it covered soon.

Very Funny Office Humor!, 12 Mar 2001
I enjoyed this book. It presents a lively collection of very funny management and cubicle worker situations. However, though aspects of managerial bungling are protrayed in Dilbert's unique style, "Ramdom Acts of Management" does not address managerial short-comings throughout the corporate structure or the diverse candid opinions of employees. To read about a somewhat more complete perspective on company-wide mis-management, from project managers to glib CEOs and their interactions with their feisty and/or frustrated technical staff, I definitely recommend the hilarious and insightful episodes in the frank, true-to-life American satire, "Management by Vice" (by C.B. Don). It's not just a compilation of cartoon strips, but real a book with episodes, witty verses and accompanying sharp illustrations! With these two books, you can always have a good laugh and thus be prepared for anything management throws your way from the office to the R&D setting, right the way through the corporate culture and up the company ladder!

Another Scott Adams' masterpiece..., 11 Dec 2000
exagerrating? Maybe but I never had satisfaction below expectations from a Adams Dilbert book. Sometimes it even predicts something that's about to really happen in... minutes! Working in a big corporation is just like that!

It's no the best Dilbert book... but it's not bad..., 15 Jun 2000
A lot of the strips I had already seen on the dilbert web site, so they didn't seem as funny second time around. Personally I prefered The Dilbert future... but this is still a good read for £5...

Genius!, 29 Apr 2004
Great book came across Dilbert when doing a management module for my Unicourse in a OB textbook! Fantastic and enlighting insight into the stupid corporate world!
Simply Genius!

Great1, 06 Mar 2004
You like Dilbert ?
Why are you reading this review ?

Just buy it

Dilbert: Things You Don't Want to Hear During Your Annual..., 19 Jan 2004
Very good, hilarious...
Collection of Dilbert comic strips..

Pure genius, 25 Nov 2003
You have to work in an office to really appreciate Scott Adams, if you do then the cartoons here will mean something to you as the stupidity of office life is reflected with brilliant accuracy. Every one is a gem and no wonder it is a rare office that does not have a fair few Dilbert cartoons stuck up on the noticeboards.

The only thing that holds this back from getting 5 stars is that it is not new stuff but an updated collection, and that a non office based audience may not appreciate this as much.

Having said that, Mr Adams is a genius and we are not worthy.

Should replace the induction manual, 13 Oct 2007
As a practical guide to how modern business works, this is pretty much essential. Yes, it's funny (so funny that in places I hurt with laughter) but it's deadly serious too.

As well as reading some of the wittiest cartoon strips ever, you'll absorb some deep wisdom and get plenty of practical ideas for making the corporate life more bearable.

You must buy this is you work in an office (or ever have done), 06 Feb 2007
I read this book in 2001, and every so often even now in 2007 I burst out laughing as I remember one of his comments. If you have ever worked in an office, particularly for a large company, you will find this hilarious. The other thing about it is that although it is supposedly a joke, there is a lot of truth in it, and it can actually help your career!

Good, but "The Dilbert Future" is better., 30 Nov 2006
This book is quite simply a comic way of looking at management stupidity.
I think the phrase "it's funny because it's true" might as well have been invented for this book. Scott Adams you prompt you with pearls of common sense so you can see just how silly middle management can be.
Although this is often regarded as the definitive Dilbert book, I found it slightly less fun to read than the Dilbert Future. That book took a more global view of stupidity, rather than concentrating solely on the workplace.

So real it is scary, 07 Jul 2005
This book is so real that it is scary. You can tell that Scott Adams has spent time. His description of cube life is still relevant today.

I have been trying to justify the Peter Principle and could not make it fit but after reading this book all things became clear. It is impossible to keep a straight face in meetings with out seeing the different types of personalities doing their thing. I can even anticipate what they are going to say and the reactions.

Usually as most books and movies you recognize everyone but yourself. The most obnoxious person will laugh at his stereotype or just not get the point when it comes to movies and books. However this book is scary in the fact that I could see myself when Scott was describing engineers. And it took a little while to realize what he was talking about the ringing device that knows when to break your concentration.

I am going to leave a copy on QA's desk.

MY next must read is "Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook"

So good they should ban it, 30 Nov 2004
Books like this really shouldn't be allowed. They impart dangerous information to receptive minds and reveal things about management that a whole industry has been labouring for years to keep hidden.

The chapter on writing your own appraisal, for example, is very, very dangerous. I have never allowed any of my staff to see it, although I did make use of it when preparing my own appraisal for my boss's signature.

Simple tricks like the 'big picture manouvre' are just too good and useful to be dished out in paperback format.

Scott Adams takes 'the Peter Principle' into an entirely new space. Instead of writing about managers who have been promoted to their level of incompetence, he takes on whole corporate cultures which have grown to their level of incompetence. Everybody who has ever recommended 'concentrating our assets across the board' or, indeed, 'zooming in on the big picture', ought to read this book. Everybody who has ever considered punishing staff for having poor morale should read it. And every pointy haired manager who believes that anything he doesn't understand can't be very difficult should read it.

But workers? They should not be allowed to read it. It should be removed from their bookshelves and libraries. People buying this book online should have to prove that they are management grades before they complete their purchases.

Books like this are just too dangerous.

Wally's World, 26 Aug 2006
Although this volume (number 27 in the series) is a rehash of old cartoon strips, it has been cleverly done, focussing on our little friend Wally, in all his lazy, work-avoiding glory! Not much of the really early Dilbert strips here (you can tell by the drawing style). Notwithstanding the fact it is a re-run of old material, it works extremely well, focussing on the one character - you definitely develop a love for the little man in spectacles as you work through the book! Overall, very good, and highly recommended.

Fun but a lot of old material here, 22 Aug 2006
Good to see a collection of Dilbert strips where Wally is featured in every one. However, I should have realised when ordering it - Duh - that this would include a large number of older strips, many or even most of which I'd seen before. I'd recommend it if you only have a small Dilbert collection, but if, like me, you already have a shelf full then you'll probably find little new stuff to entertain here.

25th Dilbert Book - Still Hilarious!!, 09 Aug 2005
Just fabulous. Dilbert's 26th volume shows no sign of weakening in quality - Adams remains on top form. Buy it if you want to laugh out loud!

Highly recommended!

This brings together two totally incompatible concepts - joy and work , 29 Dec 2006
Another book by Scott Adams all about the joy of work - yes, you heard it "THE JOY OF WORK". About 250 pages on work, and nothing but work - from managing your boss (in itself an admirable objective), through laughing at the expense of others (another excellent pastime), to managing your co-worker (just you try, and see what I do to you!). In this book we wander from one strategy to another - from withhold information (everyone knows this), through boss deletion (I like it!!!!), to the sublime joys of sarcasm (otherwise know as common sense). This book is so true it is positively alien (Is he watching us all the time? Where are the cameras installed? He must have an army of little-Dilbert's reviewing all the footage?). For example, how does he know that bosses don't read their emails, or that bosses need to feel that they have "helped", or that everyone dreams of strategy 14 - how to turn you boss into a mindless zombie slave (let's face it, bosses come pre-packed as mindless zombies, so just adding the slave bit should not be that difficult). I refuse to comment on the chapter entitled the joys of work (as a matter of principle), but the chapter on managing your co-workers is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of modern business practices. Cubicle flatulence offered a new avenue of investigation for me, but dealing with irrational co-workers added little to my arsenal of techniques. The section on how to harness the power of your own incompetence was an eye opener; I had never thought to approach the problem by re-defining the meaning of corporate efficiency.
A person who can write more about office pranks (44 pages) then about "surviving meetings" (6 pages) is a must for any self-respecting middle management wallah. A must read for 20% of all Europeans, and 99% of all Americans (of those that can read of course).

so true, 25 Dec 2003
scott adams has the pulse by the short and curles when it comes to office life and this book builds on the Dilbert principle very nicely indeed.

Funny and Useful, 21 Oct 2003
Not just funny and with a few cartoon strips thrown in, like all of Scott Adams books he actually manages to teach something about life as well by talking about the things he knows.

funny but a bit harsh, 04 Jan 2002
Although this is a very funny book, it lacks the warmth of 'The Dilbert Principle'; this book seems to concentrate more on 'how to get one over on your colleagues/ boss' whereas 'The Dilbert Principle' records staff-related idiocy in a slightly more benign way.

I enjoyed the Office Pranks suggestions, although I felt they went a little too far - perhaps this is the 'dark side' of Dilbert !

Certainly there is plenty of genuinely useful information, and it is very very funny.

essential to keep sane, 15 Sep 2001
At first i was dubious about a Dilbert book without many cartoons but as soon as i picked it up, i found it impossible to put down. I found the jokes hilarious and clever. Not only that but they are easy to adapt to life outside the office, for example at school. i would certainly recommend this book to anyone who wants to see the bright side of work.

Scarily Accurate, 16 Dec 2003
A truly excellent book about life and all that matters, it doesn't matter if it's lazy you're after or trying to find the smart way round things in difficult situations, this book covers them both.

Sometimes you will just laugh at the things it says, and then you'll think "Hey, my boss/cow-orker said that to me" and it'll all start to make sense.

Sometimes it's scary how accurate it can be about your workplace.

An good intro to Weasel Management, 19 Nov 2003
I'd seen some reviews of this book that suggested Scott Adams was losing his touch, so I bought it with some trepidation.

I read Dilbert on the Web every day (and I'm honest enough to pay a subscription so that Scott doesn't starve).

I wasn't disappointed by this book; in fact I liked the editorial material as much as the cartoon strips; even when you've seen them before the classics never die (just like Charles Schultz's Peanuts).

If I had to pick my favourite Chapter, it was Manager Weasels - of course!

Drucker, Senge, Mintzberg, etc. - all in one volume!, 18 Apr 2003
And in a much more comprehensible volume, I've to say. Because Scott Adams does not try to explain what management and general low-fly employees should be and how to make them so great (because nobody has ever succeeded in implementation of those advices anyway, at least consciously) - it tells what they really are and how to live with that.
That book as all previous ones, especially "Dilbert's principle" should be mandatory reading for all university graduates, especially those looking for career in large corporations.
And for others - well, it's always better later than never.

Give the Nobel Prize to Scott Adams!, 24 Dec 2002
As the workplace is getting increasingly weasel
infested Scott Adams should get the Nobel prize
in economics!
Seriously, what did Milton Friedman do for our
understanding of the economy that Adams
hasn't been doing better?

Scott Adams distills the behavior of people.
People that weasels to get out of work,
get more pay, or avoid responsibility.
And fortunately his revelations are pretty hilarious.

Simply, Scott Adams' "Dilbert and the way of the Weasel".
is a terrific book about the Weasel zone.
The place where our gross national product is
generated....

-Simon

Classic Dilbert, 25 Nov 2002
Adams expands slightly on his previous 'theories' about the behaviour of employees, bosses and consultants that work for large companies. It is still as witty and cynical a view as in previous books. Everyone will recognise at least some of the situations and characters in their own organisation.

However, no matter how funny the situations or insightful the comments, I didn't find the book as fresh and new as the earlier ones. Being a Dilbert fan I had seen most of it before, hence only 4 stars for this book. Perhaps he could have made more of the recent financial 'irregularities' in the business world, which are begging to be commented on.

Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, sometimes just smiling and other times bursting out in laughter.

In summary, I can only give it a qualified recommendation. It is as good an introduction to Dilbert and his world as any of the other books. For Dilbert fans, not a must have. Is Scott Adams running out of new things to say? Maybe.

Brilliant Collection, 17 Nov 2008
The product description here does not do this magnificent collection justice - to lift and shift from the better description on the US Amazon:
"This special slipcased collection--weighing in at more than ten pounds with 600 pages and featuring almost 4,000 strips--takes readers behind the scenes and into the early days of Scott Adams's life pre-Dilbert and on to the success that followed when Dilbert became an internationally syndicated sensation.
Divided into five different epochs, Dilbert 2.0 gives readers a glance at some of Adams's earliest strips, like those created for Playboy, and a peek at an abundance of special content ranging from numerous rejection letters to Adams's first cartooning check, and more.
Adams personally selected the material for this collection and offers original comments and humorous asides throughout. Also included is a piracy-protected disc that contains every Dilbert comic strip to date and that can be updated as new cartoons are released"
This is a fantastic bit of work, worth the money just for the book, but to also get the disc with every single strip published to date is a real bonus. To those of us who endure an office based life, Scott Adams sees straight through the nonsense and produces cartoons that makes you wonder if he is sitting in on your Board meetings.
If you are a fan (and if not, why not?) then this collection is an absolute must.


Dilbert gets the Deluxe treatment, 29 Oct 2008
Like many of the recent Dilbert releases this is reusing the old material, BUT this is something special. It's a nicely bound huge book (9pounds, over 4kg) with a sturdy slipcover.

Collection starts with small biography of Scott Adams along with drawings from his childhood and adult life before Dilbert. Then it's divided into different "ages" of Dilbert, as in the early strips it really wasn't a workplace comic and then evolves into workplace and so on.

Collection has over 2 000 strips from the 6000+ Dilbert catalog. Included on the back page of the book is also a DVD containing every single strip from 1989 to 2008 and a code that allows you to download future strips from their site.

usual (high) Dilbert quality humour, 11 Jan 2005
If you are a Dilbert fan you will love this standard collection of Scott Adams humour. Nothing unexpected...the feeling of reading this comic book is that of familiar comfort--to the extreme!

One of the masters best !!!, 07 Jul 2004
Just finished reading this book and thought it one of the best from the master himself. It will incite spasms of recognition with anyone in any way connected to a large organisation. Its frightfully accurate but very funny. Meetings for the sake of meeting and cringe-worthy mission statements. I also read Management by Vice - its not very good and no match for the master himself. A bit boring in fact.

The only area not covered by 'Dilbert' is all that touchy feely 'Human Resource Management' stuff (BS) which has got to be the waffle of waffle - hopefully we'll see it covered soon.

Very Funny Office Humor!, 12 Mar 2001
I enjoyed this book. It presents a lively collection of very funny management and cubicle worker situations. However, though aspects of managerial bungling are protrayed in Dilbert's unique style, "Ramdom Acts of Management" does not address managerial short-comings throughout the corporate structure or the diverse candid opinions of employees. To read about a somewhat more complete perspective on company-wide mis-management, from project managers to glib CEOs and their interactions with their feisty and/or frustrated technical staff, I definitely recommend the hilarious and insightful episodes in the frank, true-to-life American satire, "Management by Vice" (by C.B. Don). It's not just a compilation of cartoon strips, but real a book with episodes, witty verses and accompanying sharp illustrations! With these two books, you can always have a good laugh and thus be prepared for anything management throws your way from the office to the R&D setting, right the way through the corporate culture and up the company ladder!

Another Scott Adams' masterpiece..., 11 Dec 2000
exagerrating? Maybe but I never had satisfaction below expectations from a Adams Dilbert book. Sometimes it even predicts something that's about to really happen in... minutes! Working in a big corporation is just like that!

It's no the best Dilbert book... but it's not bad..., 15 Jun 2000
A lot of the strips I had already seen on the dilbert web site, so they didn't seem as funny second time around. Personally I prefered The Dilbert future... but this is still a good read for £5...

Genius!, 29 Apr 2004
Great book came across Dilbert when doing a management module for my Unicourse in a OB textbook! Fantastic and enlighting insight into the stupid corporate world!
Simply Genius!

Great1, 06 Mar 2004
You like Dilbert ?
Why are you reading this review ?

Just buy it

Dilbert: Things You Don't Want to Hear During Your Annual..., 19 Jan 2004
Very good, hilarious...
Collection of Dilbert comic strips..

Pure genius, 25 Nov 2003
You have to work in an office to really appreciate Scott Adams, if you do then the cartoons here will mean something to you as the stupidity of office life is reflected with brilliant accuracy. Every one is a gem and no wonder it is a rare office that does not have a fair few Dilbert cartoons stuck up on the noticeboards.

The only thing that holds this back from getting 5 stars is that it is not new stuff but an updated collection, and that a non office based audience may not appreciate this as much.

Having said that, Mr Adams is a genius and we are not worthy.

Should replace the induction manual, 13 Oct 2007
As a practical guide to how modern business works, this is pretty much essential. Yes, it's funny (so funny that in places I hurt with laughter) but it's deadly serious too.

As well as reading some of the wittiest cartoon strips ever, you'll absorb some deep wisdom and get plenty of practical ideas for making the corporate life more bearable.

You must buy this is you work in an office (or ever have done), 06 Feb 2007
I read this book in 2001, and every so often even now in 2007 I burst out laughing as I remember one of his comments. If you have ever worked in an office, particularly for a large company, you will find this hilarious. The other thing about it is that although it is supposedly a joke, there is a lot of truth in it, and it can actually help your career!

Good, but "The Dilbert Future" is better., 30 Nov 2006
This book is quite simply a comic way of looking at management stupidity.
I think the phrase "it's funny because it's true" might as well have been invented for this book. Scott Adams you prompt you with pearls of common sense so you can see just how silly middle management can be.
Although this is often regarded as the definitive Dilbert book, I found it slightly less fun to read than the Dilbert Future. That book took a more global view of stupidity, rather than concentrating solely on the workplace.

So real it is scary, 07 Jul 2005
This book is so real that it is scary. You can tell that Scott Adams has spent time. His description of cube life is still relevant today.

I have been trying to justify the Peter Principle and could not make it fit but after reading this book all things became clear. It is impossible to keep a straight face in meetings with out seeing the different types of personalities doing their thing. I can even anticipate what they are going to say