Rating: 
Summary: Insanely great. Must-read for anyone with a high-tech job.
Review: This book is hilarious and scary -- scary because it's true.
With "The Dilbert Principle" Adams goes beyond cartooning into punchy, lacerating satire worthy of Jonathan Swift at
his most acerbic. This book is a honkin' huge hand-grenade
thrown right down the throat of moronic management, and a devastating comeback to management-school dons and the
writers of fatuous, faddish business books. Anybody who
doesn't laugh with it to the point of side-stitches and
then learn something from it is already dead from the
neck up.
Rating: 
Summary: Probably the most intelligent commics ever!
Review: The One-liner says it all. I just Love it. Dilbert iswith me all the time; on the net, in my newspaper and even under my pillow when I go to sleep at night. The reason that this gets "only" an "8" is that I found it so hard to get to sleep when reading this book.
It kept me wake all night and I overslept next morning, which made my boss fire me and my fiance called me a stoopid thoughtless nerd for loosing my job, so she left me and she took our dog with her and the car.
I now can't afford my apartment and have to move out in the street which leaves me with nothing but my Scot Adams book about Dilbert and when I'm thinking about that... I feel quite ok. Hocus Pocus from Robin.
Rating:
Summary: Dilbert for Dictator!
Review: This book is an amusing look at modern business practices and what's wrong with them. Adams takes us through a short history of business in the 1990s, from down-sizing to right-sizing, from re-engineering to Total Quality Management. His descriptions, based on his own job titles and tasks, of how the business world has changed is quite revealing. In the not-so-long-ago good-old-days, people could easily get lost in the bureaucracy of a large company doing time wasting jobs that produced nothing of value for the company. As things got tighter, in poorly run companies, the rats who could swim did just that, leaving more and more work to be done by people who were, on average, less and less capable. And the least capable, as well all know, were promoted to management, where they wouldn't be in the way of real work.
In the last part of the book, Adams has a few suggestions as an engineer/cartoonist about ideal company management. He introduces the notion of the OA5 company, or Out At Five. He suggests that managers maximize efficiency by scheduling meetings only in the afternoons, and late in the afternoons, so that the meetings don't get in the way of real work. That way, the work gets done despite the meeting, so everyone can get out at 5, which keeps up morale and energy. Besides, if a meeting is scheduled for 4-5 and everyone wants to get Out At Five, then the interminable chatterers who hog the floor at meetings may keep their traps shut for once so that they too, can go home on time. Adams argues that the most important task for a manager is to make sure that everyone in the department is a team player, and that people who don't work well or get along well with others should be dismissed. That way, the others can get more work done and get Out At Five. I've never studied business management and I don't think Adams has formally either, but these ideas sure sound as good as anything else I've heard on the topic. In any case, we'll have to wait for the prototype to be built before we can see how the ideas actually work in practice.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulously funny and sadly true....
Review: Corporate America continues to undermine itself with bumbling tales of bad management and poor policy. As always, Adams pokes fun at the pompous with his true tales of corporate mayhem. A must read for the burnt out and the enraged in the business world
Rating:
Summary: Another good Dilbert book
Review: For sheer humor, the Dilbert books and strips are great. The way Scott Adams is able to illustrate the insanity of many common business practices in a few scenes or sentances is incredible. On the bright side, because there are so many stupid things being done commonly, almost everyone can relate to Dilbert. On the down side, there are so many stupid things being done commonly.Relative to other Dilbert works, The Dilbert Principle is almost as good as Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook and considerably better than Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel.
Rating:
Summary: Sad & True, Dilbert embodies life of todays' office techie!
Review: I've worked as an engineer or technician, both for big companies and small. Before Dilbert, in all but the most restrictive environments, a small office underground poked the same kind of fun at management. Some offices even have their own cartoonists. A mega-sized company in Texas had a talented, cartoon artist, who did satirical office cartoons, with great caricature likenesses. He signed his work "The Phantom", and because I think even management knew who he was, he stayed restrained enough to keep it funny, but not too insulting. One possible exception, was a cartoon that mimicked the classic road gang movie, "Cool Hand Luke". He depicted an office corridor which as management walked by each office, they would say "Still shaking that work order there, boss". It did not go over too well with management. The Dilbert Principle is loosely based on the long discussed phenomena, called the "Peter Principle". Which I always thought means the biggest "prick" rises the highest. Usually it's the most unqualified as well. In this age we pay CEO's millions in salary, and then give them massive stock options. In return, they bankrupt the company with shady accounting practices, and sometimes, outright theft. You have to wonder if the term "business ethics" is an oxymoron. It's good that most offices have people like Dilbert, and we all have artists like Scott Adams. The humor allows many of us to survive the droll, office existence day after day. The unrewarding existence, of working in a system where incompetents profit, often on our good works. Prior to Dilbert, I may have considered myself unique, or just unlucky to be employed by some of these bozo's in suit and tie. I've been through the improvement meetings, sensitivity, and those focus groups. The "one on one" carpet sessions with my boss, which accomplished nothing, except to try my patience, and then waste my time. Still, management needs to feel they do something, and if it can't make a new report to show their own boss this week, it may be time to try out the latest management fad. Adams collection of cartoons, groups these into common categories of management tactics. If you look hard enough, you may even find a cartoon, that help you avoid experiencing the same Hell in your own office. It's too bad the managers don't seem to read these books, or if they do, they don't seem to be telling. Perhaps the most important thing found in The Dilbert Principle, is that it gives some of us a better understanding of what's really going on. Unless you're fairly astute, you will occasionally find yourself buying into a lot of management disinformation. Information, that could clue you into a "downsizing", a company sale, management change, or other "issues", that may give you reason to brush up the old resume. At the very least, if gives you a chance to know what's probably going on behind the scenes, and decide how to best keep your own house. Another thing that is uncanny about Scott Adams, is his depiction of the characters. It seemed like, the company I worked for in Texas, was chock full of those little balding management guys. Middle managers with overly short wide ties, and always carrying a cup of coffee in their right hand, as they walked about. They'd ask us about what we were doing, and when we told them they'd look confused, say something cleverly non-committal, and move on. It used to be a competition to see who could confuse them first, and move them on to the next persons office or cubicle.
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