Book Cover

People are idiots.

# Review

Growing up I've always enjoyed reading the Dilbert strips in the newspaper (I was born middle aged, I know); I've always found the sardonic portrayal of the nihilistic corporation oddly hilarious. Scott brings his same sense of humour to describing both his own experiences, as well as the experiences submitted by his readers, in 90's corporate America.

While the goal of the book is to entertain, it ironically is one of the better management books I've read, in that it demonstrates what not to do as a manager (anything from micromanaging to using "humiliation as a management tool"). Based on the Peter Principle, which says that people tend to advance in an organization to their level of incompetence, Scott introduces the Dilbert Principle, which says that most incompetent workers are moved where they do the least damage (management).

Scott's premise is that people lapse into stupid mistakes constantly, in particular people in charge of managing an organization; Scott lists hilarious mistakes of managers, such forming an opinion first, then finding justifying reasoning to support the opinion. Scott also touches on 90's organizational trends, such as cubicles, hoteling, TQM, and office furniture as social hierarchy.

Interwoven into descriptions of management and organizational incompetence are relevant Dilbert cartoon strips (some strips are unfortunately repeated multiple times throughout the book). Scott also offers helpful advice for managers, such as matching the competence of people they manage and cutting down on keywords and jargon.

# Conclusion

A decent management book that's pretty entertaining to read. The Dilbert cartoons have become a cultural phenomenon, even being the topic of academic studies; the widespread relatability of Dilbert comic strips probably suggests that more managers ought to read the comic.

# Overall rating: 7.7

What does the rating mean?