The Dilbert Future: Thriving on Stupidity in the 21st Century

by Scott Adams

Hardcover, 1997

Status

Available

Call number

741.5973

Publication

Harper Business (1997), Edition: 1st, 258 pages

Description

Step aside, Nostradamus. Here comes the real soothsayer, and he'sturning his eagle eye on everything from new work-avoiding technologyto sex with aliens. With predictions that run the gamut ona wide range of hot-buttons, Scott Adams' absurdist, outrageously funnynew audio, The Dilbert Future, may be his greatest achievement yet.In his inimitable style, Adams predicts we'll learn to harness the mostabundant resource in the universe: stupidity.As always, Adams' keen wit is dead-on. Prediction: The Dilbert Future will be the most anticipated and well-received businessbook of the year. (It doesn't take a psychic to figure that out.)Check out Scott Adams' other Dilbert books, TheDilbert Principle and Dogbert'sTop Secret Management Handbook.When he's not cartooning or writing bestsellers, Scott Adamsspends his time speaking at corporate functions and conferences.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member AlexTheHunn

This is true Scott Adams humor. But unless you are a devoted follower of his bitter ray of sunshine approach, you may find it more tedious and tiresome than funny. Personally, I find Adams to be a sharp social critic who rarely misses the mark. He skewers the absurdities perpetrated in the name of

business.

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LibraryThing member tronella

"To me, computers are like tangerines, in the sense that I can't make a good analogy about either one right now." Dilbery always makes me laugh, although Scott Adams is a little annoying/condescending at times.

LibraryThing member Anome

This is the book where Scott Adams finally pissed me off. There were accusations that he was simply exploiting the market to make money, but that didn't bother me so much.

What got me was his theory of gravity. He provides this as an example of an alternative to mainstream thinking. I don't think he

seriously believes that gravity works the way he describes, but he claims that this theory has not had any serious criticism from scientists when he circulated it on his mailing list. The idea is so ludicrous, however, that it is possible no-one felt it worth the time to point out the obvious flaws. He takes this as an indication that he is onto something, though.

Anyway, maybe it was all a joke that I just didn't get, but it made me look at Dilbert in a slightly different light than before, and I don't think I could go back.

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LibraryThing member Lyn.S.Soussi

A collection of cartoons by the master. I found the "Dilbert Principle" more amusing, more in-depth, but htis is still a very pleasant way to spend a few hours.

LibraryThing member Conina

The second of Scott Adams' "non-fiction" books looking at how life, business and everything else wil be in the future.
I find when Adams writes about the absurdities of the business world he is very entertaining. When he tries a more serious vein (as he does in the final chapter), I find him

obnoxious, patronising and - worst of all - boring.

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LibraryThing member nderdog

You just can't go wrong with Dilbert! As a self-proclaimed Geek, I see far too many of my own co-workers in Dilbert's world, but don't we all?

LibraryThing member melydia

Scott Adams is a cartoonist. He is not a stand-up comedian nor is he Dave Barry, though this book makes it quite clear that he really wants to be. Still, there is a reason he tells jokes in three-panel comic strips instead of 30-minute monologues. Here he addresses various aspects of life and makes

tongue-in-cheek predictions, interspersed with Dilbert cartoons. It was obviously written in sections rather than as a whole, and the entire time all I could think about was how much more fitting these musings would be in somebody's blog than a hardbound tome published by Harper Business, especially since so many of the predictions have gone out of date since its publication (such as his erroneous predictions for the futures of the cable modem and ISDN). There were some vaguely amusing parts but nothing was anywhere near laugh-out-loud funny, and I had to yawn a bit at the tired "women really rule the world" section - that idea was beaten to death decades ago and hasn't gotten any funnier in the meantime. Frankly, the most humorous parts were the cartoons, and if I wanted to read those I could have just picked up a collection.The final chapter, "A New View of the Future," was inappropriate in this context. For this section Adams "turned the humor mode off" and discussed his personal philosophies. They were interesting but did not fit whatsoever with the rest of the book. His ideas on perception and cause and effect would also have been much more compelling had he bothered to actually research any of the theories and experiments he mentioned. I understand that the goal of this section was nothing more than to make the reader think about the universe a little differently, but it would have been much more effective had he spent an hour at the library finding a couple of references to cite. Saying things like "I'll simplify the explanation, probably getting the details wrong in the process, but you'll get the general idea" does not instill in me a desire to take him very seriously. That said, I am giving thought to trying out those affirmations.Despite the incongruity of the chapter, I still enjoyed it about as much as I did the rest of the book, but for different reasons (the first part was vaguely amusing, the second vaguely intriguing). Ultimately this felt like a Dilbert collection trying to be a Dave Barry book. I think I'll stick with the comic strips from now on.

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LibraryThing member carterchristian1

The section on downsizing really grabbed me. A really appropriate book for these days of high unemployment and angst. Great book, really on target and funny

LibraryThing member datrappert

Hysterical. And true. Adams' insights into the working world are unmatched.

LibraryThing member BenKline

Another fun Dilbert comic read. Despite not working in that career type I've always found the Dilbert comics pretty funny, even as a kid. The two books I've read of his (so far) have been no different.

This book was funny and a bit poignant (him discussing Terrorism, when this was written in 1998),

but the end of the book goes into a bit of a tail-dive with the paranormal stuff. Not sure the point/reasoning behind it's inclusion, and its not exactly meant to be funny and just is a poor way to wrap up the work.

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