Dilbert cartoons have inspired a huge following. Because of this, Scott Adams, the cartoonist behind the strip is able to publish popular humour books, as long as the are under the guise of being a Dilbert Book. As of July 2003, Adams has written four Dilbert books, The Dilbert Principle, The Dilbert Future, The Joy of Work and Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel. As well as these books of prose, there are a number of paperback cartoon collections of strips published in newspapers.

The Chapter Books

Generally, the chapter books focus on making fun of the way most companies are run, suggesting creatve alternatives to problems and making the readers laugh. It takes the perspective of a cubicle dweller who opposes management. Since the character of Dilbert in his cartoon strip is an engineer, Scott Adams¹ focuses closely on their behaviour and work. All of these Dilbert books have appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List. The books make fun of management, and so sell much better with low level employees. Adams explains-

For every person who's a manager and wants to know how to manage people, there are 10 people who are being managed and would like to figure out how to make it stop. You have a choice of appealing to the one or to the 10, and I simply choose the 10.

This is not to say that some of the Dilbert Books don't appeal to managers. There was the popular Dogbert's Top-Secret Management Handbook, where the character of Dogert² explains management and how a manager should do his job. This was a cartoon compilation, and not a regular book of prose.

The Dilbert Principle

The first book, The Dilbert Principle was published April 1996 and stayed on the best seller list until January. The book started from an article published on May 22, 1995 in the Wall Street Journal called The Dilbert Principle. It got a huge response and led to the book being written. It also serves as the first chapter of the book.

The name of the book is derived from the 1969 humour book 'The Peter Principle' which states that employees are promoted to their level of incompetence. 'The Dilbert Principle' states that incompetent employees are promoted directly to management.

This book is a guide to management, communication, pretending to work, marketing, engineering, meetings, sales, downsizing, leaders etc. The book cover claims that it is 'A Cubicle's Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads and Other Workplace Afflictions'. Throughout the book are Dilbert cartoons, usually placed in context of what the subject is. There are also emails from fans and email complaints.

The Dilbert Future

Life in the future will not be like Star Trek.

The Dilbert Future, published in 1997 departs slightly from the theme of work. It is still essentially a book on the future of work, but branches out to themes like technology, democracy and gender relations. As with the rest of the books, Adams uses the same format of the Dilbert Principle by providing cartoons and emails. Throughout the book Adams makes predictions such as Evolution will be debunked. The predictions are sometimes silly and sometimes serious.
Notably, in the introduction, Scott Adams mentions the term in-duh-viduals for the first time. This term would be incorporated into the DNRC³. This term is one of the best most popular of the words from Dilbert and has led to the creation of the word a-duh-lescent to name but one.

The last chapter, number 14 is called A New View of the Future. This and the Postscript to Chapter 14, and Appendix A are actually thought experiments. They provide a new perspective on physics and the world. It deals with several interesting theories and ideas as well as affirmations.

Interestingly, quickly after the hardback version came out, one predictions came true. One prediction said 'In the future, the media will kill famous people to generate news that people will care about'. This was predicted slightly before Princess Di's death. This was noted in the foreword for the paperback edition along with some other predictions that only half came true.

The Joy of Work

I cried because I did not have an office with a door, until I met a man who had no cubicle

The Joy of Work, published in 1998 explains exactly what the title suggests, the joy of work. It is slightly less cynical than the other books and is much more optimistic about society. It offers advice to make yourself happy, instead of talking about the world. It actually puts things in perspective with an opening quote⁴, which is not particularly like Scott Adams to do.

The idea of the book is to bring happiness to your job. It teaches techniques to bring creativity to your job, manage your boss, survive meetings and create laughter at the expense of others.

Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel

Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel, published in 2002 is a guide to take advantage of the 'Weasel Zone'. The book itself explains-

There's a gigantic gray area between good moral behavior and outright felonious activities. I call that the Weasel⁵ Zone and it's where most of life happens.

It tells you how to avoid work, hide your incompetence and outwit coworkers. In addition to helping you become a better weasel, the book gives a great deal of information on weasels. It explains how other weasels work, how to identify weasels and the types of weasels.

The book proposes a weasel sign where a person takes two of his fingers on each hand and cross them over your nose quickly to create finger whiskers. While you do the signal, you're supposed to say fft fft. This action is intended to imply that a person is a weasel.

The Dilbert Cartoon Collections

The thing that brought a great deal of popularity to Dilbert and a great deal of wealth to Scott Adams are the cartoon collections.

• Always Postpone Meetings with Time-Wasting Morons - a collection of strips published in newspapers from April 16, 1989 to October 21, 1989.
• Shave the Whales - a collection of strips published in newspapers from October 22 1989 to August 4, 1990
• Bring Me the Head of Willy the Mailboy a collection of
  strips published in newspapers from October 5, 1990 to May 18, 1991.
• It's Obvious You Won't Survive By Your Wits Alone a collection of
  strips published in newspapers from April 19 1991 to December 13, 1992.
• Still Pumped from Using the Mouse a collection of
  strips published in newspapers from December 14, 1992 to September 27, 1993.
• Fugitive From the Cubicle Police a collection of
  strips published in newspapers from September 28, 1993 to February 11, 1995.
• Casual Day Has Gone Too Far a collection of
  strips published in newspapers from February 5, 1995 to November 19, 1995.
• Seven Years of Highly Defective People a collection of cartoons from the earliest days of Dilbert to the present⁶. This book featured commentary below the strip.
• I'm Not Anti-Business, I'm Anti-Idiot a collection of
  strips published in newspapers from November 20, 1995 to August 31, 1996.
• Journey to Cubeville a collection of
  strips published in newspapers from September 1, 1996 to January 18, 1998.
• Don't Step in the Leadership a collection of
  strips published in newspapers from January 12, 1998 to October 18, 1998.
• Dilbert Gives You the Business a themed guide to all sorts of popular strips published in newspapers that are themed by profession.
• Random Acts of Management a collection of
  strips published in newspapers from October 18, 1998 to July 25, 1999.
• A Treasury of Sunday Strips: Version 00 a collection of
  Sunday color strips published in newspapers from 1995 to 1999.
• Excuse Me While I Wag a collection of
  strips published in newspapers from July 26, 1999 to April 30, 2000.
• When Did Ignorance Become A Point Of View? a collection of
  strips published in newspapers from May 1, 2000 to April 4, 2001.
• Another Day In Cubicle Paradise: A Dilbert Book a collection of
  strips published in newspapers from April 5, 2001 to November 11, 2001.
• What Do You Call A Sociopath In A Cubicle? Answer: A Coworker a collection of
  strips published in newspapers themed around coworkers.
• When Body Language Goes Bad a collection of
  strips published in newspapers from November 2001 to August 2002.

As well as these, there are two books published with original cartoons drawn for the books.

• Build a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies a collection of strips themed around working for a big company. Published in 1991.
• Clues for the Clueless Dogbert's guide to etiquette. Published in 1993.

Further Reading

• Dilbert.com
• Your First Day at the Office
• Language of the Cube Farm