Build a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies: Dogbert's Big Book of Business [Paperback]

Scott Adams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 3, 1994

Anyone who ever toiled in the office "environment" will identify with the ironclad axioms put forth by Dogbert in this collection of office wisdom. So, move over Murphy's Law, and forget about the One-Minute Manger--Dogbert is taking the business-book business by storm. Dogbert appears in the nationally syndicated comic strip Dilbert.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing; Original edition (March 3, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0836217578
• ISBN-13: 978-0836217575
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 7.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,020,743 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

What started as a doodle has turned Scott Adams into a superstar of the cartoon world. Dilbert debuted on the comics page in 1989 while Adams was in the tech department at Pacific Bell. Adams continued to work at Pacific Bell until he was voluntarily downsized in 1995. He has lived in the San Francisco Bay area since 1979.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the all-time best business books + Scott Adams best, November 11, 2003

By 

cs211 "cs211" (United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Build a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies: Dogbert's Big Book of Business (Paperback)

I cannot say enough positive things about BABLBSOS, Scott Adams' first book and the one that started him on his path to fame, glory, and fortune. I bought my first copy in the early nineties at the MIT Tech Coop bookstore, when a fellow geek friend of mine said I absolutely had to read it - he just shoved it into my shopping tote. At that point in time I had never heard of Scott Adams, and I think the Boston Globe was one of a small handful of papers carrying Dilbert (it subsequently took two years of letter writing before my local paper agreed to carry it).

In BABLBSOS, Scott Adams covers his by now familiar territory of the world of American high tech business for the very first time. BABLBSOS is not a rehash of the daily Dilbert strip like so many other collections of Adams'. Rather, BABLBSOS is original material organized by topics, which collectively cover all major aspects of the workplace experience in a high tech company. Since Adams is exploring this material for the first time, and is not doing it in a daily comic strip form, the results are more hard-hitting and concise than Adams' subsequent books. Each page stands on its own and showcases in the best possible way Adams' brilliantly cynical understanding of how businesses all too often really function.

But BABLBSOS is more than just Scott Adams' best work. It also is one of the best business books and management guides ever created, and certainly the pithiest. All too many business books present prescriptions for how businesses should operate. BABLBSOS is the opposite: an "anti-business" book that shows how businesses actually behave, from the perspective of the employees. The challenge and guidance for managers, then, is to do the opposite of the pointy-haired boss, to avoid the situations that Adams presents.

After I originally read BABLBSOS, I recommended it to everyone I knew who would appreciate it (which is almost anyone who works for a living in a corporation), and used many of the panels in various presentations. I still keep a copy handy in my office for reference. So, as you can see, I cannot recommend BABLBSOS highly enough.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dogbert has useful tips for everyday situations., February 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Build a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies: Dogbert's Big Book of Business (Paperback)

This book is practical, humorous, and has big, simple cartoon pictures so it's easy to understand. Dogbert gives useful insights on everyday situations such as coffee intake, boss classifications, and hallway greetings. A must read!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the most insightful book about what really happens in the corporate workplace, May 4, 2010

By 

Ursiform (Torrance, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Build a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies: Dogbert's Big Book of Business (Paperback)

Before the boss's hair went pointy, before dinosaurs roamed the strip, before Dogbert became master of the universe, there was Build a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies. From what your clothes say about you ("I hope you'll ignore the stuff that comes out of my mouth"), to change ("You will appear to be a visionary planner if you decentralize everything which is centralized and centralize everything which is decentralized"), to excuses for being late ("Just remember that your excuse must be more dramatic than those who arrive before you"), this book is fall-out-of-your-chair funny while at the same time being spot-on in describing the surreality of the modern corporate environment. Each page is a Dilbert strip, but written for this book. Together they cover pretty much everything you need to know about how business really operates. The final two pages, "When to change jobs" and "Keeping your perspective" do, penultimately and ultimately, put it all in, well, perspective.