Product Description

Back after a four–year hiatus, New York Times bestselling author Scott Adams presents an outrageous look at work, home and everyday life in his new book, Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel.

Building on Dilbert's theory that 'All people are idiots', Adams now says, 'All people are idiots. And they are also weasels.' Just ask anyone who worked at Enron.

In this book, Adams takes a look into the Weasel Zone, the giant grey area between good moral behaviour and outright felonious activities. In the Weasel Zone, where most people reside, everything is misleading, but not exactly a lie. Building on his popular comic strip, Adams looks into work, home and everyday life and exposes the way of the weasel for everyone to see. With appearances from all the regular comic strip characters, Adams and Dilbert are at the top of their game – master satirists who expose the truth while making us laugh our heads off.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #169745 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-01
• Released on: 2003-10-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip and author of The Dilbert Principle and other huge sellers, now shares his sentiments on the office colleague everyone loves to hate: the weasel. This crafty character is the co-worker who stabs colleagues in the back and manages to get ahead without lifting a finger. As one cartoon illustrates, the weasel is the guy who tells poor Dilbert, "I'm Bucky, the project manager. Your assignment is painfully difficult and probably unnecessary. If you need me, I'll be complaining about you to your boss." Being a weasel isn't all bad, though; Adams observes that weasels often have successful careers without ever doing much work. There are several ways to accomplish this, one being, "For every task you plan to do, it's a good idea to have sixty tasks that you've promised to do later if you ever find the time. This gives everyone the impression that you are valiantly battling an avalanche of work and fighting against long odds to make the company successful. Or they might think you're a worthless, inefficient weasel. Either way, the pay is exactly the same and it cuts down on your workload." In short chapters, Adams discusses a variety of weasel behaviors, including leaving incorrect phone numbers to confuse callers, mastering the art of whining, and communicating effectively (which is "to say as much as possible without saying anything"). Sprinkled with Dilbert cartoons throughout, the book will strike a chord among the countless cubicle-dwellers to whom the weasel is all too familiar. 50 cartoons.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Sometimes laugh-out-loud funny and always irreverent, this presentation deflates every ego in sight with a wry and goofy read by Dilbert's creator. The corporate world is his main target, but anyone--and everyone--is game. Self-deprecating and occasionally using material that becomes laughable only at the last moment, Adams is a tightrope-walking jester having a fine time with us and himself. True to his weasel roots, Dilbert never actually makes an appearance on the recording. But for a refreshingly original laugh-fest you'll want to share with anyone possessing a job or a pulse, listen and learn THE WAY OF THE WEASEL. D.J.B. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Adams, creator of the popular comic strip Dilbert, continues the satirical look at office life that he began with The Dilbert Principle (1996). Being a weasel encompasses everything that we hate about our coworkers as well as all the sneaky, time-wasting activities that we ourselves engage in just to avoid doing actual work. Here's his take on getting ahead by sucking up to the boss: "The great thing about being a sycophant is there's no deception going on. You know you're a weasel, your boss knows you're a weasel, and your coworkers know you're a weasel. Yet the method still works like a charm." The book is filled with lots of to-the-point Dilbert strips with appearances from all the regular characters, and (supposed) actual e-mails from readers about the absurd things that go on in the workplace. This book is best left on your desk to read in snippets for comic relief from the inane culture of office life. For more Dilbert hilarity, and to correspond with Adams, visit Dilbert.com. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Serious management stuff here!
OK, silly cartoons in a flyweight "management" book hardly seems the stuff of classic, but the cartoons are pointed illustrations of serious (really!) but not overwrought commentary about the way we work and live (really!).

Nothing new to say?
After doing a pretty good to great job in The Dilbert Principle and The Dilbert Future and an ok job in Joy of Work Adams stumbles here with Way of the Weasel.

The strips are as funny as ever, but you'll have seen them before in the strip compilations and the daily paper. The trouble is that where he had actual insight, philosphy and something to say in his previous books he doesn't here. We either have the same old saws about management cleverly called "Management Weasels" as if it were new insights or what comes down to prose versions of the strips. The actual strips themselves are better than the prose versions.

The book does have its moments. But the start is fairly bad and you'll spend a lot of time thinking "Why am I reading this."

However if you have missed his previous Dilbert prose offerings you probably will enjoy this. If you have read Principle, Future and Joy of Work then you can safely give this a pass. You've seen it before!

A book by weasels for weasels
If I was as big a weasel as Mr. Adams assumes I am (by his own admission!), I wouldn't have bothered reading his book before writing this review. Apparently, I have a thing or two more to learn about being a weasel. The first part of this book is so over the top that it seems forced, and doesn't exactly tickle the funny bone. However, as Mr. Adams moves out of the office and begins to discuss weasels in other areas of life, it improves, and there are both good laughs and some scarily accurate descriptions of weasel behavior. As ususal, the comic strips are generally the funniest bits, proving yet again that Mr. Adams talents are best packaged in that format.