EDITORIAL: Why Scott Adams Can Bite Me (4/17/98)

Or, "Dilbert and the Death of Office Humor". Quick backstory. After spending 45 minutes in a "brainstorming" session yesterday, where we were told the incredible fallacy that "there are no stupid ideas", I thought that would make a great subject for a Friday editorial rant, about how stupid these things are and how yes, Virginia, there are stupid ideas, just visit Usenet sometime to find a few, and so on.

But then I realized I'd be venturing into extreme Dilbertian territory, and it put me off my feed.

Don't get me wrong. I think Scott Adams is a pretty funny guy. I just think it's a tad disingenuous to be making fun of business with one hand, and building your multimedia empire with the other. Dilbert the Office Depot mascot. Dilbert the TV series. Dilbert -management- books. I mean, I like Bill Watterston too, but I don't want to see "Calvin and Hobbes' Guide to Child Rearing" on the shelves.

Worse than that, Dilbert provides a nice "front" for managerial types. Slap a Sunday Dilbert on your office wall, and you instantly become a "good" manager, unlike all those "bad" managers that Dilbert makes fun of.

And then there's the whole monopoly issue. To most folks, "Dilbert" and "office humor" are now inseparably linked. So I'm not going to go on at length about the brainstorming thing, lest I be accused of moving into Dilbert's territorial waters. But there -are- stupid ideas, and one of them is reading a management book written by a cartoon character.