Review by Booklist Review
Adams is on a roll. His Dilbert cartoon strip now appears in 17 languages and is read by 150 million people, and his last two Dilbert collections promptly hit the best-seller list. Here Adams has Dilbert, his nerdish, put-upon alter ago, venture outside the world of the cubicle to take a look around, and he finds--SURPRISE!--that incompetence and foolishness are not limited to the workplace. Exploring a neighborhood that borders on that of Dave Barry, Adams draws hilariously absurdist conclusions from his peripatetic observations. His targets include genetically engineered children, the chaos theory, life on other planets, euthanasia, frequent flier programs, clothes, and bicycle seats. Although Adams admits that it is impossible to know the future because the unexpected usually happens, he also argues that we will always be able to depend on the existence of stupidity and its predictable effects. --David Rouse
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Countless people look forward to the morning paper because it contains a Dilbert comic strip, a fine way to start the day on a cheerful note. But recently, at least as evidenced by this book, Adams's humor has developed into something snide and derogatory. He sees most people as "induhviduals." Perhaps he is boredjust as we all will become, he declares here, when everything is shared, via the Internet and new developments in video technology. Reading his book piecemeal, one catches more of the facetious humor. Among the 65 predictions here, Adams echoes many scholars in forecasting a work force of freelance experts doing contract work. He hits the target again when he dubs telephone marketing "confusopoly" because it serves only to befuddle the customer about price, since all companies provide essentially the same service. But one wonders why he bothers tackling certain areas, as in Prediction 59: "In the future, there will be drive-through pet-care facilities." Much of the work reiterates George W.S. Trow's conclusion that our civilization is growing increasingly trivial. Therefore, Adams's inclusion of a recommendation for making dreams come truewriting down one's wishes 15 times each dayis bizarre, suggestive of Coué's 1920s maxim that "Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better." (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
