What do you think?
Rate this book
Dilbert #7
Still Pumped from Using the Mouse
For the more than 50 million readers who regularly enjoy Dilbert in over 2,000 newspapers worldwide, Scott Adams's take on the working world is outrageously fresh, farcical, and far-reaching. In this collection, Dilbert and his egg-shaped, bespectacled canine, Dogbert, again give readers an insider's look at the funny business of the work-a-day world.
128 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1996
6 people are currently reading
253 people want to read
About the author
Scott Adams
281 books1,256 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Adams was born in Windham, New York in 1957 and received his Bachelor's degree in Economics from Hartwick College in 1979.
He also studied economics and management for his 1986 MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
In recent years, Adams has been hurt with a series of debilitating health problems. Since late 2004, he has suffered from a reemergence of his focal dystonia which has affected his drawing. He can fool his brain by drawing using a graphics tablet. On December 12, 2005, Adams announced on his blog that he also suffers from spasmodic dysphonia, a condition that causes the vocal cords to behave in an abnormal manner. However, on October 24, 2006, he again blogged stating that he had recovered from this condition, although he is unsure if the recovery is permanent. He claims to have developed a method to work around the disorder and has been able to speak normally since. Also, on January 21, 2007, he posted a blog entry detailing his experiences with treatment by Dr. Morton Cooper.
Adams is also a trained hypnotist, as well as a vegetarian. (Mentioned in, "Dilbert: A Treasury of Sunday Strips 00).
He married Shelly Miles on July 22, 2006.
Adams was born in Windham, New York in 1957 and received his Bachelor's degree in Economics from Hartwick College in 1979.
He also studied economics and management for his 1986 MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
In recent years, Adams has been hurt with a series of debilitating health problems. Since late 2004, he has suffered from a reemergence of his focal dystonia which has affected his drawing. He can fool his brain by drawing using a graphics tablet. On December 12, 2005, Adams announced on his blog that he also suffers from spasmodic dysphonia, a condition that causes the vocal cords to behave in an abnormal manner. However, on October 24, 2006, he again blogged stating that he had recovered from this condition, although he is unsure if the recovery is permanent. He claims to have developed a method to work around the disorder and has been able to speak normally since. Also, on January 21, 2007, he posted a blog entry detailing his experiences with treatment by Dr. Morton Cooper.
Adams is also a trained hypnotist, as well as a vegetarian. (Mentioned in, "Dilbert: A Treasury of Sunday Strips 00).
He married Shelly Miles on July 22, 2006.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
June 19, 2017
More fun Dilbert. No particularly stunning developments, except the first draw-down with Techno-Bill, and Dogbert's first sucessful world-domination.
[Fulfills the B-1 "Checked Out From The Library" square of my St. Mary's County Library Summer Reading Challenge bingo board.Fulfills The Seasonal Reading Challenge Task 10.1: Seven or Six (seventh Dilbert book). Whoops, no it doesn't.]
[Fulfills the B-1 "Checked Out From The Library" square of my St. Mary's County Library Summer Reading Challenge bingo board.
June 11, 2020
If you want to see my thoughts on this strip as a whole, check out my other recent Dilbert compilation reviews. What I will say about this book is that, though it was good, much of it was rehash of what I'd already read not too long ago. Maybe that's my fault for reading different books of the same comic strip in such a short time.
February 15, 2010
This is what you need a five to ten minutes of if your workday was not how you would have liked it to be. When someone high up in the corporate jungle makes decisions you can not understand, or if technical, logical arguments fall short of feelings.....
January 28, 2021
Filled with classic strips from a classic era, this book harkens back to the day when Dilbert was consistently funny and didn't rely so much on gimmicky characters for cheap laughs.
February 15, 2024
Entertaining enough.
I remember reading these in the paper as a kid and just kind of shrugging, but now that I am an adult and have worked not only in an office but also in technology I get it.
I remember reading these in the paper as a kid and just kind of shrugging, but now that I am an adult and have worked not only in an office but also in technology I get it.
March 22, 2018
Ah Dilbert, just what I need after a day filled with things that make you go hmm... a nice side of crazy. The truth is, I am happy there are people out there who haven't worked with people like the caricatures depicted in Scott Adam's comics. And surely most of the people working in offices are not at all like this... Well, surely there are office workers who are not like this most days. The truth is, there are days in Corporate America when you think to yourself, "perhaps I'm living a Dilbert comic strip... or perhaps I'm secretly taping an episode of The Office... or perhaps I'm an extra on Office Space." Because there are indeed days, days where we feel like we truly are giant corn dogs on sticks, when just a little Dogbert could make the world a better place, world domination or not. For all the rest of the days, the ones where we live our normal lives and work our normal jobs and go on about our days happy as clams, Dilbert and his friends are still a lot of fun.
January 12, 2014
Dilbert’s grievances with upper management, his job, his co-workers and his life in general continue. What is puzzling is why he’s so blasé about it all. Others sink under, dropping dead from stress, losing their hair or their jobs but Dilbert rarely loses his cool. While he seems doomed to die a bachelor, he maintains perennial hope of getting a girlfriend. Even when Dogbert is concocting (and succeeding in) one of his nefarious schemes, Dilbert barrels through with the blandness that has never abandoned him even when finding a rat in his pasta.
Dilbert thus seems to be a kind of Everyman—too dull to give offense, too inoffensive to risk replacing (the next guy might be worse or not so forgiving) and too accepting to fire. Nothing rattles him for long, little phases him and, if his sense of humor never improves, that’s fine. His situations are absurd enough to provide humor in spite of him.
Dilbert thus seems to be a kind of Everyman—too dull to give offense, too inoffensive to risk replacing (the next guy might be worse or not so forgiving) and too accepting to fire. Nothing rattles him for long, little phases him and, if his sense of humor never improves, that’s fine. His situations are absurd enough to provide humor in spite of him.
September 27, 2012
How do I hate thee, Dilbert?
Let me count the ways.
1) You are not funny
2) You are awkwardly written
3) You are ineptly drawn
4) You are mean-spirited
5) You are ridiculous
I have worked in offices, but never one like the office presented in this comic strip. I’ve worked with smart and often dedicated people who really wanted to succeed and took pride in what they did. The bosses, who sometimes had problem personalities, were not stupid as the boss is here, and could never have risen to that level if they were. I find DILBERT petty, stupid, and an inaccurate reflection of every office situation I have worked in. I also know people who claim the strip is a valid reflection of their working experience. If so, I’m sorry for you, but find another job if you can. This strip is still not funny, badly written, ineptly drawn, and mean-spirited.
Let me count the ways.
1) You are not funny
2) You are awkwardly written
3) You are ineptly drawn
4) You are mean-spirited
5) You are ridiculous
I have worked in offices, but never one like the office presented in this comic strip. I’ve worked with smart and often dedicated people who really wanted to succeed and took pride in what they did. The bosses, who sometimes had problem personalities, were not stupid as the boss is here, and could never have risen to that level if they were. I find DILBERT petty, stupid, and an inaccurate reflection of every office situation I have worked in. I also know people who claim the strip is a valid reflection of their working experience. If so, I’m sorry for you, but find another job if you can. This strip is still not funny, badly written, ineptly drawn, and mean-spirited.
August 9, 2013
I used to work in the corporate world. I even sat in a cubicle. I swear Scott Adams must have been sitting in the cube next to me, because I recognize every one of his characters as people I worked with. Dilbert is absolutely hilarious. If you work in corporate America, this will make you laugh. A lot.
July 5, 2007
This was my first exposure to the Dilbert comic strip. It's an excellent parody of the American workplace, and of computer geeks everywhere. I've since read and enjoyed the entire collection. I find comic strip collections to be excellent, short and pleasant bedtime reading.
November 5, 2012
Some of these situations are almost to real to be funny.
November 17, 2015
Still funny after all these years.
February 24, 2016
Has about 7 recycled strips from the book "Your Accomplishments Are Suspiciously Hard to Verify". However, a good page or two of the Elbonians :)
July 3, 2021
Got this from a Little Free Library. It was a collection, but not like thematic or anything, just a segment of time at the very end of 1992 through like September 1993 and all the comics chronologically in that period. I've read a couple "Dilbert" books that used comics to illustrate text, but not sure I've read a collection like this. It is fun to see the character progression, in personality and style, because I was reading "Dilbert" in the early to mid-naughts, probably, like middle and high school, in our daily newspaper comics section.
Apparently in 1996 (publishing year) Dilbert was the most popular comic online. I'm not sure how common it was for non dotcom people to be online at home then though. I think my paternal grandparents had internet then, my grandma has always been a computer user in my memory. I wouldn't be surprised if my maternal grandfather was too.
Some of the stuff Adams wrote about in the early '90s is relatable now, and some of it seems omniscient (or maybe just he was ahead of the curve because he was online in the early '90s). Like the cyberspace and no pants, made me laugh because of working from home with Covid, that became the standard last summer, pants not necessary. And he knew global warming was an issue back then; there is a week or so with a young neighbor who is irate at Dilbert and the generation of adults for leaving the world in shambles, which seems about right (yes, I'm a Millennial).
And then a few of the work comics made me shudder, because it wasn't all farcical. Some of Adams' representations of corporate America and upper management hit close to home with the job I just left.
Apparently in 1996 (publishing year) Dilbert was the most popular comic online. I'm not sure how common it was for non dotcom people to be online at home then though. I think my paternal grandparents had internet then, my grandma has always been a computer user in my memory. I wouldn't be surprised if my maternal grandfather was too.
Some of the stuff Adams wrote about in the early '90s is relatable now, and some of it seems omniscient (or maybe just he was ahead of the curve because he was online in the early '90s). Like the cyberspace and no pants, made me laugh because of working from home with Covid, that became the standard last summer, pants not necessary. And he knew global warming was an issue back then; there is a week or so with a young neighbor who is irate at Dilbert and the generation of adults for leaving the world in shambles, which seems about right (yes, I'm a Millennial).
And then a few of the work comics made me shudder, because it wasn't all farcical. Some of Adams' representations of corporate America and upper management hit close to home with the job I just left.
December 27, 2022
#5--Comic Strip Collection
Title: Dilbert: Still Pumped from Using the Mouse
Author: Scott Adams
Artist: Scott Adams
Publisher: Andrews and McMeel
Page Count: 128
Year of Publication Release: 1996
Well, this was published in 1996, so I had to graze through the introduction, which I did not enjoy, and which, I ironically will say, might be one of those moments where the author need take his own advice. I was introduced to Dilbert by a colleague and I enjoyed the book he had given me, which I assume, was Scott Adams' earlier work. This book wasn't for me. I felt that many of the jokes and humor didn't really stick.
Title: Dilbert: Still Pumped from Using the Mouse
Author: Scott Adams
Artist: Scott Adams
Publisher: Andrews and McMeel
Page Count: 128
Year of Publication Release: 1996
Well, this was published in 1996, so I had to graze through the introduction, which I did not enjoy, and which, I ironically will say, might be one of those moments where the author need take his own advice. I was introduced to Dilbert by a colleague and I enjoyed the book he had given me, which I assume, was Scott Adams' earlier work. This book wasn't for me. I felt that many of the jokes and humor didn't really stick.
June 10, 2017
This was a fun read. Sometimes it was laugh out loud funny.
October 8, 2017
A few laugh out loud moments.
February 6, 2018
I kinda like it but it was going round and round.First there was this then something else.i want the book to have one topic.I like the book tho, very funny.😀
September 4, 2018
I enjoy Dilbert, just not enough laugh out loud strips to recommend this volume
January 9, 2019
Funny. You can tell he's still finding his way.
September 10, 2022
A collection of fun Dilbert comic strips
July 13, 2024
It's funny.
January 10, 2025
I really enjoyed this. Made me laugh out loud on multiple occasions, even though some jokes may still have gone over my head.
March 28, 2015
Dilbert is an engineer who works for a poorly-managed mid-size corporation. His co-workers are hostile, his boss is pointy-haired, and Dilbert himself is less than competent with anything other than engineering. Such as dating.
The Dilbert gag-a-day comic strip has been running since 1989; this collection is of strips from 1992-1993. While details of corporate culture have changed (one set of strips has Dilbert carrying a plethora of electronic devices that would now all be contained in his smartphone), much of its office-based humor is still relevant. And funny.
Perhaps the most evocative sequence is a little girl named Noriko discovering how badly adults have messed up the world, and so her generation will have to spend most of their time working to fix the damage. If Dilbert ran in real time, Noriko would be one of the Generation Y workers desperately trying to stay afloat now.
The art is…adequate; it’s easy to tell most of the named characters apart. The strength is in the gags. There’s a fair amount of sexism by Dilbert and his male co-workers; it can be difficult to tell how much of that is them being jerks, and how much the author’s now-outdated attitudes. (Women are still under-represented in the engineering field, but not as badly as they used to be.)
Unsurprisingly, I found this volume in the lunchroom reading shelf at work, to which it will return so that others may enjoy it. It’s certainly aged better than many of the trendy management fad books of the same era!
The Dilbert gag-a-day comic strip has been running since 1989; this collection is of strips from 1992-1993. While details of corporate culture have changed (one set of strips has Dilbert carrying a plethora of electronic devices that would now all be contained in his smartphone), much of its office-based humor is still relevant. And funny.
Perhaps the most evocative sequence is a little girl named Noriko discovering how badly adults have messed up the world, and so her generation will have to spend most of their time working to fix the damage. If Dilbert ran in real time, Noriko would be one of the Generation Y workers desperately trying to stay afloat now.
The art is…adequate; it’s easy to tell most of the named characters apart. The strength is in the gags. There’s a fair amount of sexism by Dilbert and his male co-workers; it can be difficult to tell how much of that is them being jerks, and how much the author’s now-outdated attitudes. (Women are still under-represented in the engineering field, but not as badly as they used to be.)
Unsurprisingly, I found this volume in the lunchroom reading shelf at work, to which it will return so that others may enjoy it. It’s certainly aged better than many of the trendy management fad books of the same era!
February 9, 2013
Eh tant qu'ingénieur informaticien, je ne peux qu'être intéressé par les "cartoons" de Scott Adams. On y retrouve des thèmes familiers, comme l'incompréhension entre managememt et informatique, les délocalisations, ... mais plus généralement c'est l'absurdité qui transparaît dans tous les dessins: l'absurdité du monde de l'entreprise et du monde en général.
Je dois cependant dire que les dessins vraiment amusants sont rares. Peut-être est-ce dû au format compact, en 3 cases. Cela n'enlève rien à la qualité de l'oeuvre, mais parfois l'absurdité va tellement loin qu'on en reste pantois. D'où ma note de 2/5.
A lire en version originale, les traductions en français perdant encore un peu de sens comique au passage.
Je dois cependant dire que les dessins vraiment amusants sont rares. Peut-être est-ce dû au format compact, en 3 cases. Cela n'enlève rien à la qualité de l'oeuvre, mais parfois l'absurdité va tellement loin qu'on en reste pantois. D'où ma note de 2/5.
A lire en version originale, les traductions en français perdant encore un peu de sens comique au passage.
Read
September 28, 2010The other Dilbert books I have are sort of hybrid, with strips interspersed with paragraphs of text. This is pure comic strips (except for the preface). So I'll insert it here.
Mostly not Adams' best, I'd say, but there are several bits on Dogbert's Good News Network, which are pretty good. We all know that news sources focus on atypical events. But Dogbert reports more accurately. It might be worthwhile to actually do this sort of thing.
Mostly not Adams' best, I'd say, but there are several bits on Dogbert's Good News Network, which are pretty good. We all know that news sources focus on atypical events. But Dogbert reports more accurately. It might be worthwhile to actually do this sort of thing.
September 2, 2016
It's interesting to go back far enough that most of the characters don't seem to be as developed as they are now. Also technology has moved along significantly (one story arc shows the office battling for supremacy in numbers of gadgets in their belts, which would now all be available on our phones). The back cover touts that the comic has its own page on the World Wide Web. I think I prefer the newer comics, but this was a fun collection and trip to the past.
December 21, 2023
To survive the endless triviality of work, Dilbert finds himself leisurely enjoying the suffering of those beneath him - however few there are - while keeping an eye on Dogbert and his numerous plans that could possibly involve ruling the world. Adams will keeps fans entertained with these earlier entries to a steadily hilarious realm of absurdist workplace humour. Surely something of value will be achieved at work...someday...
December 25, 2014
True, all Dilbert cartoons are available on Dilbert.com, so it's somewhat unnecessary to put it on hold at the library and have them ship it to me. But! I can't curl up on the couch with my laptop as comfortably as I can with a book. Plus, the book has the intro. As for the actual cartoons, Ratbert and the dinos and Elbonia are still major plot lines, just as I like it.
January 23, 2016
We all might have started out like Calvin with a great view of life. But after hitting the workforce we all somewhat become Dilbert. Everyone knows someone like one of the characters in the strips. Highly recommended
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews