Dilbert - Everyone's 2nd Favorite Engineer

Dilbert is a syndicated cartoon strip by Scott Adams (some dude with an economics degree that also happens to be a certified hypnotist - yeah i know, go figure)! He developed the characters in Dilbert based on the many personalities he'd come across during his working career in technology and finance.

See Scott's First 50 Dilbert Comic Strips before it began regular syndication in 1989. Since then, the comic strip has appeared in newspapers, on the internet (the first comic strip to go online in 1995) and in numerous (hilarious) books and compilations. There was also a 30 episode animated TV series made in 1999.

• Dilbert - your typical engineer, he's technically competent, has a lacking social life and is single.
• Pointy Haired Boss - the (incompetent) manager
• Alice - switched on female engineer, underrecognized in the office
• Wally - the older engineer that is always drinking coffee and great at being completely slack
• Asok - pronounced ASHOOK is an intern who is intelligent but doesn't understand corporate politics.
• The (talking) animals/pets/workers - Dogbert, Ratbert, Catbert ! They are often seen giving advice to Dilbert.
  

1. We are both engineers (I am a civil engineer, Dilbert is electrical).
2. We're single & lack an exciting social life.
3. We both put up with stupidity at work on a daily basis.
4. We both work in office cubicles, except mine is probably more open plan - at least Dilbert seems to have a cubicle for himself.
5. We both attend boring office meetings on a regular basis!
6. Our avatars are both comic representations of real life personas!
   

The Dilbert Future was published in 1997. I remember reading it and laughing so hard the first time. Scott Adams made 65 predictions for the future, detailed with some hilarious commentary on what life will be like in the future as we "Thrive on Stupidity in the 21st Century"! It covers technology predictions, the future of democracy, capitalism, gender relations, marketing, social stuff and life on other planets, among other topics!

Some great predictions:

Prediction #1: In the future, authors will take a long time to get to the point. That way the book looks thicker.

Prediction #7: Life in the future will not be like Star Trek.

Prediction #16: In the future, scientists will learn how to convert stupidity into clean fuel.

Prediction #22: In the future, there will be a huge increase in the number of "household services" to compensate for the pathetic incompetence of the average person.

Prediction #49: In the future, new technology will allow police to solve 100 percent of all crimes. The bad news is that we'll realize 100 percent of the population are criminals, including the police.

Prediction #62: Two things that will never improve in the future are airlines and bicycle seats.