"Dilbert", "I'm an idiot" and "Dilbert Principle"

确实很喜欢Scott Adams的文字。我想我理解他文字的能力远大于理解他漫画的能力——当然，这正是我英文远弱于斯的表现。说实话，对于"Dilbert"，也是断断续续地看；毕竟不是母语，而且看漫画而没有笑意使我觉得自己很stupid。正是由于贪便宜的念头，使我在搞怪类书籍前面寻找了半个小时，而终于找到了这本$10的厚700多页的书。

一般老美出书都喜欢在封四（太专业了？就是封底）上引用名人对该书的评价。然而我却在这本厚书的封四上找到了Scott自己的话：

"My hope is that you will see some writing here and assume it’s a bunch of quotes from famous people complimenting the book. Well, if you think famous people have time to read books, you’re wrong."

你怎么评价你所在的公司呢？你怎么去理解发生在那里的一切呢？是不是和我一样，永远想不明白为什么被promote的人会被promote?为什么做了很多很辛苦的工作却并不认为得到了与之相配的报酬？是不是时常觉得不明白老板在想什么？而且还经常为新的政策感到不解？如果是这样的，那你和我一样需要一种方式来解释这些现象，然后你就会觉得这个世界其实非常简单。Scott就是这样一个把事情想得很明白的人。让我们来看看他是怎么阐述这些事情的：

When I first started hearing these stories I was puzzled, but after careful analysis I have developed a sophisticated theory to explain the existence of this bizarre workplace behavior: People are idiots.

Including me. Everyone is an idiot, not just the people with low SAT scores. The only differences among us is that we’re idiots about different things at different times. No matter how smart you are, you spend much of your day being an idiot. That’s the central premise of this scholarly work.

…

Scientists believe that humans are the grand result of billions of years of evolution. I can’t explain the entire theory of evolution here, but it can be summarized this way.

First, there were some amoebas. Deviant amoebas adapted better to the environment, thus becoming monkeys. Then came Total Quality Management.

…

All the technology that surrounds us, all the management theories, the economic models that predict and guide our behavior, the science that helps us live to eighty — it’s all created by a tiny percentage of deviant smart people. The rest of us are treading water as fast as we can. The world is too complex for us. Evolution didn’t keep up. … We got knowledge and technology before we got intelligence.

Scott被认为是当今地球上最幽默的人（citation needed），他的幽默真的是让人笑过之后多有所思。其实Scott说得很对，我们生活的这个世界里充满了我们不了解的东西。我们是一切不为我们所掌握的知识和技术的宠儿。我们生活中所遇到的形形色色的人物，都是和我们没有任何分别的普通人——会犯很多低级错误的可爱的人们。如果这些还不能使你理解发生在工作中的种种费解而可笑的事，那么是时候了解一下"Dilbert Principle"了。

Stories like these prompted me to do the first annual Dilbert Survey to find out what management practices were most annoying to employees. The choices included the usual suspects: Quality, Empowerment, Re-engineering and the like. But the number-one vote-getter on this highly unscientific survey was "Idiots Promoted to Management."

…

Lately, however, the Peter Principle has given way to the Dilbert Principle. The basic concept of the Dilbert Principle is that the most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage: management. This has not proved to be the winning strategy that you might think.  

不管认同与否，都不妨把这些话看作是个笑话——不是因为搞笑而好笑笑话。生活少不了思考，而思考的集大成者，其实不过是一个笑话罢了。

本文相关资料：

• Dilbert strips: http://dilbert.com
• Scott Adams’s blog: http://dilbert.com/blog
• A copy of "The Dilbert Principle" published on The Wall Street Journal, 5/22/95: http://www.daviddeerfield.com//Jokes/Dilbert-principle.html
• Description of Book "The Dilbert Principle": http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780887308581/Dilbert_Principle_The/index.aspx
• 常用排版术语：http://www.cgan.net/book/books/indesign/gb/02_1.htm