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The Ultimate Cubicle

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the a-keep-within-a-fortress dept.

kimba writes "Scott Adams of Dilbert fame has developed the ultimate cubicle with design company IDEO (the same guys that made the Palm V and the new sexy Cisco IP phones). Lying in a hammock watching boss-cam... shweeeet." Still, nothing beats a wireless laptop on a shaded porch, beverage in hand.

10 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. No offense by FortKnox · · Score: 3, Interesting

    No offense to you slashdot editors, but you guys have no idea what life in a cube farm is like. It isn't all that bad...

    Add some desktop items and toys from a good place (like thinkgeek), maybe a nice Aeron chair, and everything is peachy for your day to day work.

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    Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
  2. If only I had a cubicle... by doctor_oktagon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Instead I've got a Hot Desk.

    While this can mean free & easy living, it also means you have to pack the entire contents of your working life into your laptop-bag every evening, and set it all up again the next morning, and you don't have a monitor to stick post-it notes on.

    I yearn for a desk (or even a cube!) where I could actually feel at home, and not like some sort of transient drifting soul through the sea of employment.

  3. Scott Adams, out of touch by Laplace · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Gosh, when I go to work I like to get things done. I like to write my programs; I like to run my tests; I like to read research papers. Scott Adams seems to think that the best kind of work is no work. If you hate what you're doing, this is true. If you like your job, it's not. I want a quiet, well lit cube with lots of desk space. Yes, an office would be better, but you make the best of what you have. The article was kind of funny, but not in the way it was intended to be funny. Scott Adams is out of touch with the white collar working community, and it shows both in the article and in his comic strip.

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    The middle mind speaks!
    1. Re:Scott Adams, out of touch by ethereal · · Score: 3, Insightful

      IIRC Scott Adams worked for Pac Bell, which may not be quite multinational but is definitely right up there on the bureaucracy scale :)

      (in response to other comments about Scott Adams) I've always understood the "work avoidance" aspect of Dilbert to be a way of coping rather than an actual dislike of work; if you've lived with ever-shifting deadlines, incompetent management, employee mistreatment, and complete corporate disorganization for long enough, I imagine you'd try to find something to do at work that didn't involve running in circles as well. Dilbert isn't fantasy or escapism at all; people really are like that in the great big world of work, and if you just can't bring yourself to believe that, then thank your lucky stars that you work at somewhere small, nimble, and non-meeting-oriented. Me, I'm definitely loosing my laser-like focus on the customer :)

      Dilbert's a good guy, not a slacker; he's just surrounded by other people who are well past their Peter Principle level of incompetence.

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      Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and

  4. Bleh by Mike+Schiraldi · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is anyone else reminded of the car Homer designed?

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    Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again

  5. That's right Hemos, rub it in by wiredog · · Score: 3, Funny
    nothing beats a wireless laptop on a shaded porch, beverage in hand.

    Must be nice to have cashed in the Andover and VA stock early.

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    Best Slashdot Co
  6. Was also in this week's Newsweek by Masem · · Score: 3
    ...and it reminded me of the Thrid Class suite that you had in Douglas Adam's Starship Titantic game. How everything seems to fold up and away into the walls, with a some-what infinite flexiblity.


    Mind you, in the Newsweek blurb, they mention that you (paraphrasing) "might be rewarded from the boss with the aquarium add-on". Great - the ability to personalize one's cubicle is now a reward rather than a norm?

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    "Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
    "I can see my house from here!" - ST:
  7. Re:The Ultimate Cubicle by Bob+McCown · · Score: 3, Funny
    Cubes are just working areas for 8 hours of your day, not little appartments where you sleep

    You've never worked at a startup...

  8. Re:Hey Scott Adams, your 15 minutes are up by Bearpaw · · Score: 4, Insightful
    [nod] The "ultimate cubicle" is still a fuckin' cubicle, just like an "ultimate jail cell" would still be a fuckin' jail cell.

    I agree with Tom Tomorrow:

    Scott Adams has an absurdist sense of humor that appeals to me sometimes. It's just that all the articles praising Dilbert were painting it as this radical critique of corporate culture, and I'm sorry, it's just not. The extent to which it critiques corporate culture is to say that bosses are dumb and cubicles are small. I don't necessarily dislike the strip, but Scott Adams shouldn't smile and accept the media's crowning him a radical critic when what he's doing is essentially Blondie updated for the '90s.

  9. About IDEO by fm6 · · Score: 3, Informative
    IDEO is an interesting company. They've designed chairs, water bottles, toothbrushes, computers, cell phones. In a world full of useless tchatchkas, they greatly enhance the general usability quotient.

    Here's a radio interview with Tom Kelley, their general manager. And here's a fascinating web page showing all the cool stuff they've worked on.