Slashdot Mirror
The Management Secrets of T. John Dick
In fact, the resemblance to Dilbert is confined to the setting (a dysfunctional company) and a general atmosphere of corporate absurdity that will be only too familiar to many of us. This is a novel which is closer in tone to British humor of the 1950s. For 268 pages we go inside the head of T. John Dick, a hopelessly incompetent but supremely self-confident marketing manager, transferred from Boston to a small company in the fictitious town of Falling Rock, North Carolina.
Dick immediately goes about licking the company into shape, with disastrous and frequently hilarious results.
The humor derives chiefly from the character of TJ himself and the stark contrast between his self-image and reality. In his mind, he is a dynamic leader in tune with the latest management techniques. He is fond of sharing with us some of his "greatest strengths," including his ability to see "the big picture." In reality, he is a bumbling nincompoop, obsessed with petty details like the tidiness of his employees' desks and his mind-numbingly complex Meeting Room Reservation Procedure, the constant flouting of which drives him to distraction. He is completely unaware of the source of amusement he provides for his colleagues, particularly his nemesis, the laconic VP of Finance, and Hans Kartoffel, the German acting President of the group.
TJ applies the same cutting edge management techniques to his marriage, with similar results. He is completely oblivious to his wife's frequent affairs. We would feel sorry for him, if he weren't such a jerk. In fact, we do occasionally find ourselves sympathizing with him, but we soon get over it.
TJ's unusual management style leads him into some unique (and very funny) situations. His arrangements for a celebration of two million accident-free work hours lead to a fire which burns down half the factory. He attempts to struggle through a violent attack of diarrhea during an important presentation. He accidentally locks the company's president in a restroom stall and endeavors to free him without being noticed. So accident-prone is he that we are hardly surprised when his golf pants catch fire. Of course, no matter what happens, TJ always has a perfectly rational explanation - and it's never his fault.
The character of TJ is an exaggerated but nonetheless very recognizable version of bosses we have known. I laughed, but I also squirmed at the thought that there is no shortage of TJs running around gumming up the gears of industry. The book will appeal to anyone, engineer, product manager, secretary or other corporate wage slave, who has ever had to deal with an incompetent boss or colleague.
The Management Secrets of T. John Dick concludes with a series of completely absurd topics for readers discussion groups. My favorite: "TJ's obsession with trivial details....might be described as a serious personality defect. Discuss some of your own personality defects. Bet you've got some real doozies! You might like to help your co-members by pointing out some of theirs."
The book's back cover reveals little about its author, Augustus Gump, so I turned to the publisher's web site www.mainlandpress.com. Gump has previously published a number of short stories and his humorous articles have appeared in the Charlotte Observer and other regional newspapers. This is his first novel. I will be looking out for his next one.
You (or your boss) can purchase The Management Secrets of T. John Dick from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
You forgot to divide by the number of people. You're exactly right in your second sentence. Companies count man-hours, so you would contribute 8 accident free hours for every shift you worked.
To understand recursion,
you must first understand recursion.
...check out "The Office" (I get it on BBC America)
little challenge at the end of the review to explain my own failings.
1. I usually don't bother to care what I seem like to others; Instead, I concentrate on my goals and not much else.
2. I should pay attention to detail with the rest of life too, not just the contents of my hard drives.
Conclusion: I'm gonna buy this one, because it seems to provoke thought as well as laughter.
C|N>K
His arrangements for a celebration of two million accident-free work hours lead to a fire which burns down half the factory. He attempts to struggle through a violent attack of diarrhea during an important presentation. He accidentally locks the company's president in a restroom stall and endeavors to free him without being noticed. So accident-prone is he that we are hardly surprised when his golf pants catch fire.
Sounds like the pointy-haired boss, portrayed by Rowan Atkinson.
Perhaps you should ponder the section on obsessing over trivial details.
Then when the drawing of the boss changed from the taller, more jowly look to the shorter, fatter-but-thinner-face guy, that changed. After that the employees were 100% godlike and the bosses 100% clueless.
At that point I found it to be a lot less funny. Because let's face it: a lot of the stupidies of the workplace are caused by the worker bees themselves, not just the evil bosses. And when Dilbert lost the balance that recognized that fact it started to slide (a slide which got worse when Scott Adams was fired from his real technical job).
sPh
The question it really raises is that of inflated levels of self esteem, or perhaps self worth. I prefer to think it is the later. In any case, it certainly illustrates the notion that an ability to initially present yourself as competent may be more important than in fact being competent. Unfortunately being able to fool people for a little while is often all that is needed to succeed.
Off topic, is there any official news on the Red Dwarf movie? Is a vapour or something that might happen?
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
And this book review is of interest to nerds WHY EXACTLY? The reviewer makes a comparison to the lead character of this novel and a supporting character in a technology-based cartoon and that's enough to get this accepted on slashdot? WTF? This book has nothing to do with technology or nerds or anything that nerds care about! This has about as much relevance on slashdot as Martha Stewart's latest "Cooking Simplistic Crap For the Masses" book.
Engineers deal with business too. Do you think that every geek/nerd sits in a cube all day, working on crap, and never has to manage? Please, don't feed me that.
Since many of us work for T. John Dick I would disagree.
Start your own website, "Slasherdot: Strictly News for Nerds. Stuff that matters to one particular Anonymous Coward."
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
FYI, "Kartoffel" is German for potato.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
Lloyds of London has been operating as a shipping underwriter since the 17th century. Although I doubt they've been accident-free that long. :)
Get off my lawn.
If you are looking for a few companies that meet this age criteria try Zildjian Cymbal Co. It is in Norwell, Mass., founded in Turkey in 1623 and now in its 14th generation of management by the Zildjian family.
for a more complete list of companies with some time behind them try this list.
"Freedom of speech has always been the abstract red-headed stepchild of the Constitution"
-Suck
It has a LOT to do with nerds. Some day your parents will demand that you work for a living, and then you'll see.
This is almost exactly like the office, in tone, if not setting.
"The Office" is a UK series that's won loads of the biggest awards, and is, I guess, something yet to make it over to the US on masse.
When it does, I think it'll be the next "Fawlty Towers"....
and "anecdotes illustrating his theory that the business world is inhabited almost exclusively by knuckleheads."
For the "The most disastrous business decision you ever witnessed" I would have to say IBM's decision to license DOS from Microsoft. Either that, or the current deathwish that SCO has against IBM and the computing industry in general.
"The most ridiculous presentation you ever heard": Hasn't Mr. Gump seen, or even heard, of the conference where Balmer comes onstage, jumps around, and screams "DEVELOPERS!" repeatedly at the top of his lungs? I found that hilarious.
Those should definitely make it into the next book.
Dick immediately goes about licking the company into shape, with disastrous and frequently hilarious results.
I can't believe the Slashdot editors would allow a sentance like this to slip by.
but I haven't yet seen this title in the non-fiction aisles. Strange.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
I am MORDAC, The Preventer of Information Services!
...at least, everyone in my office thinks so...
Everyone will start to cheer when you put on your sailin' shoes.
I think you are referring to irony, but one wouldn't know so from your post:
irony, n - Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs: "Hyde noted the irony of Ireland's copying the nation she most hated" (Richard Kain).
Your statements just describe things that suck, not things that are ironic. Please, base your definitions of words on actual reading, not music, because apparently musicians are just as illiterate as the rest of America. It's crappy when it rains on your wedding day, but it's ironic if it happens after you chide all your friends for not preparing for rain on their wedding days yet you yourself don't prepare for it on your day. It's lame when you've got lots of spoons but need a knife, it's ironic when you've been slowly trading knives for spoons and you never actually need a knife until you run out of them.
My favorite, most poignant story of irony is a racist skinhead who decided he couldn't stay in any longer. When he informed the rest of the skinheads, they beat him up and left him almost unconscious on the side of the road. Multiple white people passed him by and did not help him, and finally a black couple saw him and helped him. See, that's irony, not just crappy
Please, read more, music less
.Sounds like David from The Office (one of my favorite shows of all-time!). The most awful boss in the world, who thinks he's the greatest, everyone loves him and his 'artistic' soul. It's a show that makes you cringe while wanting more ;) I can't wait to read this book.
Just follow the day, and reach fo
mind-numbingly complex Meeting Room Reservation Procedure
something tells me that Outlook© is somehow involved with this.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }