view of themselves through reading Scott Adams' strip. I mean, for some people, you have to have indirect ways of showing them the truth. You cannot tell somebody, "You're an idiot." Or "You're acting as an idiot." But if you were to give them some books, some Dilbert books, in time they'd maybe be able to see themselves there. And you can tell, even seminars or workshops, based on Dilbert books.
Carol: Right. It seems like sometimes it's a lot easier to learn through humor. And I know one of the things that I've found with the Dilbert comic strip is it seems that we are so frantic with life, we are so frantic with downsizing, we've got less people working with us, we've got more work to do, we've got longer working hours. And it just seems like sometimes humor has disappeared from the workplace. And I find that Dilbert provides just that little bit of smile when you're just overcome with work.
Mauricio: That's true. And a smile comes with some content. And that's good, too.
Carol: And I think sometimes if we recognize ourselves, we might say we're actually quite proud to be the pointy-haired boss. I know that Scott Adams' boss said… He got disappointed, and he'd walk into his office when he was working still at Packard Bell, and said "You haven't written about me for two weeks. What's going on? Have I turned boring?"
Mauricio: That's typical.
Carol: That's probably true. We don't want to admit how dysfunctional we may be, but yet we certainly want attention.
Mauricio: Yeah, that's true. I think Dilbert provides a way of improving, of self-improvement, too.
Carol: And I'd like to thank you very much. I think we're pretty much out of time. I'd like to extend a warm welcome to Mauricio for being in the United States. He's been here a number of times. He runs the Brazilian function point users' group. Would you like to give out your email address for people who may be here visiting from South America, who may be interested in joining your group, or who would be interested in corresponding with you?
Mauricio: Well, you may email mauricioaguiar@yahoo.com.
Copyright 2001 Quality Plus Technologies and Carol Dekkers. All rights reserved.
About the author
Mauricio Aguiar, is a software manager with CAIXA Economica Federal, a leading Brazilian government bank with over 2,000 branches. His extensive experience spans 25 years in software management, application of accelerated learning in IT. He’s also the president of the Brazilian function point users’ group and serves on a number of different committees. He’s a professional engineer, a systems analyst with a master’s degree in neurolinguistic programming. He’s a member of the Project Management Institute, the American Society for Quality, and the international function point users’ group.
