Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll buy a funny hat. Talk to a hungry man about fish, and you're a consultant.

This quip is a modern, satirical riff on the much older proverb “Give a man a fish… teach a man to fish…,” often (mis)attributed to Laozi. Scott Adams, best known for the workplace comic strip *Dilbert*, frequently lampooned corporate culture, management fads, and the consulting industry in the 1990s–2000s through jokes that twist earnest self-help or “wisdom” sayings into cynical punchlines. The added lines about buying a funny hat and being a consultant reflect Adams’s recurring theme: incentives, status-seeking, and professional jargon can distort practical problem-solving into performative or self-serving behavior.

The joke undercuts the moral clarity of the traditional proverb. “Teach a man to fish” is supposed to create self-sufficiency, but Adams adds that people may use new competence for vanity or consumption (“he’ll buy a funny hat”), not purely for survival. The final turn—“Talk to a hungry man about fish, and you’re a consultant”—satirizes how consultants can substitute analysis, frameworks, and talk for direct help, especially when someone needs immediate relief. Overall, the quote critiques the gap between practical aid and professionalized advice, suggesting that expertise can become a business of rhetoric rather than results.