The book was not well structured or edited, and probably wraps a little more technical and personal details than necessary. It reads like a lightly edited oral interview except for the epilogue.
That being said, there is a lack of books in the genre of traditional engineering, compared to large volume of books in computer and internet engineering. That alone makes this book unique and especially interesting to read. And peel off the some time self-centered rhetoric, the life lessons from the author is actually of great value to young engineers. The struggles he faced within large organization, and the efforts he made to become a respected and intelligent engineering leader in a place like JPL is well worth the time and effort.

Overall, I think the two most valuable points to take away from the book are:
1. Work hard and think thoroughly, communicate with well-considered answers, and help other people and achieve goals. Greatness can be achieved, while the good person will be vacuumed up in any reasonable organization.
2. Strike the right balance between risk and solutions, engineers are not paid to do things right, but to do things just right. The lowest risk solution that just meet the requirement, even it might be low-brow at times, is the best solution under most circumstances.