This book has a lot of good advice. Many of the lessons are things you would only otherwise learn after many years in the profession. The only thing that I think is missing is a bit more nuance to the discussions. Some advice is good, but limited by company policies, for example.
Reviews and Comments
This link opens in a pop-up window
SoapyDeuce reviewed Watergate by Garrett M. Graff
SoapyDeuce reviewed Peopleware by Tom DeMarco
SoapyDeuce reviewed The Mysteries by Bill Watterson
SoapyDeuce reviewed Staff Engineer's Path by Tanya Reilly
An important, depressing, and infuriating read
5 stars
There are a lot of lessons to be taken from this book, many of which should have been learned after Vietnam which shares many of the same characteristics as the war in Afghanistan. The fact that so many generals and lawmakers were ignorant (willfully or not) of the many similarities and the inevitable outcomes is both depressing and infuriating. The same hubris, ignorance, and wishful thinking that ran through both conflicts resulted in billions of dollars and thousands of lives wasted.
Okay, but there are probably better options
3 stars
The strategies and tactics that the book espouses are all well and good, but there's no depth to the suggestions and writing style leaves a lot to be desired. It feels like a series of academic blog posts about survey results instead of a technical manual for how to implement the changes that it wants you to make. As of 2024, it also feels a bit dated; only the most conservative, dysfunctional organizations aren't doing the basic things that the book suggests.
A practical and helpful guide to learning Go
4 stars
This book provides many of the idioms and short-cuts to learning Go that you otherwise have to learn from experience. It's not trying to be a "complete reference" type of book that spends 1000 pages covering every detail. Some topics are skimmed over a bit, while others that are more unique to Go or appear quirky to programmers that know other languages are given more explanation.
Be sure to check the errata on the publisher's website before diving deep into the book.
SoapyDeuce rated Managing the Unmanageable: 3 stars
SoapyDeuce rated Implementing Domain-Driven Design: 4 stars

Implementing Domain-Driven Design by Vaughn Vernon
Implementing Domain-Driven Design presents a top-down approach to understanding domain-driven design (DDD) in a way that fluently connects strategic patterns …
SoapyDeuce reviewed CQRS by Example by Carlos Buenosvinos
Clear and concise explanation of CQRS
4 stars
A thorough and easy-to-follow explanation of the composition and tradeoffs of CQRS systems. There is one chapter about Event Sourcing which provides the theoretical and practical contrasts between the two approaches.
This is a code-heavy book and the code is written in PHP, but it's pretty clear and should be easy to translate to other languages.
Having at least a minimal understanding of Domain Driven Design would be helpful before reading this book.
SoapyDeuce reviewed The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim
A good (though old) message wrapped in a bad novel
2 stars
As a novel, this is as bad as it gets. The dialog is awful, the plot is nonsensical, and the characters are like bizarre cardboard cutouts; totally one-dimensional, yet totally unrealistic.
The message that the book is trying to get across may have been more impactful in 2013, but it feels like ancient history now in 2023. There are better books about DevOps that don't spend hundreds of pages telling a hokey story about why it's important.