Over the years I've had both experiences where I've asked for someones recommendation and found it amazingly accurate, and found what was recommended ordinary or uninspiring. My take on it is that the way people absorb information is unique to the individual and some presentations get through that filter and some don't.
The other important thing I learned was that the filter changes, as you become more educated in a subject, you can pick up more with less if the author assumes you already know the basics. When writing for publication I sometimes felt I was explaining too much but my editor would dial that in for me, when I described to little she would gently prod me back to reality with "How the hell is someone reading this supposed to know what that means?" :-) When I went to far she would chastise me with "Everyone already knows that."
I've read Brooks, and in my opinion he writes for people who are already in the role of business leader and are trying to advance by not making the mistakes others have made. But is it brilliant? I don't know. Can it be brilliant for Bill and Warren and not for anyone else? Probably. I found it useful but not as useful as Larry Bossidy's "Execution: the discipline of getting things done" [1] which really helped me understand what "progress" was when you were a manager versus when you were an engineer and progress was "obvious" in the sense that the project got completed. But I can't say that Execution is more brilliant than Business Stories, they are just different and one was better for me.
Bottom line don't sweat it if you don't see the brilliance, note it and move on. Later if you find you can recall what you read differently, based on your experience, consider going back and re-reading it. See if it has become more, or less, brilliant given your additional understanding.
Over the years I've had both experiences where I've asked for someones recommendation and found it amazingly accurate, and found what was recommended ordinary or uninspiring. My take on it is that the way people absorb information is unique to the individual and some presentations get through that filter and some don't.
The other important thing I learned was that the filter changes, as you become more educated in a subject, you can pick up more with less if the author assumes you already know the basics. When writing for publication I sometimes felt I was explaining too much but my editor would dial that in for me, when I described to little she would gently prod me back to reality with "How the hell is someone reading this supposed to know what that means?" :-) When I went to far she would chastise me with "Everyone already knows that."
I've read Brooks, and in my opinion he writes for people who are already in the role of business leader and are trying to advance by not making the mistakes others have made. But is it brilliant? I don't know. Can it be brilliant for Bill and Warren and not for anyone else? Probably. I found it useful but not as useful as Larry Bossidy's "Execution: the discipline of getting things done" [1] which really helped me understand what "progress" was when you were a manager versus when you were an engineer and progress was "obvious" in the sense that the project got completed. But I can't say that Execution is more brilliant than Business Stories, they are just different and one was better for me.
Bottom line don't sweat it if you don't see the brilliance, note it and move on. Later if you find you can recall what you read differently, based on your experience, consider going back and re-reading it. See if it has become more, or less, brilliant given your additional understanding.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Execution-Discipline-Getting-Things-Do...