Dry, but still worth reading

I just finished reading "Design of Design" by Frederick P. Brooks Jr. It was at times an interesting topical read, but for the most part I found myself often disengaged.  I don't at all question the author's experience, nor do I doubt he's a seasoned and well-respected professional in the computer science field.  I personally just found it difficult to submerse myself into the content.  That's the down-side...at least for me.   


Now the up-side.  Despite it being dry, overall I was better off for having read it and learned a few things from it.  I agreed with the chapter on the computing field's need for more exemplars, and the chapter that pointed out our lack of standardization and common design practices echoed in print what I've been telling others in my field for years now.  Also, I enjoy good quotes that history's great minds have left us, and this book contained a good number of them that really jumped out at me.  I'll close this post with one of them...

"The besetting mistake of expert designers is not designing the thing wrong, but designing the wrong thing."