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dozylocal's review against another edition
3.0
Probably would've been more impactful if I'd read it over a shorter period of time, but I needed to read when I could. An easily digestable story and I could relate to many of the scenarios. There were some real nuggets scattered through the book (see my notes).
makragic's review against another edition
2.0
It tells a story of a failing company and the group of individuals that are trying to save it. The characters, discussions, and storyline are so artificial that I almost puked at least 20 times.
fisk42's review against another edition
1.0
Looking back at The Unicorn Project, it is hard to discern the intended audience for this blog-post-as-novel. There is an odd amount of business wisdom that appears to be tailored for the executive/startup founder but this is not the meat of the book. It's also definitely not meant for the management crowd as the fictional company in this book has an oddly invisible management layer; all decisions are made by non-managers in the spur of the moment. The only time that managers do crop up is to squabble for ownership of projects like petty warlords.
Allegedly the audience for this book is software developers. However, it appears to be fanfiction written by someone who has only a basic grasp of the concepts involved in software development 20 years ago. The most worrying aspect of this being intended for developers is that this book glorifies spending every waking moment at your job. The main character frequently neglects her family, works a 12-16 hour day and then hangs out with coworkers, and works first thing Saturday morning multiple times. Add on top of that, there is vanishingly little realism for a book that is about and for developers. Whole suites of features and conceived and shipped from scratch in a matter of weeks. This is in stark contrast to the state of the company before the main character arrives where new developers are literally sitting around for months to get their environments set up so they can start working. Things just happen randomly for the convenience of the plot and according to a timeline which shows a lack of effort on the part of the author.
On top of all these issues, there is a distinct impression that the target audience is software developers and corporations in the 90s and 00s. Many of the issues talked about in this book aren't very applicable to any modern half-competent tech shop. Sure there are likely some companies that could benefit from what is inside, but the extra weight of the narrative makes that objective a miss.
The biggest problem with this is that narratively speaking, it's just not that great. The main character is a full-on mary sue, she can edit binary files in real time! Most characters in this book are completely flat caricatures. There is a mischievous villain who comes in very awkwardly at the last minute to mess everything up that the heroes are doing. Lastly, the main message of the book is buried between insignificant portions. It isn't integrated with enough weight to teach any lessons that a 1,000 word blog post couldn't. Ultimately, this would better serve its audience as that blog post.
Allegedly the audience for this book is software developers. However, it appears to be fanfiction written by someone who has only a basic grasp of the concepts involved in software development 20 years ago. The most worrying aspect of this being intended for developers is that this book glorifies spending every waking moment at your job. The main character frequently neglects her family, works a 12-16 hour day and then hangs out with coworkers, and works first thing Saturday morning multiple times. Add on top of that, there is vanishingly little realism for a book that is about and for developers. Whole suites of features and conceived and shipped from scratch in a matter of weeks. This is in stark contrast to the state of the company before the main character arrives where new developers are literally sitting around for months to get their environments set up so they can start working. Things just happen randomly for the convenience of the plot and according to a timeline which shows a lack of effort on the part of the author.
On top of all these issues, there is a distinct impression that the target audience is software developers and corporations in the 90s and 00s. Many of the issues talked about in this book aren't very applicable to any modern half-competent tech shop. Sure there are likely some companies that could benefit from what is inside, but the extra weight of the narrative makes that objective a miss.
The biggest problem with this is that narratively speaking, it's just not that great. The main character is a full-on mary sue, she can edit binary files in real time! Most characters in this book are completely flat caricatures. There is a mischievous villain who comes in very awkwardly at the last minute to mess everything up that the heroes are doing. Lastly, the main message of the book is buried between insignificant portions. It isn't integrated with enough weight to teach any lessons that a 1,000 word blog post couldn't. Ultimately, this would better serve its audience as that blog post.
jdferron's review against another edition
Not a fan of the writing style in this book. Better as a guide than a fable/story.
drubin87's review against another edition
5.0
It's a clean take on the Phoenix project I was worried it would just be a boring rehash but it was surprisingly fresh and new. I still think I prefer the story/structure of the Phoenix project as I liked the style and rush a bit more compared to the laid back feel of this (read as less firefighting).
For me this goes up there and I would rate them in the following must-read order.
1. The goal
2. The Phoenix Project
3. The unicorn project
But the order might change depending on your background and interests.
For me this goes up there and I would rate them in the following must-read order.
1. The goal
2. The Phoenix Project
3. The unicorn project
But the order might change depending on your background and interests.
teibrich's review against another edition
5.0
If you work in IT a lot of this probably sounds familiar; unfortunately!
I love the writing style and overall approach to this novel: Maxime is easy to relate to and Eric always is around at the right moment for some good hints. There is definitely a lot to take away from this in regards to agile, flow, technical and organizational debt and employee motivation!
I love the writing style and overall approach to this novel: Maxime is easy to relate to and Eric always is around at the right moment for some good hints. There is definitely a lot to take away from this in regards to agile, flow, technical and organizational debt and employee motivation!
anttirask's review against another edition
5.0
I read [b:The Unicorn Project|44333183|The Unicorn Project|Gene Kim|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1566877586l/44333183._SX50_.jpg|68888421] (UP) after reading [b:The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win|17255186|The Phoenix Project A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win|Gene Kim|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1361113128l/17255186._SX50_.jpg|23848838] (PP) with 10 months between the two.
It's impossible to write about UP without some comparison to PP, because the two stories are happening concurrently (even if the two were published 5 years apart: PP in 2013 and UP in 2018).
They also share some of the same characters, although the protagonist of UP, Maxine, wasn't even mentioned (I think) in PP.
While I really enjoyed reading UP, I think PP had a better story. I've seen it mentioned in some of the reviews, and I tend to agree, Maxine was too perfect as a character. In PP, Bill has to struggle much harder in order to succeed and it makes for a better story.
On the other hand, the focus on data side of things on UP made more interesting, personally.
All in all, while I have to admit that it's not without its flaws, I both enjoyed reading UP as a story, but I also liked the message of the five ideals (and the three horizons, for that matter).
It's impossible to write about UP without some comparison to PP, because the two stories are happening concurrently (even if the two were published 5 years apart: PP in 2013 and UP in 2018).
They also share some of the same characters, although the protagonist of UP, Maxine, wasn't even mentioned (I think) in PP.
While I really enjoyed reading UP, I think PP had a better story. I've seen it mentioned in some of the reviews, and I tend to agree, Maxine was too perfect as a character. In PP, Bill has to struggle much harder in order to succeed and it makes for a better story.
On the other hand, the focus on data side of things on UP made more interesting, personally.
All in all, while I have to admit that it's not without its flaws, I both enjoyed reading UP as a story, but I also liked the message of the five ideals (and the three horizons, for that matter).
nathonius's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
The book tries to be a novel that also teaches a bunch of aspirational IT stuff and ends up failing on both accounts. When it's not preaching about functional programming or talking about how good Maxine is at her job, it's telling a frankly boring workplace drama. The whole thing feels like a series of lunch-and-learn type presentations on what to focus on in business, squished into a novel. It's generally boring but not informative enough to look past the boredom. You'll probably be better served reading another novel or a textbook.
peteroneilljr's review against another edition
4.0
It's a fun read, it's a nice breakdown of the DevOps basics.
rberenguel's review against another edition
3.0
It’s worse than The Phoenix Project, and it could do without needing the Rich Hickey/Clojure kool aid. Just leave it at “functional” or “Lisp” (and hey, it’s not like I don’t like Lisp, I’ve written a bunch and I like the language).