It never ceases to amaze me how often technical people in general and computer programmers in particular read this book and can't see the point, which is that your values can't be deduced by logic.
Here are some thought provoking ideas for computer hackers that he discusses at some length:
* Is it a good idea or bad idea to listen to music while working? Why?
* Do machines have souls, and can they?
* Why do machines frustrate me so much? What happens when I get frustrated? What role does frame-of-mind play in productivity, and how do you control it?
A lot of the negative comments I see here are perhaps expecting too much from the book. It's not like God wrote it and provided all the answers to life. (And even if that did happen, probably a lot of people would hate it.) It's just a very interesting and thought provoking book.
And with regard to the comparisons to Ayn Rand, it's nowhere near that level. The book is very short compared to what Ayn Rand writes. It's not preachy at all like her stuff. It's also far more practical. Ayn Rand writes about how civilization as a whole should live. This book is far more personal and contemplative, and not preachy at all. Ayn Rand might talk for 45 pages about how socialized medicine is a parasite on the productive people. Persig might talk for 3 pages about how if you keep working on the machine when you feel frustrated, you're just building your frustration into the machine and making it part of it. Totally different in scale and practicality.
I saw the point was something like this: you can deduce all of some values by logic, and you can some of all vaules by logic, but you can't deduce all of all values by logic.
It also had a nice, short, well written take on a lot of philosophy by a fairly smart guy who geeks tend to identify with.
