I'm just reading this now after picking it up a few times over the years and put it down as I don't like reading books like this as pdf's or web pages etc.
I still wanted to read it so I finally bought the analog version and I'm most of the way through and it's a great read!
I've studied a few of the topics mentioned throughout the book and it's great to have them all together in one place as a refresher and to deepen my understanding given the authors take on them.
One of the best takeaways is the discussion on Quality. My take so far is that Quality is not the finished product (although we just 'know' quality when we see it) but in the actual doing of the tasks to produce the object. Yes, quality is in the result but without putting it in during the process of creating it won't appear.
You can argue that it's machines that make quality products these days, yes they do but if the Quality wasn't there during the design and building of these machines the output would be inferior.
As an example, the Japanese made great motorcycles that almost wiped out the British and American bikes of the time but it wasn't that they were better bikes (they weren't in many ways) but with their understanding of Quality (Zen/Awareness/Focus?) they took existing principles and built production lines that made them better.
American bikes and cars of the time (and today) no doubt had Quality in design and performance but it was in the manufacturing where they lacked this Qualtiy.
Programming is no different...