When I first encountered the Phoenix Project, I was expecting it to be some kind of satire. It wasn't, it was played straight all the way through and ends with "a win".

It blows my mind that someone could write a novel about work and NOT have it be a satire or dark comedy. This book is used in project management courses, by the way.

He even referenced the Phoenix Project ;)

Now you understand modern book marketing. :-)

Wait...are you suggesting that whole comment is actually just an ad?

While I have no evidence in this particular case, if I wanted to promote a book, I could imagine making up a related, positive story, which just happens to mention the book positively, and posting it on a popular social media site (I put the book in my cart). Then one could follow up with a softball opposing story on another site to get some controversy and thus visibility.

Probably someone will cross link for you (I thought about doing that when I saw the headline). If not, a sock puppet can point out the link, and the book, again.

TBH these two stories have the exaggerated perfection that characterizes fake stories. And the fact that they arrived so close together makes me very suspicious.

I mean I read it and thought about looking up the book and getting it

I did like the book, back when I was completely new to DevOps. It's also a fictional story in the same vein as the one on reddit basically same template, but more mystic. Explaining DevOps through a story.

Now I'd suggest to just read the state of Devops reports by Google, they are excellent.

This is not an ad and I doubt it is fake. Click on the user profile and read some of his other comments. This guy is real.

Completely agree. I knew they'd link to the Phoenix Project at the end

If so, I’m even more impressed.