[kqr]

Once you've read this, pick up Harchol–Balter's book Performance Modeling and Design of Computer Systems: Queueing Theory in Action. It's a really good introduction to the depth of this topic, and you'll come out with superpowers you didn't have before.

[wreath]

I don't think this is a good resource for an intro tbh. Unless you are interested in proofs and have some probability basics covered, it feels quite dense.

I liked Principles of Product Development Flow a lot more because it was easier to digest, although it's a different application of queuing theory.

[kqr]

That is also a good book containing a few practical applications of queueing theory, but it won't do anything to help you analyse your own systems on a more fundamental level.

[wreath]

Yeah I totally agree. My point was that it can be intimidating as an intro book to the topic. Excellent material otherwise

[pdhborges]

This review is not so nice: https://emptysqua.re/blog/review-queue-theory-book/

[kqr]

I'm not sure how you came away with that impression. Three out of three reviewers say they overall enjoyed the book. The complaints fall mostly into four buckets:

- "I wish the book was simpler" (Jesse)

- "I wish the book was more advanced" (Murat)

- "I wish software engineering was more advanced" (Andrew)

- "I didn't understand the arguments the author made for why studying single-server exponential response time systems helps with drawing conclusions for time-sharing, heavy-tailed response time systems" (Jesse)

None of these paint the book in a bad colour, as far as I can tell. They say more about the reader's expectations than the book itself.

[pdhborges]

Sure. But I'm trying to connect what you said:

> you'll come out with superpowers you didn't have before.

with the impressions from the reviewers.

I don't think they got super powers from the book. In fact their outcomes mirrors my own outcomes when going deep into some math topics and then bringing them to work.

[jstimpfle]

This book is one of the few books I own and I couldn't agree more with these reviews. I read maybe 20 to 50 pages of it, and didn't and up with a lot of practically relevant insights. I couldn't say it's a bad book, maybe it's even a good one.

But theory about computer science is always waaaay to removed from practical reality. Only a tiny bit of basic theory is applicable in reality, and from then on, in practice we're just busy fighting with practical problems, we're hardly getting to the theoretic ones.

[hilariously]

Even if you just read the first few chapters of this you will not come out unchanged.