Let's not dismiss the guy's opinion off-hand.. I also know people whose opinions I respect and who find GED pretentious and shallow. Personally, I found it extremely well written (although somewhat nonuniform) and extremely insightful as well. I just wish I had read it earlier, say, when I was 14, rather than after a CS education.
I refer to my previous comment http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3398873 I understand the subject well, so the book sounded to me like an explanation to children of something that isn't really so difficult. Also, it was pretentious (too long for the subject; for example Gödel's proof is a very short paper, I won't waste my time re-reading it in a huge tome for god's sake). I liked the effort the author put into making the book and I understood what he tried to accomplish, but it didn't work to me. After all the hype, I tried really hard to like it and I didn't think the half I had the patience to read was life changing at all, more like boring.
