I feel the word "impact" is used to justify bending the role of engineering. It's like going to a restaurant and instead of ordering from the menu you ask for "something that will satisfy me and is worth my money"... to which the response would be "just tell me what you want". In the same way software companies ask engineers to create "impact" and "business value"... how about you just tell the engineer what you want.
> Personal transformation success is also exceedingly rare, with only 7.5% of smokers successfully quitting despite 55% attempting to quit each year and just 1.8% of obese individuals maintaining a modest 5% weight loss over five years.
I have no idea why they included this. It’s completely disconnected from the paragraph above and below it.
I think he's positioning the book as a method for personal transformation as well.