I have read both the rise of Singapore and from third nation to first. It has been my utmost pleasure to read both these books. You are unlikely to 100% agree with everything Lee says in this book, just as I don't. None the less, the vast majority of things had to go right for Singapore to be as successful as it is, and this book highlights that. One of the strong points in this book is that Lee responds to criticism head-on, leaving very little room for further criticisms and questions.

I believe this book aged very well and is very relevant to the modern era. Considering this book was written in 1999, a lot of things were predicted correctly. The only exception was Lee's idea that the Hong Kong people couldn't be instilled with democratic values, but I'm still very impressed with how ground-in-reality Lee is.

This book also covers a bit of the history of South East Asia, one of the least understood places in the world, making this book full things to learn.

This book has been very inspirational to me, seeing how hard Lee Kuan Yew and the people in his book work. This book has been more motivating than any other source of media I've seen.

Overall, it handles economic and political topics intelligently. I highly recommend it and it's prequel.