I actually agree that the Agile Manifesto is a good read. That's why I tend to use air quotes when discussing "Agile" at any shop, because I think it rarely resembles anything in the Manifesto. But I'm not sure one can sell certification courses as easily based on the elegant-yet-simple principles outlined in the Manifesto.

There's being "agile" as in flexible and outlined in the Agile Manifesto, and there's being "Agile" as in Scrum. I've found myself, and others, referring to the later verbally as "capital-A Agile" to distinguish the two.

I'd agree with most of that, but for me the point where it starts to go off the rails is

The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

No, not mandating stand ups and open offices, but it's used to justify those things...

Really? Because one fantastically productive team I was once on implemented this practice by eating lunch together most of the time. I have never seen a more effective way of keeping everyone up to date and synced. Sure, they mostly talked about movies, TV, or WTFever, but whenever something critical was in play, it was all about work.

And of course, the manager of that team has not been promoted in over 1.5 decades.