Tremendous piece of writing. | The Soul Of A New Machine

Start-up culture | The Soul Of A New Machine | Tracy Kidder

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	• The Soul Of A New Machine Tracy Kidder Back Bay Books, 2000 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 56 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Good read

Nicely written. A good, quick read. I'd recommend it for anyone interested in the history of the computer industry.

Tremendous piece of writing.

Though the technology the story is about has become dated, the story itself hasn't; the book is about the building of a computer, yes, but then it is about Kidder's own mind coming to grips with the technology involved, and then more about the people who were doing the actual building

Kidder's book is engaging and terrifically written. It is a landmark work of modern non-fiction writing, and fully deserves its Pulitzer.

Start-up culture

Page turning nonfiction about the development of one of the first computers, and the work environment that made it possible.

Extremely well-written. If you don't have an interest in computers, you'll probably be bored by some of the technical descriptions, but you can get a lot out of the book and learn a lot about management styles even if you skim or skip those parts.

It gave me a lot of insight into the way that start up companies are able to overwork their employees.

Bitter about working long hours? You'll probably find this interesting, insightful, and therapeutic.

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Excellent View on an Old Topic

Tracy Kidder's "Soul of a New Machine" is over 20 years old now, and for a book about the creation of a new microcomputer and the engineers that worked on it, that's a very long time. Not necessarily about technology - a computers are by and large still Von Nuemann machines, and the principles are the same - but the engineer and the computer geek have become part of the culture in a way they weren't in 1980. The book, as a result, lacks some freshness to a modern reader - the bleary-eyed devotion of the engineer is an old story by now.

It's rarely told as well as it is here, though; Kidder has a knack for prose and handles everything well. The passages on computer technology slow down a little, but are still fairly impressive considering the ground he has to cover. The engineers, their quirks and motivations and doubts are depicted well, and he captures the drive and obsession with the machine and the long drag of testing as well as anything I've read. So even if the driven engineer is old hat by now, Kidder's book is still a great tome of the curious creation of a new machine.

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Engineers are people, too!

I enjoyed the book. I'm an electrical engineer with a lot of software development experience, so I was not overwhelmed with the technical level of the book. Actually, I was hoping for more detail, especially the microcode decoder section, but the book was written for the non-technical audience, so I'm sure any more technical detail and their eyes would glaze over.

I could have been part of that group. I was part of the graduating class from college the year that Data General was hiring engineers to build the computer, but I know I never saw any job ads for Data General. I'm not sure I would have wanted to work so many hours in a row, anyway.

I've given it to my wife to read so she might understand a little better about engineers and our passion for the fields we are in. Then, it goes to my in-laws for the same reason.

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Computers have changed since 1981, when Tracy Kidder memorably recorded the drama, comedy, and excitement of one companys efforts to bring a new microcomputer to market. What has not changed is the feverish pace of the high-tech industry, the go-for-broke approach to business that has caused so many computer companies to win big (or go belly up), and the cult of pursuing mind-bending technological innovations. The Soul of a New Machine is an essential chapter in the history of the machine that revolutionized the world in the twentieth century.