The Soul Of A New Machine | 
 enlarge | Author: Tracy Kidder
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  55 reviews
Sales Rank: 18743
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0316491977
Dewey Decimal Number: 600
EAN: 9780316491976
ASIN: 0316491977
Publication Date: June 1, 2000
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Condition: Some wear on book from reading, spine creases, wear on binding and pages, we guarantee all purchases and ship all items via USPS mail.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
The computer revolution brought with it new methods of getting work done--just look at today's news for reports of hard-driven, highly-motivated young software and online commerce developers who sacrifice evenings and weekends to meet impossible deadlines. Tracy Kidder got a preview of this world in the late 1970s when he observed the engineers of Data General design and build a new 32-bit minicomputer in just one year. His thoughtful, prescient book, The Soul of a New Machine, tells stories of 35-year-old "veteran" engineers hiring recent college graduates and encouraging them to work harder and faster on complex and difficult projects, exploiting the youngsters' ignorance of normal scheduling processes while engendering a new kind of work ethic. These days, we are used to the "total commitment" philosophy of managing technical creation, but Kidder was surprised and even a little alarmed at the obsessions and compulsions he found. From in-house political struggles to workers being permitted to tease management to marathon 24-hour work sessions, The Soul of a New Machine explores concepts that already seem familiar, even old-hat, less than 20 years later. Kidder plainly admires his subjects; while he admits to hopeless confusion about their work, he finds their dedication heroic. The reader wonders, though, what will become of it all, now and in the future. --Rob Lightner
Product Description
The computer revolution brought with it new methods of getting work done--just look at today's news for reports of hard-driven, highly-motivated young software and online commerce developers who sacrifice evenings and weekends to meet impossible deadlines. Tracy Kidder got a preview of this world in the late 1970s when he observed the engineers of Data General design and build a new 32-bit minicomputer in just one year. His thoughtful, prescient book, The Soul of a New Machine, tells stories of 35-year-old "veteran" engineers hiring recent college graduates and encouraging them to work harder and faster on complex and difficult projects, exploiting the youngsters' ignorance of normal scheduling processes while engendering a new kind of work ethic. These days, we are used to the "total commitment" philosophy of managing technical creation, but Kidder was surprised and even a little alarmed at the obsessions and compulsions he found. From in-house political struggles to workers being permitted to tease management to marathon 24-hour work sessions, The Soul of a New Machine explores concepts that already seem familiar, even old-hat, less than 20 years later. Kidder plainly admires his subjects; while he admits to hopeless confusion about their work, he finds their dedication heroic. The reader wonders, though, what will become of it all, now and in the future. --Rob Lightner
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| Customer Reviews: Read 50 more reviews...
 Excellent View on an Old Topic May 25, 2008
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.
 Start-up culture February 9, 2008
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.
Good read February 8, 2008
Nicely written. A good, quick read. I'd recommend it for anyone interested in the history of the computer industry.
Tremendous piece of writing. January 31, 2008
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.
The world of computers, perfectly captured December 23, 2007
As one who lived and worked in this field through the era that Kidder described, I can tell you that his book totally and accurately captures it. Whether from the marketing standpoint, the business standpoint, the historical standpoint, or (the focus of the book) the engineering development and people standpoint, he got it onto the page. It is also a fun, interesting, and even suspenseful read. As its NY Times reviewer said (as quoted on the flyleaf of the hardback) it is understandable even if you are nontechnical and can't tell software from hardware. Kidder copyrighted it in 1981--the year the first IBM PC came out. It is thus really interesting to read this book from a 2007 perspective, since a lot of what has happened in the PC-microcomputer era is **just** like what Kidder described in 1981 at what turned out to be the end of the minicomputer era. Enjoy!!
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