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Comment by boguscoder | Hacker News Reader

There’s a book “The Dream Machine”* that is kinda biographical for this paper

* https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/722412

This is a _dense_ book (in the best way). So much incredible history that's not as well presented anywhere else I've found. Sitting at 500+ pages and the font is pretty damn small, this is one hell of an informative book. We really stand on the shoulders of giants.

Took me about 6 months to finish it. But it was such a fun read! I would put it in the leagues of Making of the Atomic Bomb and Emperors of Maladies.

And Rocket Men.

'The Dream Machine' languished in my 'To read' pile until I started the audiobook while on a road trip earlier this year. I was drawn in and read it through, switching between audio and ebook. I knew parts of the puzzle but it was amazing to see how they all fit together. An amazing book about a series of amazing accomplishments that let us share these ideas so widely and quickly.

The Stripe Press edition of the book is a beautiful product, but the font is small. I bought the book but had a hard time reading it so I got a digital copy for my ereader where I could select a larger font.

It is one of my favorites. I actually came to it via "where wizards stay up late", which I would also recommend although it doesn't have the depth and insight of dream machine.

Wizards for me falls flat (kinda like "soul of a new machine" that's often recommended but which I found a complete waste of time) while the Dream Machine, Dealers of Lightning [1] and Norbert Wiener's biography [2] are all essential reading.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Dealers-Lightning-Xerox-PARC-Computer...

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Hero-Information-Age-Cybernetics...

Id also add The Idea Factory* unless you have even better recommendations for Bell Labs era

* https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11797471-the-idea-factor...

Showstopper, about windows NT, is a good replacement for Soul.

Yeah. I think if I read Dream Machine first I would have enjoyed Wizards less. But some of the history was new to me which meant that I enjoyed Wizards for those aspects and then Dream Machine for the detailed look into why it happened.

"The Soul of a New Machine" is not so much a foundational book but a snapshot of the computer industry and might be more interesting to someone who had no idea of the industry as I did when it was published in 1981. For me it was a fascinating glimpse into the tech industry that I would soon join, albeit in software not hardware.

Here's the first of a three-part interview with Waldrop, the author of The Dream Machine[1] and semi-official Licklider biographer of sorts:

<https://luminary.fm/episode/mitch-waldrop-on-the-dream-machi...>

1. Not to be confused with Ted Nelson's titled work Dream Machines, one half of the pair Computer Lib/Dream Machines that described Project Xanadu and articulated a vision about computer user freedom that predates Stallman and the free software movement, complete with manifesto.

Yes I read the book first 6-7 years ago! One of the best books I’ve read, up there with Skunk Works.

Huge props for Skunk Works! I found Dream Machine considerably harder to read (non native speaker here) but content is golden anyway

Author of Skunk Works? Is it related to Lockheed Martin Skunk Works division?

Ben Rich, and yes: he was the 2nd director of the Lockheed Skunk Works.

I think the book may have been out of print for a while but it's easily available now.

Thanks, for some reason I got downvoted... Just for asking an author. HN is indeed surprising.

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