Should be compulsory reading. Actually, now that I think about it, this would make a great interview question in the AI era: “what did you think of Soul of a new machine?”
I found Showstopper! even more compelling
Those two books are probably the two best about tech projects I've ever read. I worked at Data General as a product manager for about 13 years and know many of the individuals although I joined a few years after the book was written.
What strikes me is the stories that never get told. I met a retiree at a Java meetup once who had worked at Zilog during the z8000 era. He was surprised to meet someone who knew about that.
Especially, pre-web and pre-blogs there's a great deal of tech industry history that largely doesn't exist any longer unless it was especially notable and/or some author decided to spend a year or two writing about it.
Cool thanks for the recommendation!
Honestly, when I read this book in 1982 or so it changed the trajectory of my life and career. It is an story of a bet-the-business project that occurred in real life. After reading I though I was late to the tech party, missed out on so much, and yet, here we are, 45 years later with incredible advancements and a career I couldn't have imagined. Tracy Kidder was a gem of an individual, just a wonderful person who was truly interested in others. I hope you'll read the book soon.
Stop reading HN and read the book now. You’re welcome. ;)
It's unrelated to the book, other than the title.
Soul of a New machine is a great read, never slow or self-gratifying, highly recommended
That's a great book to read, after that pick up The Cuckoo's Egg.