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Another similar example is Tracy Kidder (a writer, not an anthropologist) being embedded with a team at Data General, resulting in the fantastic book "The Soul of a New Machine". I can't recommend it enough. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine

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Still probably the best book on product development ever written. [Disclaimer: I worked at DG for 13 years, albeit a bit later, and knew many of the people in "the book" quite well including Tom West.]

Showstopper, on the development of Windows NT, is also quite good.

I read it a few times and liked it. However, once I read what Philip Greenspun had to say about it in writing about Copeland's Generation X [1], I rethought it, and came to agree with him. I've been unable to re-read Kidder's book since, though I've tried.

He essentially said that Kidder spent a year in the presence of engineers, and at no point came close to understanding what makes them tick, and in contrast Copland seems to have spent a week with some and instantly grasped their essence.

[1] (NOTE: NSFW photo at top of page) http://philip.greenspun.com/writing/reading

Edit: Fixed a grammar problem.

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