The Soul of a New Machine
by Tracy Kidder · first published 1981
69% recommend30% neutral1% critical
Why HN recommends it
Pulitzer-winning account of a team building a minicomputer at Data General, capturing the pressure and camaraderie of real engineering work; engineers recognize the feeling. Suits managers and startup founders.
Common criticism: Some find it dense and slow-paced
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"The Soul of a New Machine" is a non-fiction book written by Tracy Kidder and published in 1981. It chronicles the experiences of a computer engineering team racing to design a next-generation computer at a blistering pace under tremendous pressure. The machine was launched in 1980 as the Data General Eclipse MV/8000. The book won the 1982 National Book Award for Non-fiction and a Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction.
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Some that I liked: - Hackers : http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Anniversar... - The Soul of a New Machine: http://www.amazon.com/The-Soul-A-New-Machine/dp/0316491977 - Show Stopper! : http://www.amazon.com/Show-Stopper-Breakneck-Generation-Micr... - Dealers of Lightning: http://www.amazon.com/Dealers-Lightning-Xerox-PARC-Computer/...…
on “Ask HN: How to learn about the history of computing?” ↗"Soul of a new machine" by Tracy Kidder.
on “Ask HN: Recommendations on books and documentaries on tech companies/people?” ↗Reading "The Soul of a New Machine" [1], the story of building the successor to the Eclipse, when I was 13/14 was what made me want to work with computers, although I couldn't decide whether hardware or software was cooler. DEC had already…
on “If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It: Ancient Computers in Use Today” ↗It doesn't take place in Silicon Valley but I thought "Soul of a New Machine" [1] was a great read! [1] http://www.amazon.com/The-Soul-A-New-Machine/dp/0316491977
on “Silicon Valley History” ↗…an amazing job of asking programmers questions that make them explain their methodology. The interview with Donald Knuth is awesome; really enjoyed hearing him talk about literate programming. 2. The Soul of a New Machine Tracy Kidder's 1981 Pulitzer Prize winner I think is a brilliant case study on how engineers work together and the things that can go wrong and right with different personalities interacting with highly…
on “Ask HN: Books you should have read when you start a career in SE / CS?” ↗Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution ~ Steven Levy The Soul of a New Machine - Tracy Kidder
on “Ask HN: Computer Science/History Books?” ↗…historical bio ever. “The Making of the Atomic Bomb” by Richard Rhodes. The best recounting of the founding of Los Alamos. “Hackers” by Steven Levy. The best book on the birth of creatine coding. “The Soul of a New Machine” by Tracy Kidder. The best tale of hardware design I know. “Masters of Doom” by David Kushner. The best book on the early days of gaming, esp. about Carmack and Romero. Anything by Eric Raymond, esp.…
on “Ask HN: Examples of good technical writing?” ↗…mathematical background (it definitely helps to read this in parallel with a study in number theory, combinatorics, etc) Anatomy of Lisp. The art of the meta-object protocol. Out of the inner circle. The Soul of a new Machine. Unix Internals, the new frontiers. Effective C++. SICP. More recently, I found the C# specification a page turner. Easy to read, and almost every section made me think about why they chose to do…
on “Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?” ↗…programmers and BASIC programmers, elite programmers and n00b programmers. But they are all programmers, was my point. They all do the work of wrestling with, as one of the people in Tracy Kidder's classic The Soul of a New Machine (http://www.amazon.com/The-Soul-A-New-Machine/dp/0316491977) called it, "La Machine." In this respect, being a programmer is a lot like being a coal miner: you become one by doing the work. Sure, some…
on “I Hate Puzzles: Am I Still a Programmer? (2011)” ↗…what you asked for, but both are awesome in their own way, and both are (narrow and somewhat dated) histories: Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy. The Pulitzer Prize Winning) The Soul of a New Machine, by Tracy Kidder. The second one literally changed my life in leading me to computers. Links: https://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Heroes-Computer-Revolution-An... https://www.amazon.com/Soul-New-Machine-Tracy-Kidder/dp/0316...
on “Ask HN: Anything Like Carl Sagan's Cosmos for Computer Science?” ↗…goodreads, some don't. Also, a blanket rejection of books by journalists or other non-experts is going to lead you to miss some really good books. That rule immediately called to mind Tracy Kidder. So, "The Soul of a New Machine" is off limits. Really? No thanks. I can think of many others.
on “Rules for Choosing Nonfiction Books” ↗Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder. Pulitzer Prize winner for non-fiction in 1982.
on “Ask HN: Fun Tech Book Recommendations?” ↗I'm reading the excellent "The soul of a new machine" by Tracy Kidder right now. Your post has helped visualize the types of computers mentioned in the book.
on “Simulating the IBM 360/50 mainframe from its microcode” ↗The Soul of a New Machine Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier Neuromamcer
on “Ask HN: Which book(s) would you credit for the love for your field of work?” ↗…looked for online courses? Here are a few of the books I'd go through around computers, but are you thinking more extensive history of "technology?" Like how we've grown from printing press as innovation? Soul of a New Machine is a great non-fiction but reads like a fiction account of trying to overtake the Vax by building one of the first 32-bit machines https://www.amazon.com/Soul-New-Machine-Tracy-Kidder/dp/0316... A Biography…
on “Ask HN: Good Books on the History of Technology?” ↗