I bought a torn used copy of this book in some forgotten book store years ago. I liked the burp. Finally in feb this year I dived in. What a treat!This old book won the 1982 National Book Award for Non-fiction and a Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. And it fully deserved those prizes.The last time I read such a good book on interpersonal dynamics was The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam. That one is easily one of the twenty best books I ever read. EVER. This book opens with a turf war between two computer design groups within Data General Corporation, a minicomputer vendor in the 1970s and then goes on to descibe how the underdogs worked like daemons and delivered a machine no one confidently thought they could. Including the team at various many low points.Although the book talks about building a computer in 1978, it at heart is a really good primer on what organizational turfs and politics means and how the politics is the invisible presence in almost all interaction between key players and their plans. Any of you who works in a matrix organization or in a white collar job will appreciate the book that much more.As a project manager I loved how the team approached this almost impossible task and tacked it. VERY good lessons the PMP training will not touch upon so full ROI if read by someone who manages complex projects for a living.The Soul of a New Machine should be on the syllabus of all MBA courses, esp the more useless ones in third world countries since it adds immense value to understanding OB. Long tracts of it are necessarily dry and explanatory but then they needed to be in order for the reader to have more than a surface level view of what was at stake. The writer really immerses himself in the story and his character analysis is the part I found the most absorbing.The Soul of a New Machine also cemented me an important lesson I am going to carry and pass on : The Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction winners are almost consistently amazing books. Something I cannot confidently vouch for about other book awards. I read another winner, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (a historical look at the way in which Al-Qaeda came into being, the background for various terrorist attacks and how they were investigated, and the events that led to the September 11 attacks) and it was also one of the BEST books I have ever read in the General Non-Fiction genre. Ever. In 2012 I really really relished 'Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945' by Tony Judt, which was nominated but did not win. Such a great primer on European 20th century history.Read all three in the coming decade and you will NOT be disappointed with any of them.
This book won the 1982 National Book Award for Non-fiction and a Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. And it deserved these prizes.The last time I read such a good book on interpersonal dynamics was The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam.The book opens with a turf war between two computer design groups within Data General Corporation, a minicomputer vendor in the 1970s.Although the book talks about building a computer in 1978, it stil is a really good primer on what organizational turfs and politics means and how it is the invisible presence in almost all interaction between key plans and their plans and any of you who works in a team or a white collar job will appreciate the book.As a project manager I loved how the team approached this almost impossible task and tacked it. VERY good lessons PMP training will ot touch upon so full ROI if read by someone who manages complex projects for a living.The Soul of a New Machine should be on the syllabus of all MBA courses. Long tracts of it are necessarily dry and explanatory but then they needed to be in order for the reader to have more than a surface level view of what was at stake. The writer really immerses himself in the story and his character analysis is the part I found the most absorbing.The Soul of a New Machine also cemented me an important lesson I am going to carry and pass on : The Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction winners are almost consistently amazing books. Something I cannot vouch for in other book awards. I read another winner, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (a historical look at the way in which Al-Qaeda came into being, the background for various terrorist attacks and how they were investigated, and the events that led to the September 11 attacks) and it was also one of the BEST books I have ever read in the General Non-Fiction genre. Then in 2012 I had read and really really enjoyed Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt, which was nominated but did not win. Read all three in the coming decade and you will NOT be disappointed with any of them.
I read this back when it was current, and I was programming at the time on a Data General MV6000, so it was really fascinating to me how that series was made. I enjoyed the book immensely, and found it a fun read, a page turner. It was nice that Tracy seemed to learn enough about the whole process, the technology and the project, that he really understood what was going on. I think a lot of journalist types wouldn't have managed that. They would have made a lot of vague statements in their books talking about technical things with not enough detail for you to figure out what they were trying to say, and that would have been maddening. Tracy seems to grasp fully subjects like science, technology, and medicine, so he's wonderful to read on these subjects.
—Tatiana
In the early 1980's when this book was first published, the author had to communicate the complexity and labors experienced by a group of engineers as they developed the next big thing for a second rate company. Most of those who read this book today have a level of computer literacy that may be beyond what the author's computer literacy was when he wrote the book. Consequently there are sections where the author takes great care to convey computer concepts and operations to a reader who has never seen a computer. The modern reader might find such sections quaint or boring, while a few others, who had lived through those times will find the detail and care a nostalgic visit to past lives. Bear with the author as he describes the ins and outs of Adventure and intricacies of machines that have become dinosaurs in the pantheon of technology.As so many other reviewers have mentioned, the highlight of the book is the team and interpersonal dynamics--human drama that can be found in pressure cooker development environments today. This portion of the book is as relevant and insightful as it was in 1981.The one message that has stuck with me several weeks after having read the book is "Pinball is what counted". The rule of pinball is that if you win, you get to play again. "You win one game, you get to play another." Playing the game is a powerful motivator for a select few individuals. Many readers may find it difficult to understand why the team took on such a challenge, but there are a few who will recognize the thrill of pinball and understand the siren song of working in difficult environments on challenges that might be near impossible to achieve.
—John B.
I'd heard good things about this book, but I was honestly blown away by how well Kidder managed to capture the spirit of the engineer for less technical people. The engineers Kidder presents are people I went to school with and work with: occasionally immature, always simultaneously driven and lazy, oscillating between mania and manteia, and feeling what others might see as a ridiculous sense of ownership and professional pride toward their own work, work which is clearly merely commercial in nature.The Soul of a New Machine focuses on the efforts of a young group of engineers in Galapagan isolation from the rest of their company, Data General, working on a shoestring budget and an insane deadline to build a 32-bit version of their popular Eclipse minicomputer, dubbed "Eagle". I didn't know either the company or the machine by name before reading the book, but I could sympathize with their situation. It's an honestly fantastic story of engineering achievement, made almost more poetic by the fact that Eagle itself had lackluster sales and Data General had a downward profit trend and led them on their way to their eventual acquisition by EMC. The commercial success or viability of a product is orthogonal to in my opinion the more interesting issues of its construction.Though minicomputers and 32-bit multiboard boxes and Data General have all been relegated to the mists of history, there is a kernel of timeless information in here. It's a great little read.
—Joseph
