Difference between revisions of "The Soul of a New Machine"
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| − | '''The Soul of a New Machine''' (1981) is an award-winning non-fictional book by Tracy Kidder about the development of a new computer by Data General in the [[Boston]] area. | + | '''The Soul of a New Machine''' (1981) is an award-winning non-fictional book by Tracy Kidder about the development of a new computer by Data General in the [[Boston]] area, as it competed against rival Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the 32-bit era.<ref>https://dave.cheney.net/2017/12/04/what-have-we-learned-from-the-pdp-11</ref> The book won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction as well as the 1982 National Book Award for Nonfiction. |
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| + | The story tells of two competing groups within Data General: a well-funded team of top senior engineers in [[North Carolina]] (during a period when it was rumored that the company may relocate from the North to the South) given the task of creating a product to compete with DEC's VAX units (code named "Fountainhead"), and a hodgepodge team remaining in the Boston area, consisting of a handful of senior engineers not selected for the other team, given the task of merely improving on existing products. | ||
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| + | Instead, the Boston team (led by Tom West) embarks on a "skunkworks" project (code named "Eagle") as originally a backup plan in case Fountainhead failed; when it did Eagle became the only option for Data General to survive. West took significant risks: he used new, untested technology and new hires barely graduated from college who had never designed an entire computer, and used what is commonly called the "Mushroom Theory of Management" ("keep [the employees] in the dark, feed them [excrement], and watch them grow") -- generally considered to be a poor form of management -- to keep the project on its intended timeline. The book features many of the designers as they spend nearly every hour of their lives in designing and debugging the machine; ultimately, the thrown-together Boston team succeeds in producing the then-latest computer for Data General, which kept the company in business over its rival. | ||
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| + | This gripping story is considered one of the greatest ever written about technology.<ref>https://www.aboutgreatbooks.com/topics/science-technology/computers-classics/</ref> At 297 pages, it contains about 70,000 words.<ref>"[T]here is an average of 233 words per page in a book on Amazon for nonfiction or 280 for fiction novels." [https://kindlepreneur.com/words-per-page/]</ref> | ||
Other books written by Tracy Kidder include House, Mountains Beyond Mountains, My Detachment, Strength in What Remains, Home Town, Among Schoolchildren, and Old Friends. | Other books written by Tracy Kidder include House, Mountains Beyond Mountains, My Detachment, Strength in What Remains, Home Town, Among Schoolchildren, and Old Friends. | ||
| − | [[category: | + | |
| + | == References == | ||
| + | {{reflist}} | ||
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| + | [[category:Business Biographical Books]] | ||
Latest revision as of 23:43, August 13, 2022
The Soul of a New Machine (1981) is an award-winning non-fictional book by Tracy Kidder about the development of a new computer by Data General in the Boston area, as it competed against rival Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the 32-bit era.[1] The book won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction as well as the 1982 National Book Award for Nonfiction.
The story tells of two competing groups within Data General: a well-funded team of top senior engineers in North Carolina (during a period when it was rumored that the company may relocate from the North to the South) given the task of creating a product to compete with DEC's VAX units (code named "Fountainhead"), and a hodgepodge team remaining in the Boston area, consisting of a handful of senior engineers not selected for the other team, given the task of merely improving on existing products.
Instead, the Boston team (led by Tom West) embarks on a "skunkworks" project (code named "Eagle") as originally a backup plan in case Fountainhead failed; when it did Eagle became the only option for Data General to survive. West took significant risks: he used new, untested technology and new hires barely graduated from college who had never designed an entire computer, and used what is commonly called the "Mushroom Theory of Management" ("keep [the employees] in the dark, feed them [excrement], and watch them grow") -- generally considered to be a poor form of management -- to keep the project on its intended timeline. The book features many of the designers as they spend nearly every hour of their lives in designing and debugging the machine; ultimately, the thrown-together Boston team succeeds in producing the then-latest computer for Data General, which kept the company in business over its rival.
This gripping story is considered one of the greatest ever written about technology.[2] At 297 pages, it contains about 70,000 words.[3]
Other books written by Tracy Kidder include House, Mountains Beyond Mountains, My Detachment, Strength in What Remains, Home Town, Among Schoolchildren, and Old Friends.
References
- ↑ https://dave.cheney.net/2017/12/04/what-have-we-learned-from-the-pdp-11
- ↑ https://www.aboutgreatbooks.com/topics/science-technology/computers-classics/
- ↑ "[T]here is an average of 233 words per page in a book on Amazon for nonfiction or 280 for fiction novels." [1]