Soul of a New Machine Book

As a shameless Tracy Kidder fan, I found this book quite extraordinary. Written in 1981, it chronicles the building of a 32-bit microcomputer at Data General. This was a time when the competitive environment for computer advancement was heating up to a furious pace. Today, these times read like ancient history, exceptt for the fact that it was the dawning of an age.

Tracy Kidder, a journalist, not a computer engineer, took on the task of capturing the new computer building process when it was part science, part art, and to some extent part magic. His Pulitzer Prize winning book puts lightning in a bottle. What we see is what builder-engineering is about, how the lure of building a new machine becomes a drug, how the challenge of problems (design, debugging)take over the engineer's life, and how managers must manage with both a strong hand and a loose grip simultaneously.

The mental and emotional stress that becomes the engineer's life, the almost fraternity-like antics that take place to lessen that stress, and the demands of producing a functioning and profitable machine dominate the realities described in the book. We read about the vision for the new machine, the challenges of getting upper management to fund what they don't think can be done, the excruciating deadlines that must be met, the overwhelming frustrations during break-fix times, and the idiosyncrasies of the players.

I was left in awe of the process, both technical and managerial, and inspired by the creative spirit of professionals who are willing to invest their souls into their creations, no matter what.