Tracy Kidder's classic portrait of (very bourgeois) geeks at work reminds us how fast technology advances. Barely a generation ago, designing a new computer necessitated writing an operating system too, leading to three linked main tasks: Creating the hardware, the operating system and the micro-code linking the two.

The development takes places as a skunk project at Data General, one of many defunct brand names (such as Commodore) that litter the path to the emergence of modern computing. In a major misunderstanding of their success factors, the management of Data General decided to transfer their research from Massachusetts to North Carolina, mainly to create a tax shelter. The physical distance between the engineers (in NC) and the management (in MA) led to a botched technology upgrade.

Enter our heroes. Tom West assembles a team of trusted survivors and rookies to develop a backward-compatible 16-bit minicomputer. Practicing the mushroom theory of Management ("keep them in the dark, feed them shit, and watch them grow"), he shelters his team from too much CEO interference but also does not offer much direction. The actual leadership and care comes from two project managers, one responsible for the hardware, the other for the software. Despite all expectations, the team beats both their NC rivals and finish their design.

The tale does not end well. The company does not adequately reward the survivors of what will later be labeled "death-march" project, thus alienating and losing their most productive members. The shell of the company lives on for some time, while the people move on to new projects and new companies, thus completing the circle of life of technology companies.

Armed with Brooks' classic article "The Mythical man-month" and the consultant's bible at the time "In Search of Excellence", Tracy Kidder remains a fresh account of innovation and project management. ( )

A technically and socially satisfying account of the development of a new computer in the late 1970's. Its glorification of the exploitative and ruthless management style of Data General is off-putting, but this might be a minor quibble on an otherwise fine book. ( )

Not a difficult read, and an interesting snapshot of a team of people at a technology company (Data General) in Massachusetts in the 70s as they work to develop a new minicomputer. The pace is good, and the portraits of the engineers are well-drawn. I appreciated Kidder's ability to explain the hardware in terms a lay person can understand. The book captures well the excitement that develops among a team of workers inspired by the challenge of inventing something new--and the fallout when they are forced, near the end, to document their individual contributions in order to decide on patents. The picture of Tom West is at the center of the book, early on, he seems to have a little of a sinister side, but he eventually emerges from the project more or less unscathed and redeemed. However, I do think that today there would probably be a diagnosis for him--more's the pity, he would have been on some kind of bipolar meds and "the machine" probably would never have been developed (and who knows what toll it took on his personal life). I don't know if later editions have a "Where are they now" section, but that would be interesting to read. ( )

I was drawn to this book in 2008 because of my two decades of experience with Data General (DG) computers, both the 16-bit Nova class and the 32-bit MV class of minicomputers. My experience included system administration, script writing, programming in timeshare BASIC, setting up smart PCs as workstations, and running a help desk. I was too busy working with DG systems in the 1980s to realize that our MV was the product of a history-making process.

In the mid 1970s, when Digital Equipment Corporation announced the VAX series, their first 32-bit minicomputers, DG responded with a crash course called the "Eagle Project." This project is the subject of Tracy Kidder's Pulitzer prize-winning book, The Soul of a New Machine (1981). Kidder's book single-handedly made Data General's MV line of minicomputers the best documented computer project in history.

Kidder's book reads more like a fast-paced novel -- with somewhat less sex and violence -- than like a pedantic history book.

My Favorite Chapter: My curiosity was piqued when I came to Chapter 6, "Midnight Programmer." Being one myself, programmers were people I could identify with. But as I turned the pages, the story line gradually began to lose its appeal as I read about "Microkids" who worked on "Microteams" at their crowded desks in "Micropits" at DG. After all, my work as a programmer was done as a loner, not as a team member. To be productive, I needed quiet and solitude. Then I read this sentence that instantly drew me back into the narrative: "Much of the engineering of computers takes place in silence, while engineers pace in hallways or sit alone and gaze at blank pages." "Yes," I said to myself, "that's the way I write new software -- like an engineer at DG designs new hardware."

My Favorite Quote: I almost came unhinged when I read, "Not Everything Worth Doing Is Worth Doing Well." This was a favorite saying of Tom West, the chief designer in charge of the Eagle Project, the principal character in Kidder's narrative. In saying this, West meant, if you can do a quick-and-dirty job, and it works, do it. As a manager, West was pushing to get things done on time and on cost. As a programmer for whom errors are intolerable, this is a piece of managerial advice that I could never, ever internalize or respect. This saying may have worked for The Microkids at DG, but not for programmers like me.

We stayed with our DG MV at my institution for about a decade. Our operating system was AOS/VS, the most commonly used DG software product. It included CLI (Command Line Interpreter) allowing for complex scripting, DUMP/LOAD, and other custom components. Our MV ran our tailor-made software on demand with very little down time.

Although we were happy with the reliability of our Data General systems at my institution, the time came when a major change in software vendors necessitated a corresponding change in hardware. We replaced our 32-bit Data General hardware with 64-bit Alpha hardware from Digital Equipment Corporation.

Looking back on the experience two decades later, I must say in retrospect that the DG MV series was too little too late. While Data General was investing its last dollar into a dying minicomputer market, the personal computer was rapidly on the rise. For example, the 32-bit MV/8000 went out of DG's door in 1980. Barely a year later, in 1981, the 16-bit PC/XT went out of IBM's door. It was just a matter of time until PCs overtook the minicomputer market with the arrival of 32-bit, then 64-bit, then dual-core, then quad-core PCs.

This book is still a good read more than twenty-five years after it was written.

Trivia: Tom West, the protagonist in our story, was Tracy Kidder's college roommate. ( )

An excellent expose on the wilder days of the development of mini computers - this one is the DG MV8000, the first Data General 32 bit machine. ( )

Talk about local flare - this book highlights the start of the computer industry from the perspective of Data General, right here in Westborough near 495. I'm also biased towards this book because my Dad worked for DG for over 15 years before moving to Mack Technologies. I was so excited to be assigned this book as a required reading for a college course entitled "History of Technology in Society" ( )

Tracy Kidder's “Soul of a New Machine” is over 20 years old now, and for a book about the creation of a new microcomputer and the engineers that worked on it, that's a very long time. Not necessarily about technology – a computers are by and large still Von Nuemann machines, and the principles are the same – but the engineer and the computer geek have become part of the culture in a way they weren't in 1980. The book, as a result, lacks some freshness to a modern reader – the bleary-eyed devotion of the engineer is an old story by now.

It's rarely told as well as it is here, though; Kidder has a knack for prose and handles everything well. The passages on computer technology slow down a little, but are still fairly impressive considering the ground he has to cover. The engineers, their quirks and motivations and doubts are depicted well, and he captures the drive and obsession with the machine and the long drag of testing as well as anything I've read. So even if the driven engineer is old hat by now, Kidder's book is still a great tome of the curious creation of a new machine. ( )

I have read this book several times since the mid 80's. As someone who has worked in the computer industry for 20 years, a book like this stirs up memories of the "glory days" of computing. I remember working on large, time share systems and debugging problems in the machine room. With the phenomenal computing power available in a laptop, it's hard to understand the mystique of mainframes from the early days.

Tracy Kidder's writing is captivating. He creates both the fun and the stress that are familiar to anyone in the technology fields. I would call this a "must read" book. ( )

i admit the only reason I read this book is because it wonthe Pulitzer prize for nonfiction for 1982. i did not think the author did to good a job making the work the engineers were doing understandable to an ignoramus. The book tells of the people who built for Data General a computer marketed in 1980. As business history I have read better books. ( )

Kidder, Tracy. The Soul of a New Machine. The Modern Library, 1981. Quite an enjoyable book. This is one of those examples of ``The more things change, the more they stay the same.'' Kidder's story of the construction of Data General's Eagle minicomputer deals with obsolete technology. However, the human edge of development hasn't changed in the past twenty years.

Favorite quote:

" When they chose their lawyer, who would deal with the financial community for them, they insisted that he invest some of his own money in their company. “We don’t want you running away if we get in trouble. We want you there protecting your own money,” Richman remembered saying. Such an arrangement, though not illegal, might raise some eyebrows in some corners of the Bar Association. But the lawyer said, again according to Richman, “That’s the first time anyone made an intelligent proposition to me.” Richman also remembered that before they entered into negotiations over their second public offering of stock, after the company had been making money for awhile and the stock they’d already issued had done very well indeed, their lawyer insisted that each of the founders sell some of their holdings in the company and each “take down a million bucks.” This so that they could negotiate without the dread of losing everything (“Having to go back to your father’s gas station,” Richman called that nightmare)."

In life, I’d like to remember to invest enough of myself to care deeply but to keep sufficiently divested so that I don’t have so much to lose that I will be afraid to make needed changes. mlg ( )