The Soul of a new machine

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Tracy Kidder: The Soul of a new machine (1981, Allen Lane)

254 Seiten

Sprache: English

Am 8. November 1981 von Allen Lane veröffentlicht.

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"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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hat The Soul of a New Machine von Tracy Kidder besprochen

Cautionary tale of the tech industry told as an adventure story

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Still a wild tale, I’m no longer in awe of it and it’s obvious everyone involved got screwed and feels good about it (though that might be the authors bias). The love of the work “I’d take a pay cut to be involved in a project like this again” when already underpaid. It’s wild.

"West" one of the project leaders goes into “business development” answering the question “what happens to engineers over 40” writes Kidder. Fuck that. He doesn’t want to be exploited any longer, that’s what happens when you get over 40. Seems he’s still in engineering anyway consulting with other teams.

Overall this is a Wild take on a time in engineering that is not dissimilar to some companies today. I’ve worked at Data General clones, it sucks and isn’t worth it. Don’t get romanced. This is a cautionary tale told as an adventure story. I’m glad to …