#30 in the ranking · ideas · 1981
The Soul of a New Machine
Year by year
Peak: 21 mentions in 2020
Mentions per year: 2007: 0; 2008: 4; 2009: 7; 2010: 9; 2011: 5; 2012: 5; 2013: 6; 2014: 5; 2015: 8; 2016: 4; 2017: 4; 2018: 17; 2019: 10; 2020: 21; 2021: 7; 2022: 15; 2023: 5; 2024: 15; 2025: 16; 2026: 5.
Where it’s cited
What people write
From a text search; it doesn’t yet tell recommending apart from just mentioning.
The original classic in this genre is Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder, about Tom West and his team at Data General designing and building a new model minicomputer in the 1970s.
Hacker News · 2024 · in “Ask HN: Books like Androids:The Team That Built the Android Operating System?” · see comment ↗
The usual recommendations are: "Racing the Beam", "Where Wizards Stay Up Late", "The Idea Factory", "Soul of a New Machine", "The Tinkerings of Robert Noyce"
Hacker News · 2020 · in “Ask HN: What are more books like “Masters of Doom” or “Showstoppers”?” · see comment ↗
It’s got a little bit of tech, but I can’t recommend “The Soul of a New Machine” (Tracy Kidder) highly enough.
Hacker News · 2018 · in “Ask HN: Which non-programming books are a beneficial read for programmers?” · see comment ↗
Soul of a New Machine - about DEC and one of their products in development.
Stack Exchange · 2010 · in “Books and stories on programming culture, specifically in the 80's / early 90's” · by Gratzy · CC BY-SA 2.5 · see comment ↗