The Soul of a New Machine
by Tracy Kidder
Kidder's Pulitzer-winning account of a Data General team building a minicomputer in 1979: the engineers, the pressure, the management by signing up. The original and still the best portrait of an engineering team.
Read it if…
you lead or are part of a build team and want to see yourselves truthfully.
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Skip it if…
you need current technology; the machine is irrelevant, the people are not.
Try instead: Showstopper! →
Three things you will actually use
- Commitment is voluntary or it is nothing.
- Pressure produces both brilliance and burnout.
- The work is the reward, and that can be exploited.
Do this first
Read the chapter on 'signing up'.
Our verdict
The best portrait of an engineering team.
See the book →
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