The Soul of a New Machine

This is a book that every engineer should absolutely read, though not without an uncritical eye for Tom West and Data General.

on HN, 2024

Its a wonderful story of how a small group of people can come together and make something magical, putting their heart and soul into the efforts.

on HN, 2018

The canon would accomplish several goals: it'd inform students about the less technical but profoundly important ideas within CS (Brooks' No Silver Bullet, The 10x cost incurred when moving from stage to stage in waterfall, how to treat and manage failure, etc.), it'd teach students how to think about problems (How To Solve It by Polya, The Design Of Everyday Things), and it'd provide history/culture (Coders At Work, Soul of A New Machine).

on HN, 2020

I also enjoying and have great memories from reading "The Soul of a new Machine", the stress that I felt from that book reflected my own work situation of at the time, so it some how stuck with me more that I believe it would have done at another point in time.

on HN, 2024

Charles is great at explaining how computers actually work with circuit diagrams from the ground up in a way that's articulate, clear, and engaging. I think I learned more from this book than I did in my CS architecture class.

on HN, 2020

While the story of a team, Tracy Kidder's _The Soul of a New Machine_ is a classic which I would highly recommend:

on HN, 2025