The Soul of a New Machine
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| The Soul of a New Machine | |
| Author | Tracy Kidder |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Subject(s) | Electrical engineering, Electronics |
| Publisher | Little, Brown and Company |
| Publication date | July 1981 |
| Media type | hardcover |
| Pages | 293 pp |
| ISBN | 978-0316491709 |
| OCLC | 7551785 |
The Soul of a New Machine is a non-fiction book, written by Tracy Kidder. It was published in 1981 and won a Pulitzer Prize and an American Book Award. It chronicles the true story of a computer design team racing to complete a next generation computer design under a blistering schedule and tremendous pressure.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The book opens with a turf war between two computer design groups within Data General Corporation, a minicomputer vendor in the 1970s. Most of the senior designers are assigned the "sexy" job of designing the next generation machine, which will be done in North Carolina. Their project (code-named "Fountainhead") is to give Data General a machine to compete with the new VAX computer from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), which is starting to take over the new 32-bit minicomputer market. The few senior designers who are left in corporate headquarters at Westborough, MA are given the much more humble job of designing enhancements for the existing product lines. Tom West, the leader of Westborough designers, starts a skunkworks project which becomes a backup plan in case Fountainhead fails. Eventually, the skunk works project (code-named "Eagle") becomes the company's only hope in catching up with DEC. In order to complete the project on-time, West takes risks in not only new technology but also relying on new college graduates (who have never designed anything so complex) to make up the bulk of his design team. The book follows many of the designers as they give up every waking moment of their lives in order to design and debug the new machine on schedule.
Edson deCastro, one of the founders of Data General (and sometimes known as 8-bit Teddy) had a favorite theme for project Eagle that he would frequently demand of his engineers. He wanted the MV/8000 (Eagle) backwardly compatible with the Data General Eclipse series of computers, but having come from DEC, he didn't want a "compatibility mode bit" as Digital Equipment Corporation had done with their VAX systems to make their product backwardly compatible with the PDP-11 series of computers. To this end he would often say: "I don't want an Eclipse with a BAG on the side of it!" meaning he didn't want a kludged-up Eclipse to become Data General's next generation product, the MV/8000. Although Edson deCastro does mandate the absence of a mode-bit in the Eagle, "That's what I want, a thirty-two bit Eclipse and no mode bit." (p. 75 of June 2000 paperback edition) it is Steve Wallach that coined the phrase, "I'm not puttin' a bag on the side of the Eclipse." (p. 68)
[edit] Themes
The work environment described in the book is in many ways opposite of what is taught in business schools. Instead of top-down management, many of the innovations are started at the grassroots level. Instead of management having to coerce labor to work harder, labor volunteers to complete the project on-time. The reason for this is that people will give their best when the work itself is challenging and rewarding. Many of the engineers state that, "They don't work for the money", meaning they work for the challenge of inventing and creating. The motivational system is akin to the game of pinball, the analogy that if you win this round, you get to play the game again; that is, build the next generation of computers.
Tom West practices the '"Mushroom Theory of Management" - "keeping them in the dark, feeding them shit, and watch them grow." That is, isolating the design team from outside influences and instead using the fear of the unknown to motivate the team.
The "Soul" of the new machine comes from the dedicated engineers who bring it to "life" with their endless hours of attention and toil.
[edit] References
- Kidder, Tracy. The Soul of a New Machine. Back Bay Books, 2000. ISBN 0-316-49197-7
[edit] Further reading
- Ratliff, Evan (December 2000). "O, Engineers!". Wired 8 (12): 356–367. ISSN 1059-1028. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.12/soul.html. Retrieved on 2009-06-30. Twenty-year retrospective of the book, with "where are they now?" segments on the people involved and on Data General.
- Faughnan, John; Stevanovic, Sanja (1996-03-16). "Flight of the Eagle: The Birthing and Life of a Super-Minicomputer" (PDF). John Faughnan. http://www.faughnan.com/papers/eaglecomp.pdf. Retrieved on 1 July 2009. Case study of the Eagle project from a project management perspective, written for a course given by Al Shenhar at the University of Minnesota.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Fin-de-Siècle Vienna |
Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction 1982 |
Succeeded by Is There No Place On Earth For Me? |
