The Soul of A New Machine

By: Tracy Kidder

Narrated by: Ben Sullivan

Tracy Kidder's "riveting" (Washington Post) story of one company's efforts to bring a new microcomputer to market won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and has become essential reading for understanding the history of the American tech industry.
Computers have changed since 1981, when The Soul of a New Machine first examined the culture of the computer revolution. What has not changed is the feverish pace of the high-tech industry, the go-for-broke approach to business that has caused so many computer companies to win big (or go belly up), and the cult of pursuing mind-bending technological innovations.
The Soul of a New Machine is an essential chapter in the history of the machine that revolutionized the world in the twentieth century.
"Fascinating...A surprisingly gripping account of people at work." --Wall Street Journal

Great read in 2022

I can see why the book won awards back in the day. The writing is compelling and the narrative and is engaging. I especially liked how the author is able to get into integrated circuit design in a way that’s approachable. We don’t really learn too much about integrated circuits in modern computer science unless you focus on that.

Fascinating!

A few years old now, it is still absorbing and intriguing to follow the triumphs and travails of creating a new computer!

Entertaining listen

This was a really interesting book to listen to. It's old, but didn't feel irrelevant. The author did a great job of taking something very technical (the design of a new micro computer) and weaving it into a story.
I enjoyed getting a view into the world of computer hardware.
The narrator did a great job and kept me interested and held my attention.

If you're at all interested in technology or computers, this should be on your reading list.

Interesting deep dive into computer entrepreneurship with

I never used a CDC machine but I knew they were “hot” about 1970. I found it interesting- fixing bugs in a new machine. I also enjoyed “When Wizards Stay up Late..” which is making of the first internet (Arpanet).

About one machine

This tells what happens in the creation of ONE computer. It was complete, it gave a thorough breakdown of how it happened, and it was interesting. It didn't describe other computer development.

It is hard to extrapolate any useful lessons from this account. I liked it, but I would have LOVED if it had posited how this story could be used to guide new development or teams. That would have been more compelling.