The Soul of a New Machine

Computers have changed since 1981, when Tracy Kidder indelibly recorded the dram, comedy, and excitement of one company's efforts to bring a new mini-computer to market. What has changed little, however, is computer culture: the feversih pace of the high-tech industry, the mystique of programmers, the entrepreneurial bravado that has caused so many start-up companies to win big (or crash and burn), and the cult of pursuing mind-bending technological innovations. By tracing computer culture to its roots, by exploring the "soul" of the "machine" that has revolutionized the world, Kidder succeeds as no other writer has done in capturing the essential spirit of the computer age.

• Prologue: A Good Man in a Storm

1. How to Make a Lot of Money
2. The Wars
3. Building a Team
4. Wallach's Golden Moment
5. Midnight Programmer
6. Flying Upside Down
7. La Machine
8. The Wonderful Micromachines
9. A Workshop
10. The Case of the Missing NAND Gate
11. Shorter Than a Season
12. Pinball
13. Going to the Fair
14. The Last Crunch
15. Canards
16. Dinosaurs

• Epilogue

I read this in the middle of the eighties, and lent it to a friend (never to be seen again).

I just re-bought it and re-read it. It is still excellent in capturing the IT culture, in high-tech.

Recommended, nay, mandatory reading for any one that comes into contact with high-tech people.