Book Review: The Soul of a New Machine
How has the computing industry changed since 1981? The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder takes the reader into the world of an engineering group at Digital Equipment Corporation working very hard to produce a 32-bit computer. A remarkable piece of non-fiction. The questions about engineering work culture, motivation in the U.S. corporate context have aged well.
Assorted gems:
- Pinball motivation theory: "If you win, the only prize is that you get to play again"
- Totalitarian commitment to the project, the need to "sign up"
- Mushroom theory of management: "keep them in the dark, feed them shit, and watch them grow"
Kidder probes gently into the engineers' notion of "purely technical" arguments that let the best idea win. Should such arguments be carried out ruthlessly without any regard for hurt relationships? The engineers held on to this belief in spite of empirical evidence to the contrary.
Contrasting then and now, an optimistic take is that today some engineers in the U.S. are paid a bit better. Some teams communicate better and are more inclusive, and prioritize relationships a bit more.
The fundamental motivational issue is still with us though: technology advances relentlessly. This is a world where it takes an extraordinary effort and commitment to produce anything state-of-the-art, and even if you are lucky in having your work survive corporate politics and actually get out the door, success only lasts a moment. Is anyone excited and afraid today of a 32-bit machine taking over the world?
“He would bind his team with mutual trust, he had decided. When a person signed up to do a job for him, he would in turn trust that person to accomplish it; he wouldn’t break it down into little pieces and make the task small, easy and dull.”
“Look, I don’t have to get official recognition for anything I do. Ninety-eight percent of the thrill comes from knowing that the thing you designed works, and works almost the way you expected it would. If that happens, part of you is in that machine.”
“Engineers want to produce something,” said Wallach. “I didn’t go to school for six years just to get a paycheck. I thought that if this is what engineering’s all about, the hell with it.” He went to night school, to get a master’s in business administration. “I was always looking for the buck. I’d get the M.B.A., go back to New York, and make some money,” he figured. But he didn’t really want to do that. He wanted to build computers.”