The computer revolution brought with it new methods of

getting work done—just look at today’s news for reports of hard-driven,

highly-motivated young software and online commerce developers who sacrifice

evenings and weekends to meet impossible deadlines. Tracy Kidder got a preview

of this world in the late 1970s when he observed the engineers of Data General

design and build a new 32-bit minicomputer in just one year. His thoughtful,

prescient book, The Soul of a New Machine, tells stories of 35-year-old

"veteran" engineers hiring recent college graduates and encouraging them to

work harder and faster on complex and difficult projects, exploiting the

youngsters' ignorance of normal scheduling processes while engendering a new

kind of work ethic.

These days, we are used to the "total commitment" philosophy of managing

technical creation, but Kidder was surprised and even a little alarmed at the

obsessions and compulsions he found. From in-house political struggles to

workers being permitted to tease management to marathon 24-hour work sessions,

The Soul of a New Machine explores concepts that already seem familiar, even

old-hat, less than 20 years later. Kidder plainly admires his subjects; while

he admits to hopeless confusion about their work, he finds their dedication

heroic. The reader wonders, though, what will become of it all, now and in the

future. —Rob Lightner