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Tracy Kidder has died

nytimes.com

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Re: Tracy Kidder has died

#11

Post by ghc »

AntiRush wrote: post #6

The Soul of a New Machine really grabbed me in college. Tracy Kidder wrote with a unique style that (to me) really drives the narrative forward while making you stop and consider the forces behind the story he's telling. The characters he writes about are real people and they seem like it. Moutains Beyond Mountains[1], another book by Kidder, is even more compelling to me. It's a fascinating story of Paul Farmer, who…

He always spoke more about "Mountains Beyond Mountains" than his other works, I think because of what he had to endure to write it. It caused him severe illness and health problems due to the locations he had to go to.

Re: Tracy Kidder has died

#12

Post by purpleflame1257 »

Found this book in a little free library a few months ago and read it cover-to-cover in one night. It's crazy what Data General was able to accomplish with its little side project.

Fun fact: Data General was purchased by EMC, which used the name until 2012.

Re: Tracy Kidder has died

#13

Post by aanet »

_The Soul of a New Machine_ was one of the first (among many!) tech history books I read as a precocious teen, when I hadn't even seen a VAX (or a miniframe), let alone programmed one. But the book brought alive the machine right in front of my eyes. This was years ago, when the only thing I programmed was a piddly DOS system with BASIC.

His one quote [1] remained in my imagination, and inspired me to learn management. Context: Tom West and his team have acquired a VAX system from DEC, and are reverse-engineering it to see how it is setup.

"...Looking into the VAX, [Tom] West felt he saw the diagram of DEC's corporate organization. He found the VAX too complicated. He did not like, for instance, the system by which various parts of the machine communicated with each other; for his taste, there was too much protocol involved. The machine expressed DEC's cautious, bureaucratic style. [West was pleased with this idea.]..."

It inspired me to become a better manager precisely because I was tearing down bureaucracies in my own work.

Every now and then when I mull over product failures (or successes), I see the product architectures reflect the organizational messes they are born in.

RIP Tracy Kidder.

[1] https://www.scribd.com/document/882178766/Tracy-Kidder-Flyin...

Re: Tracy Kidder has died

#14

Post by ancillary »

Another great book of his is House, which chronicles the building of a house for a young couple somewhere in New England, complete with character sketches of the architects, workers, and customers involved. His ability to portray people in a way that is both sympathetic and clear-minded feels sadly rare to me. Nobody in that book is the hero, and some of their flaws are right there on the pages, but they all seem like people that it would be nice to get to know.

Re: Tracy Kidder has died

#16

Post by AntiRush »

CodingJeebus wrote: post #10
AntiRush wrote: post #6

The Soul of a New Machine really grabbed me in college. Tracy Kidder wrote with a unique style that (to me) really drives the narrative forward while making you stop and consider the forces behind the story he's telling. The characters he writes about are real people and they seem like it. Moutains Beyond Mountains[1], another book by Kidder, is even more compelling to me. It's a fascinating story of Paul Farmer, who…

Mountains Beyond Mountains is a pantheon read for me. Farmer grew up incredibly poor, got into Duke and Harvard, had opportunities to make incredible money and traded it for a life of providing medical care to the third world on a shoestring budget while schooling organizations like the WHO on how to provide care along the way. Truly one of one.

Agreed. Farmer's O for the P (provide a preferential option for the poor in health care) was clearly central to his life. I think about it often.

On top of that he was incredibly competent at navigating the combination of hostile bureaucracy, apathy, and disorganization. It's incredible what he and PIH accomplished.

Re: Tracy Kidder has died

#17

Post by mindcrime »

Soul of a New Machine was one of the first books that got me interested in the tech industry, computers, etc. Reading it as a teen probably contributed substantially to the direction of my career up to the present day.

RIP Mr. Kidder.

Black bar?

Re: Tracy Kidder has died

#18

Post by hnthrowaway0315 »

RIP.

I kept a copy of the book at hand and read it from time to time whenever I need a boost of morale. It is very inspiring -- although the reality was probably more gruesome and less glorious. I keep roleplaying the roles in the books in my side projects, to a certain degree. Fake it until make it, they said so.

Re: Tracy Kidder has died

#19

Post by hnthrowaway0315 »

sowbug wrote: post #5
threeio wrote: post #3

Its one of the books I include in my 'desk library' at the office.. I'm an old graybeard, but it's an amazing book for folks to understand the joy and shortcommings and pressures a project can put on you

I hoovered up all the hardcover copies I could and for many years gave them as gifts to my teammates after our projects shipped. Mostly as thanks for a job well done, and just a tiny bit as an apology for what they'd just been through.

Did your team work similar jobs as described in the book? That must be fantastic! Yeah I know most of work is 80% chore, but at least the other 20% part is fantastic.

Re: Tracy Kidder has died

#20

Post by pfdietz »

purpleflame1257 wrote: post #12

Found this book in a little free library a few months ago and read it cover-to-cover in one night. It's crazy what Data General was able to accomplish with its little side project. Fun fact: Data General was purchased by EMC, which used the name until 2012.

Their old internet domain, dg.com, was sold to Dollar General in 2009.
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