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Tracy Kidder has died

nytimes.com

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Re: Tracy Kidder has died

#51

Post by unkeptbarista »

neilv wrote: post #42
tasty_freeze wrote: post #33

I read the book when it first came out. In 1986 I took a job at a new company and Carl Alsing, who was the manager of the microkids (and had written every bit of microcode for machines that came before that) was in the office next to my cube. In fact, he was one of the people who interviewed me for the job. So I reread the book and my esteem for Kidder's writing went up even more. In the parts of the book where he de…

I think my only crossing of paths with someone from Data General was actually only a few years ago. A startup was building cutting-edge phototonic computing tech for AI, and one of the key people for the electronic hardware side was a graybeard from DG. Nice mild-mannered guy, and very capable and sensible. I recall a major tapeout working the first time. (They also had an engineering executive who had been a compute…

I too had a crossing of paths with one of the micro kids. She was descibed in the book as the lone female engineer on the team. She is a very sharp and talented individual and was a pleasure to work with.

Re: Tracy Kidder has died

#52

Post by jsrcout »

Very sad to hear. As an already-addicted computer nerd when The Soul of a New Machine came out, his book put me inside an utterly fascinating alternate world, a world where brilliant people fought incomprehensible difficulties to create the hardware that made my software come to life. Better yet, he brought those people, not just their machines, to life. Still one of my favorite books.

Re: Tracy Kidder has died

#53

Post by jessamyn »

My dad was Tom West from Soul of a New Machine. Tracy Kidder lived at our house on weekends in the late 1970s while he was working on this book. He and my dad remained friends for the rest of his life, going out on boats, drinking a lot, talking about big ideas. Tom and Tracy and (Richard) Todd were the guys, when I was a girl. I wasn't as in touch with Tracy but I'd see him at events sometimes, I had a Tracy Kidder website up before he had his own website. He came to my father's memorial service in 2011, talked about the doors that book had opened up, how his life was changed by being able to tell that story as he's been able to tell so many people's stories since then. "I know the book was good for me," he said, "but I was never quite sure if it was good for Tom."

My favorite little bit of content about SOANM, and Tracy, is attached to this 2013 blog post.

https://tispaquin.blogspot.com/2010/12/1982-interview-with-t...

It's a 1983 report from The Computer Museum (Inside "The Soul of a New Machine" Tracy Kidder and Tom West) which contains the partial transcript of an event that Tracy and Tom did together, that I don't think they did again. When Tracy was asked what he was up to and if he was sick of computers, he said

"I'm digging out from under. I'm writing some articles about atmospheric research. To be honest, I'm a little tired of my book. I put it on my shelf and won't read it again for years. I think I know what's wrong with it. In some sense, writing a book is like building a computer. There are rewards but one of the main ones is that Sisyphean one that if you do one you get to do another. So, I have an opportunity now to write a better one." And he did, he wrote so many books that were, if not better, at least just as good.

Re: Tracy Kidder has died

#55

Post by michael_nielsen »

jessamyn wrote: post #53

My dad was Tom West from Soul of a New Machine. Tracy Kidder lived at our house on weekends in the late 1970s while he was working on this book. He and my dad remained friends for the rest of his life, going out on boats, drinking a lot, talking about big ideas. Tom and Tracy and (Richard) Todd were the guys, when I was a girl. I wasn't as in touch with Tracy but I'd see him at events sometimes, I had a Tracy Kidder…

Thank you for sharing. And I'm very sorry for your loss.

Re: Tracy Kidder has died

#56

Post by UncleOxidant »

nzzn wrote: post #21

It is not at all surprising that “The Soul of a New Machine” resonates with people in Hacker News. And it is a tremendous book. But for me, his book about Paul Farmer, “Mountains Beyond Mountains”, was even more meaningful. Tracy met Paul by happenstance and in a short encounter recognized the stubborn greatness that was Paul. He was an amazing character who sadly is no longer with us, but captured in a book worthy o…

Kind of amazing that that book was written in 2003. Farmer would've only been about 42 around then and he'd already done so much that Kidder wrote this book about him.

Re: Tracy Kidder has died

#57

Post by sowbug »

hnthrowaway0315 wrote: post #19
sowbug wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Entirely software, far above the Hardy Boys and Microkids in the stack. But the general pace and pressure of the story are still relatable.

I got the same vibes, by the way, from Season One of Halt and Catch Fire (recently and deservedly discussed here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47056314).

Re: Tracy Kidder has died

#58

Post by MrDOS »

chiph wrote: post #45

I love the book. We had an Eclipse MV/8000 at college. And abused the hell out of it - when one of my classmates compiled their ADA programs we knew to take a coffee break. But I can't help but think that the book helped normalize death-marches in the industry. I'm still recommending it to colleagues, but with the caveat that we are not in a "do or die" situation, so go home and get some good sleep.

When I read the book as a teenager, I was awed by the technical achievement of the team.

When I re-read the book ten or fifteen years later as an adult facing burnout, I was awed again – by the human cost of the project. Grim stuff.

Fantastic book, but it bothers me that technologists who talk about it almost universally want to talk about the product, and often don't even notice how well the book depicts a real meat grinder of a process. Kidder was not a technologist, and I think that gave him a wonderful ability to really see everything that was happening around him, and to not simply fixate on the computer they were building.

Re: Tracy Kidder has died

#59

Post by dboreham »

His book amazed me when it was published because I never heard of anyone writing a non-textbook about our field. I thought how cool it would be to work for a company so interesting that someone would write a book about it. Subsequently I worked for two. (Actually four, but two of them at a time long after the books were written).

Re: Tracy Kidder has died

#60

Post by tecoholic »

jessamyn wrote: post #53

My dad was Tom West from Soul of a New Machine. Tracy Kidder lived at our house on weekends in the late 1970s while he was working on this book. He and my dad remained friends for the rest of his life, going out on boats, drinking a lot, talking about big ideas. Tom and Tracy and (Richard) Todd were the guys, when I was a girl. I wasn't as in touch with Tracy but I'd see him at events sometimes, I had a Tracy Kidder…

Thanks for sharing. The Soul remains my favourite book. And sorry for your loss.
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