"The Soul of a New Machine" by the recently-departed Tracy Kidder was a formative book when I had been programming only a small number of years. I was still a high school student and had never worked in the industry, but it gave me a glimpse of what I would later learn was common, even if stupid.

I haven't read it again in a long time. I should rectify that.

https://www.tracykidder.com/the-soul-of-a-new-machine.html

#SoulOfANewMachine #TracyKidder

Tracy Kidder has died

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/books/tracy-kidder-dead.html

#HackerNews #TracyKidder #Tribute #Legacy #Author #News

“For many years sociologists and others have written of a #ComputerRevolution, impending or in progress. Some enthusiasts have declared that the small inexpensive computer inaugurated a new phase of this upheaval, which would make computers instruments of egalitarianism.

By the late seventies, practically every organization in America had come to rely upon #computers, and ordinary citizens were buying them for their homes. Within some organizations small bands of professionals had exercised absolute authority over #computing, and the proliferation of small computers did weaken their positions.

But in the main, computers altered techniques and not intentions and in many cases served to increase the power of executives on top and to prop up venerable institutions. A more likely place to look for radical change was inside the industry actually producing computers. Generally, that industry grew very big and lively, largely because of a single invention.” — #TracyKidder, ‘The Soul of a New Machine’

Ik herlas dit weekend ‘De ziel van de nieuwe machine’. De Nederlandse vertaling van één van mijn all-time favorites: The Soul of a New machine.

Waar dit […]

https://janvandenberg.blog/de-3-principes-van-de-ziel-van-de-nieuwe-machine/