The Soul of a New Machine cover art

The Soul of a New Machine

Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Soul of a New Machine

By: Tracy Kidder
Narrated by: Ben Sullivan
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Computers have changed since 1981, when Tracy Kidder memorably recorded the drama, comedy, and excitement of one company's efforts to bring a new microcomputer to market. What has not changed is the feverish pace of the high-tech industry, the go-for-broke approach to business that has caused so many computer companies to win big (or go belly up), and the cult of pursuing mind-bending technological innovations. The Soul of a New Machine is an essential chapter in the history of the machine that revolutionized the world in the 20th century.

©2011 Tracy Kidder (P)2016 Hachette Audio
Engineering History History & Culture Professionals & Academics Science & Technology Business Software

Listeners also enjoyed...

Masters of Doom cover art
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution cover art
The Dream Machine cover art
How I Rob Banks cover art
The Phoenix Project cover art
Once upon Atari cover art
Harder Than I Thought cover art
Doom Guy cover art
No Better Time cover art
The Lazarus Heist cover art
The Unicorn Project cover art
The Cuckoo's Egg cover art
The Everything Blueprint cover art
The Goal cover art
How the Internet Happened cover art
The Innovators cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
I read the original paperback book in 1981 at a time when I was launching a product where I was the TD and did a lot of the mechanical design. I was working with some really good engineers and software writers. I too was not doing it for the money but as a release for all the ideas that just poured out of me.
This book recalls times that were just like that. Looking back at the book, it describes people who were just like ones I was working with.
The book is good. It describes things that are so true.
It does not disappoint.

How it was

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Whilst I found the book a bit rambling at first, it does get going and builds into an interesting story. That said, it's definitely for the technically oriented reader, I loved the detail it went into with the debugging but my wife overheard some and could barely believe anyone would listen to this voluntarily!

An interesting glimpse into a wonderful era...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Interesting but not mind blowing. I enjoyed overall but found some parts a little boring.

it was an interesting book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

less so. well performed but relevant only to those who can relate to project management and computer product development.

great for engineers, for the rest ..

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Great listen for those in tech . Essentially a long war story that could have been 4 chapters . Lacks any real meaningful analysis . Cool to hear what went on in those days mind you

Very relatable for a techy but lacks any real point

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.