Book · 1981
The Soul of a New Machine
by Tracy Kidder
A journalist watches a team of engineers at Data General burn themselves out building a minicomputer nobody remembers, and writes the definitive account of what that costs.
What does Reddit think of The Soul of a New Machine?
Twenty-four mentions across six subreddits over seven years — not viral, but quietly persistent. r/compsci owns exactly half those mentions (12), treating the book as standard-issue oral history alongside The Cuckoo's Egg and Cathedral and the Bazaar. r/ExperiencedDevs is where it gets sharper. The quote that circulates there — an engineer quits and leaves a note reading "I'm moving on" after coding in nanoseconds — landed 324 upvotes and gets cited as a standalone argument about what overwork actually looks like. r/sysadmin pulls a different exit note: "I am going to a commune in Vermont and will deal with no unit of time shorter than a season." Both quotes do more work than most reviews. Sentiment across the board is broadly positive — the book gets recommended, not debated. Nobody argues against it. The r/learnprogramming crowd (3 mentions) lists it alongside Hackers and Where Wizards Stay Up Late as foundational computer history reading. Tracy Kidder embedded in 1979; the burnout story still plays in 2025.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · Engineering burnout and the human cost of shipping hardware
- · Oral history of early minicomputer development
- · Organizational pressure inside technology teams
- · The gap between what engineers build and what they're told it's worth
- · Exit as the only leverage workers have
Common praise
- + The burnout exit notes circulate as standalone arguments decades after publication — that's rare shelf life.
- + r/learnprogramming places it in the same list as Hackers and Where Wizards Stay Up Late, which is the correct company.
- + r/sysadmin readers pull the Vermont commune quote specifically because it describes their current situation.
- + r/ExperiencedDevs treats the microcode engineer's departure as a case study, not just a story.
Common criticism
- − Twenty-four total mentions over seven years suggests the book gets assigned more than voluntarily discovered.
- − Nobody in the data argues the engineering detail holds up technically — it gets cited for the human story, not the hardware.
- − The Data General Eclipse itself has no cultural footprint, which limits how much the technical context lands for new readers.
Who it's for
If you've ever watched a smart colleague leave mid-project and understood exactly why, this book names that feeling. r/ExperiencedDevs recommends it to people who've been on death-march projects; r/learnprogramming recommends it to people who haven't yet. Sysadmins and infrastructure engineers find the Vermont commune quote uncomfortably accurate. You don't need to care about 1979 minicomputers — the organizational dynamics Kidder documents haven't changed enough to matter.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for The Soul of a New Machine?
Top-upvoted quotes across the subreddits where this book is mentioned. Click through to read the full thread.
“There is a classic book from 1979 called A Soul of a New Machine where a journalist embedded themselves in the workers developing a new mini-computer. The quote that sticks with me, is that a micro coder (think someone who has think in nanoseconds regularly) quits his job with the simple "I'm movi…
“Here's my list of the classics: **General Computing** * But How Do It Know? - The Basic Principles of Computers for Everyone * The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles * […
“A few of my favorites: Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, by Steven Levy Where Wizards Stay Up Late: the Origins of the Internet, by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon The Soul of a New Machine, by Tracy Kidder Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future: The Ingenious Ideas That Drive Today's C…
“In *The Soul of a New Machine*, one of the engineers who has burned out while trying to troubleshoot nanosecond timing delays quits and leaves a note on his desk: "I am going to a commune in Vermont and will deal with no unit of time shorter than a season." Personally I don't want to be a farmer, s…
“Love these kind of stories. It's our oral history. Like The Story Of Mel. Also, the Data General Eclipse was featured in [The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder](
“Big Orgs (large groups of people) don’t operate logically or rationally they operate politically and that means waves of irrationality will appear and dissipate as the technology evolves and people and management (management are just people like you btw) adapt to it If you haven’t experienced that …
“That was such a good show. I'd also recommend reading "The Soul of a New Machine."
“Most of his work is very tech-related. Snowcrash is a great example. The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage - Clifford Stoll The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Douglas Adams.
Convinced? Pick up The Soul of a New Machine
Readers also mention
Books that share discussion threads with The Soul of a New Machine — counted from the comments, not curated.
Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
Charles Petzold
A retired software engineer builds a computer from telegraph relays and flashlights, one chapter at a time, until you understand what a CPU actually does.
The Phoenix Project
Gene Kim
An IT manager inherits a failing project, a mutinous ops team, and a CEO deadline — and has to ship before the company does.
The Pragmatic Programmer
Andy Hunt
Two veterans hand you a checklist for the craft: don't write code you don't need, own your tools, and fix the broken window before someone else does.
The Soul of a New Machine — frequently asked
Is The Soul of a New Machine still worth reading in 2026?+
Yes, though not for the hardware. The exit notes from the engineers get quoted in threads about current jobs. The Data General Eclipse is irrelevant; the organizational pressure isn't.
What does Reddit think of The Soul of a New Machine?+
Broadly positive but not effusive. Twenty-four mentions across r/compsci, r/ExperiencedDevs, r/learnprogramming, r/sysadmin, r/programming, and r/cscareerquestions — mostly appearing in "classics you should read" threads. No one argues against it.
Who is The Soul of a New Machine for?+
Primarily engineers who want to understand why good teams fall apart. r/learnprogramming lists it alongside Hackers and Where Wizards Stay Up Late as foundational reading — so it works for people new to the field. r/sysadmin and r/ExperiencedDevs both cite specific quotes about burnout, which suggests it hits harder once you have a few years of crunch-time experience to match against Kidder's account.
Should I read The Soul of a New Machine if I don't care about 1970s hardware?+
Yes. The Reddit data makes this clear — nobody quotes the technical specs. The r/sysadmin comment with 81 upvotes is entirely about a burned-out engineer quitting to farm in Vermont. The r/ExperiencedDevs comment with 324 upvotes is about a microcode engineer walking out. The book's reputation runs entirely on those human moments, not on anything specific to the Data General Eclipse.