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reviewed The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder

Tracy Kidder: The Soul of a New Machine (Hardcover, 1981, Little, Brown) 5 stars

"The Soul of a New Machine" is a non-fiction book written by Tracy Kidder and …

Cautionary tale of the tech industry told as an adventure story

4 stars

Still a wild tale, I’m no longer in awe of it and it’s obvious everyone involved got screwed and feels good about it (though that might be the authors bias). The love of the work “I’d take a pay cut to be involved in a project like this again” when already underpaid. It’s wild.

"West" one of the project leaders goes into “business development” answering the question “what happens to engineers over 40” writes Kidder. Fuck that. He doesn’t want to be exploited any longer, that’s what happens when you get over 40. Seems he’s still in engineering anyway consulting with other teams.

Overall this is a Wild take on a time in engineering that is not dissimilar to some companies today. I’ve worked at Data General clones, it sucks and isn’t worth it. Don’t get romanced. This is a cautionary tale told as an adventure story. I’m glad to …

Alastair Reynolds: Pushing Ice (Hardcover, 2005) No rating

2057 Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclear-powered ship, the Rockhopper, push ice. They …

I read this a long time ago and I loved the hell out of it.

It's about an ice hauler that gets suddenly sent out of the solar system at relativistic speeds on the back of something that apparently isn't a comet, it starts as a survival story and then turns really interesting and weird.

Cory Doctorow: The Bezzle (EBook, 2024, Tor Books) 3 stars

The year is 2006. Martin Hench is at the top of his game as a …

A long windy preaching road that is still kind of fun

3 stars

Not nearly as good as book one, however, still enjoyable, and a decent adventure. You gotta get through part one though it goes on for a long while. it’s all about rich people behaving poorly and the set up absolutely pays off. But it is a substantial set up.

I learned a bunch about financial crime, I learned a bunch about the prison system, I learned a bunch about rich people. I’m still excited for book three, but I hope it learns its lessons from book two.