A favourite of the Hacker News crowd, this tech classic about the making of a new computer felt like a must read.
It follows a small team at Data General in the late 70s/early 80s who are trying to create a 32-bit version of the company’s existing Eclipse machine. A project to create a true next generation computer has been given to a rival team in a different location; we instead follow this skunk works initiative as a team of new, relatively junior engineers are handed a mix of freedom and constraints and asked to build a plan B – the Eagle.
The team is led by Tom West who hovers mysteriously throughout the book, a central but simultaneously peripheral figure. The working culture is that strange mixture of exploitation (crazy hours, bad conditions, lack of reward) with self-motivation (an intrinsic desire to succeed).
There is real parallel with the famous book Drive about what motivates us – the Eagle team are given significant autonomy, a huge opportunity for mastery, and have a very clear purpose.
I’ve been lucky to work in businesses and cultures that very much value the best elements of this, while trying to remove the bad. But self-motivation combined with pressure from stretch targets, high expectations, can still drive people to overwork, burnout etc.
Although I didn’t find this classic as compelling as many, it’s well worth a read to give time to think about all these elements.
