Tracy Kidder has died

Re:Tracy Kidder has died by jessamyn on Wednesday March 25, 2026 @07:00PM (#47524425)

My dad was Tom West from Soul of a New Machine. Tracy Kidder lived at our house on weekends in the late 1970s while he was working on this book. He and my dad remained friends for the rest of his life, going out on boats, drinking a lot, talking about big ideas. Tom and Tracy and (Richard) Todd were the guys, when I was a girl. I wasn't as in touch with Tracy but I'd see him at events sometimes, I had a Tracy Kidder website up before he had his own website. He came to my father's memorial service in 2011, talked about the doors that book had opened up, how his life was changed by being able to tell that story as he's been able to tell so many people's stories since then. "I know the book was good for me," he said, "but I was never quite sure if it was good for Tom."

My favorite little bit of content about SOANM, and Tracy, is attached to this 2013 blog post.

https://tispaquin.blogspot.com/2010/12/1982-interview-with-t...

It's a 1983 report from The Computer Museum (Inside "The Soul of a New Machine" Tracy Kidder and Tom West) which contains the partial transcript of an event that Tracy and Tom did together, that I don't think they did again. When Tracy was asked what he was up to and if he was sick of computers, he said

"I'm digging out from under. I'm writing some articles about atmospheric research. To be honest, I'm a little tired of my book. I put it on my shelf and won't read it again for years. I think I know what's wrong with it. In some sense, writing a book is like building a computer. There are rewards but one of the main ones is that Sisyphean one that if you do one you get to do another. So, I have an opportunity now to write a better one." And he did, he wrote so many books that were, if not better, at least just as good.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tracy Kidder has died by michael_nielsen on Wednesday March 25, 2026 @07:18PM (#47524583)

Thank you for sharing. And I'm very sorry for your loss.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tracy Kidder has died by tecoholic on Wednesday March 25, 2026 @08:43PM (#47525357)

Thanks for sharing. The Soul remains my favourite book. And sorry for your loss.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tracy Kidder has died by dsunds on Wednesday March 25, 2026 @10:31PM (#47526028)

I commented once before to you here on hackernews but this book, and the story of your dad, influenced my entire career as an electrical engineer and software developer (class of 1988, I think we were asked to read the book, and its still here on the shelf today). It helped me keep a good perspective on my career over all these years.

I am honored and humbled to be able to say this to you, so many years later.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tracy Kidder has died by moralestapia on Wednesday March 25, 2026 @11:29PM (#47526349)

Thank you for your service. A lot is owed to Tracy and your father.

This is one of the reasons why I like this site so much.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tracy Kidder has died by ferguess_k on Thursday March 26, 2026 @11:56AM (#47532082)

Thanks for sharing this, and especially the "So What" from the professor. I guess a lot of the engineers (described in the book) did feel "So What" at the end of a big project, especially one as grinding as the Eagle, but they probably found some answers when working on it -- and that's why I, as a wanna-be engineer, really enjoyed the analogy of "pinball" -- that's probably the best analogy I could find for engineers.

[ Parent | on HN ]