the analogy being that if you win this round, you get to play the game again; that is, build the next generation of computers. A running theme in the book is the tension between engineering quality and time to market: the engineers, challenged to bring a minicomputer to market on a very short time-frame, are encouraged to cut corners on design. Tom West describes his motto as "Not everything worth doing is worth doing well," or "If you can do a quick-and-dirty job and it works, do it." The engineers, in turn, complain that the team's goal is to "put a bag on the side of the Eclipse" – in other words, to turn out an inferior product in order to have it completed more quickly. Tom West practices the "Mushroom Theory of Management" – "keeping them in the dark, feeding them shit, and watch them grow." That is, isolating the design team from outside influences and, instead, using the fear of the unknown to motivate the team. The "Soul" of the new machine comes from the dedicated engineers who bring it to life with their endless hours of attention and toil. The soul is theirs, stored in silicon and microcode. References Further reading Twenty-year retrospective of the book, with "where are they now?" segments on the people involved and on Data General. Case study of the Eagle project from a project management perspective, written for a course given by Al Shenhar at the University of Minnesota. External links The Soul of a New Machine course materials, Clemson University 1981 non-fiction books Books about computer and internet companies Data General Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction-winning works National Book Award for Nonfiction winning works Little, Brown and Company books