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by redis_mlc 2272 days ago
> The Soul of a New Machine

There's a software-industry version of that book about the startup Ask Computer Software killing it in the MRP business software space with a product called MANMAN. Maybe somebody remembers the title?

It's like reading a long version of one of Paul Graham's essays.

Some of the things it covers:

- Ask's actual relationships with customers. One of them interviews all other existing clients before buying (like 200 companies.)

- the software team dynamics. One "rockstar" polyfills over all the weird OS bugs at the time, so the others can work on the actual application.

Ask eventually acquired Ingres.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASK_Group

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