30 Best Tech Books to Gift in 2026: Biographies, Startup Histories, Exposés
Give the techie in your life access to the inner workings of the companies and characters shaping Big Tech.
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A well-deserved winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this book should be required reading for anyone who works in technology or harbors a curiosity about how it came to dominate our lives. First published in 1981, the book reveals the inner workings of Data General in the 1970s as the company strives to design and release a successful next-generation minicomputer. Kidder captures the struggle between management and creatives and weaves a fascinating tale from an ostensibly dry subject. He explains the intense time pressure on engineers that led to a constant state of crunch, the need for recruits to feel like they are working on something important they have some stake in, and the psychology of leadership intent on realizing ambitious projects. It is positively prescient about the dangers of burnout for the unsung heroes who sacrifice so much to build new machines.
Follow this up with WIRED’s article chatting with some of the subjects in the book 20 years after it was published (this article itself is now more than 20 years old).
