# What the Dormouse Said by John Markoff

4 Hacker News commenters recommended What the Dormouse Said by John Markoff and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a deep, well-researched history of how 1960s counterculture shaped the early personal computer industry, including the tension between personal and distributed computing.

## Why people recommend it

- Deep look at counterculture and early microcomputers (1 comments): "may I recommend to readers Markoff's book "What the Dormouse Said." From 2005, it's a deep-dive into the relationship between 60s counter-culture and 70s / 80s era microcomputer movers and shakers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49271791))
- Captures personal versus distributed computing tension (1 comments): "Superb book that describes the tension between the developers of prototype personal computing on one side and distributed computing on the other." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50100400))
- Strong computing history book (1 comments): "Really good computing history book, and I've read a lot of them." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45876333))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder](https://hackerapproved.com/p/soul-of-a-new-machine.md): 59 recommend
- [The Old New Thing by Raymond Chen](https://hackerapproved.com/p/old-new-thing.md): 31 recommend
- [Accidental Empires by Bob Cringely](https://hackerapproved.com/p/accidental-empires.md): 15 recommend
- [A History of Lisp](https://hackerapproved.com/p/technical-history-book-on-lisp.md): 11 recommend
- [Turing's Cathedral by George Dyson](https://hackerapproved.com/p/turing-s-cathedral.md): 10 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0670033820?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9780670033829) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "What the Dormouse Said by John Markoff", https://hackerapproved.com/p/what-the-dormouse-said/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).