Founder connections
- Patrick CollisonRecommendedHis Silicon Valley history page names Masters of Doom among great books about important technology projects, while omitting it from the geographically focused list. No edition is established.Source
Summary
David Kushner follows John Carmack and John Romero from their early lives into the creation of Doom and Quake. The account examines their creative and technical partnership, the growth of their business and the pressures that eventually divided them. It places the games within the wider culture they helped change. The result is both a history of influential software and a story of ambition, collaboration and conflict.
Why read it Our view
Useful for examining a partnership in which different strengths help a product grow but also create tension. Read the business story alongside the technical and cultural setting. The history can raise good questions about roles and relationships without supplying a formula for success.