I just finished reading David Kushner's Masters of Doom, which tells the story of DOOM development, as well as the id software story around it. It was well-written and thoroughly researched story, should be a good read for many in here.
Fair warning though, if you don't want to see the dark side of your heroes maybe skip it. Because the book is very thourough and they did some morally questionable things. Repeatedly. I was horrified. I thought maybe some of it is not true but then no one sued for defamy.
Well, there was a definite rocker component to their actions, something possibly not compatible with the idea of programming idol. At least the number of times breaking keyboards was mentioned was quite high ;).
I think I missed the meeting that established the criteria for a "programming idol" :P
The guys back in the old id were rockstars - plain and simple. They were trailblazing an entire new industry and setting a lot of firsts. Now that the gaming industry is more "mature", the major players are more relaxed, trying to show their artistic side, and no one's smashing keyboards or putting their coworker's bloody heads on sticks as easter eggs[0].
