Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose. The tale of Lewis and Clark as told largely from Lewis' journal from the journey.
Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things
391–400 of 454 posts
Re: Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things
#392Reading some of these books recommended here, perhaps the most shocking thing is that so much is due to randomness: an arbitrary person does something small that turns out to be on the critical path, and without it the big thing would not get completed. I like the kind of books recommended here, but please be aware of survivor's bias (there not many books about failures! Any great recommendations? "How we could NOT g…
A great book on failure is "Riding the Runaway Horse," about the rise and fall of Wang Computers.
A cautionary tale about hubris and nepotism.
https://www.amazon.com/Riding-Runaway-Horse-Decline-Laborato...
It is a real shame that more books aren't written about failures, since that's supposedly where all the learning happens.
Re: Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things
#393The _Path Between the Seas_ by David McCullough is really excellent. It starts with the French diplomat Ferdinand De Lesseps, specifically with the way his friendship with the king of Egypt enabled him to start the Suez canal project. It then details how he got the Isthmian Canal project off the ground and how, because he wasn’t an engineer, he became willfully blind to the realities in Panama. He made horrendously f…
Mastery by Robert Greene also mentions in a few pages this story about the Wright Brothers (they started from their expertise in bicycles, that’s how they got planes right) and it’s def a book the OP might be interested in.
I think it's deeper than bicycles. They never went to college or university (though their sister did), but they were extremely well read and researched everything they did. Their first business was a weekly newspaper and printing press. They built the press from scratch using scavenged materials, and they wrote most of the newspaper articles themselves. They sold advertising and set the type. When they went into bicycles they were again the entire staff. They sold to customers, repaired bicycles, and manufactured their own model of bicycle right in the back room of their shop. And now they were the ones making up advertising slogans and buying space in the papers.
They were raised with the understanding that they could learn anything, build anything, discover anything that they set their mind to. And once they had set their minds on flight it was only a matter of time.
Re: Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things
#394Longitude
Re: Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things
#395Longitude dava sobel
Re: Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things
#396Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah that's unfortunate. I wish they kept everything in record at least.
Productions of things in any format, whether text, audio, or video, don't tend to preserve the cutting floor stuff--especially for public consumption. It's unedited. It's unvetted. It's not the material you're putting out for the public.
One of the things I'd add is that, while Edson de Castro was clearly remarkable in a lot of ways, he really wasn't that open to a lot a new things.
Reluctance to cede control to retailers was one of the the nails in the DG/One's coffin although it was probably also before it's time.
But there was a general secretiveness as well. I was once in an executive briefing center presentation to a customer maybe a day or two before a relevant product announcement. My skip manager I think basically said, what the hell I'll tell the customer about what's coming. Ed walked walked in to say hi to the customer and she quietly erased what she had written from the white board.
Re: Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things
#397Earlier quoted context omitted.
The French Revolution led to quite poor results for those fortunate enough to survive it. You might prefer the approach, but I doubt you’d enjoy the aftermath.
? Have you ever even opened a history book? Is this sarcasm?
Strange response, heard of the Reign of Terror? This helped Napoleon rise to power and after he was overthrown, they simply went back to kings. It didn't really solve anything.
Re: Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things
#398Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Those wars started because the assembled aristocracy of f europe jumped the reforming nation. And you think this helps your argument?
I think he means to say that had the other European nations not declared war on France with all the grand coalitions, the casualty rate wouldn’t be what it was. I think that is partially true.
Even without that, the execution rate in the Reign of Terror was appalling and I doubt it's something the initial commenter would want to live through. Revolutions only sound good idealistically but are very difficult to pull off, most even fail.
Re: Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things
#399Earlier quoted context omitted.
USA culture has this idolatry for the Rich that looks like what the aristocracy always did: my "beloved" king, the kind princess... Like the philanthropy of the robber barons that made them respectable, but when they are still alive. I prefer the French approach to take care of aristocrats.
America's attitude towards the rich is heavily qualified gratitude. Rich people tend to create lots of wealth. It's hard to argue Microsoft hasn't made America better. Same with Google, FB, etc. But the rich are most likely to support effective political solutions (and be politely ignored). Rich people have, in general, made America a better country, and there's a certain deference because of that. But this isn't bli…
> But even folks who built their wealth in questionable ways (the Kennedys) tend to make America a better place.
I dispute that strongly. How has the Walton family made America a better place? I'd say they've made it a much worse place. Similarly, Zuck hasn't "made America a better place". I'm not sure you can argue that Gates and Microsoft have.
This sounds like the same trickle down economics BS that we've been fed for decades now.
Re: Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things
#400Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World http://www.simonwinchester.com/exactly Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_(book) Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38840.Boyd
How the Empire State building got built in only a year:
https://www.construction-physics.com/p/building-fast-and-slo... (article)