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Ask HN: Books about people who persevered when no one else believed in them?

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Re: Ask HN: Books about people who persevered when no one else believed in them?

#22
post #2

Ayn Rand novels have this theme IIRC.

It’s been a few decades, though I recall Rand’s antagonists fully believing in the protagonist’s chance of success - and actively discouraging it.

To me there’s a distinction between this and disbelief.

Re: Ask HN: Books about people who persevered when no one else believed in them?

#23
post #19

Not quite what you’re looking for, but highly recommend: A Message to Garcia This generation needs this mindset. My first manager gave it to me.

A Message to Garcia [0] was often passed around while I was in the Navy. That in addition to Iron and the Soul by Henry Rollins [1].

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Message_to_Garcia

[1] https://www.nerdfitness.com/iron-and-soul/

Re: Ask HN: Books about people who persevered when no one else believed in them?

#24
Longitude - nonfic by dana sobel About a scientist/engineer who developed a sufficiently accurate clock to calculate longitude on an oceangoing ship in the age of sail. Which was of vast importance to sailing. The establishment was strongly in favor of astronomy based methods of calculating longitude.

Barbara McClintock is a real scientist who fits this mold, but I haven't read a biography of her to specifically recommend.

Re: Ask HN: Books about people who persevered when no one else believed in them?

#26
Non-fiction:

-Papillion by Henri Charrière: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/bbd4b0ce-baad-4f04-9e98-...

-Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/112010c8-be72-4ddc-b5e5-...

-The Naked Don't Fear the Water by Matthieu Aikins: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/2572756e-ab98-4376-94be-...

-Barbie & Ruth by Robin Gerber: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/69d6197f-f9dd-465f-bc3a-...

-The Fish That Ate the Whale by Rich Cohen (Starts slow but the story is wild.): https://app.thestorygraph.com/browse?button=&search_term=fis...

Fiction:

-The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/abd1c172-fbba-469d-a99c-...

-Hatchet by Gary Paulson: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/8a8b0f34-bdec-4e08-bad8-...

-The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah (This one is kind of a rough read.): https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/8a740c2e-a536-47c8-8d67-...

-Pachinko by Min Jin Lee: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/c906e464-dc41-4f82-9601-...

-The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/297187a2-ad88-4b2b-a453-...

-Bear Town by Fredrik Backman (It's not quite what you're looking for, but close, and really good.): https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/1e759f91-b8e7-4a7b-b10a-...

Re: Ask HN: Books about people who persevered when no one else believed in them?

#29
Themistocles[1] was convinced that the Persian empire will attack the Greeks for a second time, so he pushed for crating a naval fleet. Athenians (democracy eh?) were not on board, so he played an entire city by knowingly lying to them (those politician sucked from day one) effectively saving the city and to an extend western civilization as we know it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Themistocles

Re: Ask HN: Books about people who persevered when no one else believed in them?

#30

Cassandra was a Trojan priestess of Apollo in Greek mythology cursed to utter true prophecies, but never to be believed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassandra https://www.google.com/search?q=books+about+cassandra+of+tro...

which makes you wonder why would anyone name a distributed database acting as a “source of truth” Cassandra…
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