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Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things

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Re: Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things

#81

Post by ppsreejith »

hashishen wrote: post #60

moonwalking with Einstein is about a man who decides to get into memory competitions upon learning it's more skill based than he realized. this in turn helped me develop more confidence in my own abilities with day to day routine and not be afraid to try new things i never considered myself naturally good at

Great book! IIRC, after attending the 2005 USA memory championships as a journalist, he became intrigued and started training and in one year became USA Memory champion in 2006 at age 24

I'd tried applying memory training lessons from this book a few years ago and written about my experience: http://web.archive.org/web/20210301185111/https://ppsreejith...

Re: Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things

#82

Post by guappa »

RGamma wrote: post #10
rednafi wrote: post #7

“South: The Story of Shackleton’s Last Expedition, 1914–1917” by Sir Ernest Shackleton. Here, Shackleton documents the journey of the Endurance expedition, which aimed to traverse Antarctica but instead became a legendary tale of survival after the ship was trapped and destroyed by pack ice.

I haven't verified the info in this video myself, but it's making a point about Shackleton actually being somewhat incompetent/overeager and getting himself and crew into more trouble than necessary (as compared to Amundsen): https://youtube.com/watch?v=DU06c7f9fzc (TED talk, sorry)

I'd say Scott was the most incompetent of the lot.

At least according to https://www.amazon.com/Scott-Amundsen-Last-Place-Earth/dp/03...

Re: Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things

#83

Post by riffraff »

not sure it's a story of "people doing hard things" but it may go your way for "mechanics of how things that we take for granted actually got built", the book is "Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk"

> a comprehensive history of man's efforts to understand risk and probability, from ancient gamblers in Greece to modern chaos theory.

In some parts it's not an easy read, but the underlying stories are very interesting.

Re: Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things

#84

Post by matrix2596 »

noufalibrahim wrote: post #75

One of the "hard things" I've come across was turn of the century explorations. The stories of polar explorers like Ernest Shackleton (chronicled in Lansing's Endurance) or tropical ones like "River of Doubt" detailing Roosevelt's exploration of the Amazon tributary are fascinating stories of how people's grit accomplished hard things.

i understand polar expeditions, but werent people already living in amazon

Re: Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things

#85

Post by 9dev »

Even if it probably isn’t exactly what you were looking for, I’d wholeheartedly recommend The Spy and the Traitor by Ben McIntyre, documenting the story of Oleg Gordievsky, the soviet spy that crossed over to the MI5 during the Cold War. It gave me a glimpse into the secret war at the time, the stuff that inspired James Bond, and the hardships and permanent threat faced by a spy trying to live several lives at once. It was one hell of a read.

Re: Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things

#86

Post by mkl »

anteloper wrote: post #49

The Wright Brothers biography was incredible. Highly recommend for the exact qualities you're looking for: the mechanics of how things that we take for granted actually got built and what the world they were made in was like

Which one, McCullough's? Your comment is the only search result for that quote.

Re: Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things

#89

Post by sharpshadow »

Back then I’ve got my hands on a book about the history of low temperature research in German but unfortunately I can’t find it anymore.

I would say “Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold” would be a fitting match.

The history to get to absolut zero kelvin would fit your description.

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