Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things • Hacker News Board

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

#211

Post by akudha » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 1:55 PM UTC

mmkos wrote: post #123

jll29 wrote: post #115

Reading 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…

That's my problem with a lot of the literature on building successful businesses. They all seem to be offering a white glove path and don't talk about all the tactics ranging from shady to downright illegal that helped many of the biggest companies today to be where they are now.

When I was a kid, I read about Jack Welch and thought he was great. Later I learned of all the shenanigans he pulled, not just unethical, but illegal stuff. And the way he trampled people. Bill Gates is a respected philanthropist today, he too did all kinds of shady, ruthless stuff to get to the top. Everywhere I look, same story - Amazon, Facebook, Google... The only big company I think is okay is Costco - either they really are good or I haven't yet about their practices.

There is this podcast called Behind the bastards - in one way, it is eye opening. But it is also depressing, it does a pretty good job of shattering all our beliefs and respect for the rich and the successful.

Is it even possible today to become super successful without doing shady/unethical/illegal stuff? Everything from garden variety wage theft all the way upto buying politicians and corporate espionage?

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

#212

Post by ants_everywhere » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 1:58 PM UTC

mmkos wrote: post #123

jll29 wrote: post #115

Reading 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…

That's my problem with a lot of the literature on building successful businesses. They all seem to be offering a white glove path and don't talk about all the tactics ranging from shady to downright illegal that helped many of the biggest companies today to be where they are now.

An interesting question is how authors of these books look for stories to turn into book. Stories traditionally have a standard arc where the hero faces a challenge but wins in the end having learned something. I'd be curious to talk to authors about how much the desire to fit this template influences the selection of what they write about.

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

#213

Post by theposey » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 1:59 PM UTC

akudha wrote: post #211

mmkos wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's my problem with a lot of the literature on building successful businesses. They all seem to be offering a white glove path and don't talk about all the tactics ranging from shady to downright illegal that helped many of the biggest companies today to be where they are now.

When I was a kid, I read about Jack Welch and thought he was great. Later I learned of all the shenanigans he pulled, not just unethical, but illegal stuff. And the way he trampled people. Bill Gates is a respected philanthropist today, he too did all kinds of shady, ruthless stuff to get to the top. Everywhere I look, same story - Amazon, Facebook, Google... The only big company I think is okay is Costco - either th…

sounds cynical but I'm shifted to believing not. If you don't do it there will always be someone else who will. Not to say you should, that's a personal choice of course, but in a competitive environment there will always be someone or lots of someones who will do anything.

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

#214

Post by ghaff » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 2:00 PM UTC

diggan wrote: post #203

ttoinou wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unraveling a person behind a pseudonym and Doxing is much easier nowadays though. But I guess a self hosted blog would work just fine

> Unraveling a person behind a pseudonym and Doxing is much easier nowadays though For state level actors, sure. But generally? I don't think that's necessarily true, as long as you come up with a pseudonym that is unique, not related to anything in your real life, and you haven't already published a lot of prose under your real name.

It depends how much people care even outside of state level actors, how much of a celebrity you are IRL, and how much care you've put into covering your tracks including just not telling people.

These days you can probably do some writing pattern matching if you suspect the true name of an author but you can probably stay pretty pseudonymous unless people really want to determine a true identity. I don't have a lot of doubt I could probably publish a pseudonymous blog if I took some reasonable precautions and didn't write stuff that especially provided a fingerprint pointing to my IRL identity.

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

#215

Post by gainda » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 2:04 PM UTC

cl42 wrote: post #58

"The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York" by Robert Caro This is an incredibly long biography of a man who figured out how to build an urban empire. While he wasn't an "entrepreneur" per se, he figured out how to generate huge amounts of revenue via tolls/bridges, how to manage and manipulate public policy, and how to attract the best urban planning talent. ... and you can then read about how it all f…

second this: i was trying to follow along with the 99 percent invisible book club but i fell behind due to life events. i picked it back up during the holidays with about 25% left to go.

Caro does an amazing job writing in an engaging, compelling way about topics that would otherwise feel dry coming from a different writer.

i look forward to getting into his LBJ books in the future.

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

#216

Post by meifun » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 2:05 PM UTC

"The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan" By: Robert Kanigel

A biography of one of the most innovative mathematicians of all time traces the rise of Srinivasa Ramanujan from his days as a clerk to his collaboration with one of England's greatest mathematicians

There is also a movie with this same name. It was good, IMHO.

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

#217

Post by jkristobans » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 2:06 PM UTC

The Founders Podcast (founderspodcast.com) would probably be the best source. There are a lot of book recommendations about how founders overcome obstacles to achieve great things.

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

#218

Post by anothertroll123 » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 2:09 PM UTC

piokoch wrote: post #173

jll29 wrote: post #115

Reading 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…

And how Bill mom (IBM board member) helped him to win the contract for... IBM, despite better options on the market. Thanks to that we were all rewarded with such gems like Windows 98 ME or Windows Vista.

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

#219

Post by anothertroll123 » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 2:12 PM UTC

shortrounddev2 wrote: post #76

djkivi wrote: post #27

Masters of Doom is quite good about John Carmack and the creation of id Software.

Recommend Doom Guy as well, by John Romero. Kind of dispels a little bit of the mythology about Carmack. It doesn't downplay his contributions, but kind of frames them in context of the rest of the team. Masters of doom kind of portrays Carmack as a sort of wizard locked away in his tower while working on quake, when in actuality he struggled a great deal with the technology and personally, lashing out at the rest of…

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

#220

Post by buzzardbait » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 2:23 PM UTC

gamebak wrote: post #128

mmkos wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's my problem with a lot of the literature on building successful businesses. They all seem to be offering a white glove path and don't talk about all the tactics ranging from shady to downright illegal that helped many of the biggest companies today to be where they are now.

I share your thoughts. Sometimes you just need to be at the right place, at the right time, solving the exact problem and this is troublesome, especially in this era when so much is already invented. Maybe I just have a wrong view, but I don't know how to decouple from this.

Success comes from hard work and perseverence.

Success comes from being at the right place at the right time.

Both of these statements can be true at the same time.