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

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

#271

Post by alecco » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 4:07 PM UTC

protocolture wrote: post #141

To avoid some survivorship bias and maybe offer something you wont find other recommending. Gamasutra used to offer these amazing post mortems written up by game developers after shipping a product. Often recounting all their failures and how they still shipped.

Good idea.

  * "Billion Dollar Loser" by Reeves Wiedeman  (WeWork)
  * "Bad Blood" by John Carreyrou (Theranos)
  * "Losing My Virginity" by Richard Branson  (his failed projects)
  * "The Hard Thing About Hard Things" by Ben Horowitz

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

#272

Post by quirk » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 4:08 PM UTC

Jimmc414 wrote: post #154

Endurance - about Ernest Shackleton and his crew during their 1914-1916 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance:_Shackleton%27s_In...

Yep came here to recommend this. Incredible story.

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

#273

Post by idlewords » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 4:11 PM UTC

stereobit wrote: post #98

The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914

Came here to post this same book.

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

#274

Post by JohnMakin » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 4:15 PM UTC

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…

If you're interested in a book about massive failure - read the story of Donald Crowhurst (The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst is the book, there is also a documentary out there). It's hard to tell much without spoiling it, but basically, a highly publicized sailing competition was sponsored in the mid 20th century to see who could be the first person in history to solo circumnavigate the globe with a sailboat. Crowhurst had little to no sailing experience, and mostly sold navigation equipment and gadgets for sailing - a weekend warrior - and bet his entire future and business to support his entry into this endeavor. It erm... did not go well, and got increasingly worse, then almost ok.. then absolutely not okay. They don't know what truly happened in the end, but what did survive shows he went mad at sea from the likely pressure he was under.

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

#275

Post by HeyLaughingBoy » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 4:15 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…

I think a problem is that we have to look at shady, ruthless, unethical and illegal actions as different categories, but to many people they are all the same.

Of course, you don't want to leave a trail of bodies in your wake but Life's not a bowl of cherries and taking a Pollyanna approach to business won't get you very far.

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

#276

Post by whatnotests2 » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 4:20 PM UTC

Seven Pillars of Wisdom, by T. E. Lawrence.

During WWI he was sent from the UK to the Arabs to find a leader who could unite them and lead a rebellion against the Turks, who were allied with Germany.

He succeeded.

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

#277

Post by laxd » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 4:21 PM UTC

Fermat's Last Theorem, about Andrew Wiles long hard journey to prove it.

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

#278

Post by zekyl314 » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 4:22 PM UTC

newswasboring wrote: post #175

The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll might be interesting to you. Its a story about how he tracked down a spy starting from a few pennies missing in a balance sheet. A very pleasant read and a good audio book too.

I was going to suggest the same book. I first ran into story on PBS as a teenager, it was titled "The KGB, the Computer and Me".

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

#279

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 4:22 PM UTC

[deleted]

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

#280

Post by AlexCoventry » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 4:23 PM UTC

Colossus: The secrets of Bletchley Park's code-breaking computers[0]

Describes how British cryptanalysts and engineers built the first vacuum-tube digital computer[1] to break the cipher[2] the Nazis were using for strategic communications.

[0] https://global.oup.com/academic/product/colossus-97801995781...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis_of_the_Lorenz_ci...