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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

#311

Post by standeven »

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…

There are some chapters in a fantastic book, "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman, that explain how luck has a huge amount of influence on the events in the world.

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

#312

Post by SoftTalker »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #275
akudha wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, and even just the normal business attitude of "our goal is to make a profit, not solve all the world's social problems" is viewed as "unethical" by many people (most of whom have never run a business).

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

#313

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

epolanski wrote: post #177
piokoch wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why reason in hypotheticals? Microsoft has been crucial into bringing compute in people's homes, the evolution of video gaming, the internet etc. They fluked a lot, they used their advantageous position like most companies try to, but assuming that we would have gotten better alternatives is not a given. Also, in hindsight was IBM wrong to bet on Microsoft? They sure have done multi hundred billions $ together.

Exactly. "Better options on the market"? Better by whose definition? Certainly not IBM's.

And it's naive to assume that other companies wouldn't have used the same tactics that Microsoft did.

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

#314

Post by giraffe_lady »

matt_j wrote: post #118

Carrying The Fire by Michael Collins is an excellent account of Apollo 11 from the perspective of the command module pilot. I've read it three times, it's a wonderful book, he's a very intelligent, capable and humble man.

This book completely changed my understanding of how that era of space projects was developed. Before reading it I didn't know how involved the early astronauts were in actually developing the systems, spacecraft, and procedures.

As test pilots they were extremely competent technicians obviously, but they were expected to develop in novel individual domains to solve previously unexplored problems. By the end of gemini the first two dozen astronauts were each among a handful of world experts in their focus: things like orbital rendezvous mechanics, navigation, interface design, biomechanics of flight, radio telemetry. The program wasn't built for them to fly, to a huge extent they guided how it was built.

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

#316

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

deaddodo wrote: post #54
zetazzed wrote: post #53

The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes! Lots of detail, but it also shows how many geniuses it took working over years to really make it work.

And, as added reading, The Radioactive Boy Scout . Just for a perspective on how abundant and readily available that information had become in academia a few decades later.

Loved that book!

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

#317

Post by adamc »

geocrasher wrote: post #291
hyperific wrote: post #287

"Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed" by Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos. Details, among other things, the engineering challenges faced during the development of the F-117 Nighthawk and the SR-71 Blackbird.

An excellent read, no doubt. I've actually read it a couple of times. Ben Rich was a great writer.

Boy, I don't agree with that last. It's a pretty interesting book, but the writing is pedestrian and there are far too many asides and stories that detract from the main points. By way of contrast, I read it because it was recommended after I said I loved "The Soul of a New Machine" (Tracy Kidder), which really is an extremely well-written book, in the "every word counts" sense. "The Soul of a New Machine" is a book that a writer can appreciate for the writing.

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

#318

Post by adamc »

ashika wrote: post #300
hyperific wrote: post #287

"Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed" by Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos. Details, among other things, the engineering challenges faced during the development of the F-117 Nighthawk and the SR-71 Blackbird.

worth reading for rich's crazy jokes alone. the fact he is telling them to senior military brass in the context of negotiating his division's survival after kelly johnson's retirement makes them even funnier. my favorite - a boy comes home from school, finds his dad, and proudly declares "dad, i saved 25 cents by running alongside the bus instead of riding it!". the father shakes his head and replies sternly, "you fo…

Eh, for me those all weakened the book.

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

#319

Post by adamc »

readyplayernull wrote: post #5

The Soul of a New Machine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine

This is the best non-fiction book I have ever read. It's great simply as a piece of writing -- and the story it tells is an interesting one.

I liked it enough that after I listened to it on Audible I went out and bought a hardback version to re-read. That almost never happens.

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

#320

Post by adamc »

superconduct123 wrote: post #29
readyplayernull wrote: post #5

The Soul of a New Machine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine

My main takeaway from reading that book was that working in tech in the late 70s was not that different from now days Just different technology/hardware/timescale Same workplace problems, personality types, company politics, etc... Did not expect to find it so relatable in 2024

People are mostly the same. It's just the cultural context that shifts, and mostly that changes slowly, even when tech changes rapidly.
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