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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

#381

Post by portaouflop »

SoftTalker wrote: post #335
portaouflop wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your business’s goal is only “make money” and not solve any real human problems then it should not exist.

It doesn't have to be the only goal, but if you're not making money you will not be able to achieve anything else. So it's the thing that enables any other goals you might have (and, I might add, it's the main thing that makes it worth the risk, vs. just putting your money in savings bonds or something).

Read my post again, of course companies have to make money.

My problem is with those whose __only__ goal is to make money.

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

#382

Post by _whiteCaps_ »

jdshaffer wrote: post #197

"Farthest North" In 1893, Fridjtof Nansen set sail in the Fram, a ship specially designed and built to be frozen into the polar ice cap, withstand its crushing pressures, and travel with the sea’s drift closer to the North Pole than anyone had ever gone before. Experts said such a ship couldn't be built and that the voyage was tantamount to suicide. This brilliant first-person account, originally published in 1897, m…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fram2

You might be interested in the upcoming Fram 2 mission. :-)

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

#383

Post by markus_zhang »

ghaff wrote: post #360
markus_zhang wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! I found it and just listened the podcast. It's pretty interesting albeit a bit short. I'll read the second link too tonight. Thanks again for sharing.

They kept the podcasts fairly punchy. Actually both myself and Tom West's daughter were interviewed for it and we were both trimmed in the interests of length in favor of people they they were able to get who had first-hand involvement.

Ah that's unfortunate. I wish they kept everything in record at least.

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

#384

Post by crones »

busyant wrote: post #180
crones wrote: post #152

Based on what you said you have enjoyed already, I'd highly recommend "A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid and the Kodak Patent War" by Ronald K. Fierstein ( http://www.triumphofgenius.com/ ). It is a history of Land and Polaroid, together with a detailed, insider's view of the long-running litigation between Polaroid and Kodak (the author worked at the firm which represented Polaroid on the case). One of the t…

I was a postdoc at Land's research institute ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rowland_Institute_at_Harva... ) in the '90s. The place was wild. Land had been dead for a few years when I got there, but they still employed his driver. My recollection is that the driver brought in donuts once per week. The place felt like an upscale hotel with laboratories in it. And $$ was no object. Need a $40k laser? Just write the…

Great stories! The research institute gets a mention in the book too.

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

#385

Post by anthuswilliams »

portaouflop wrote: post #332
SoftTalker wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

If your business’s goal is only “make money” and not solve any real human problems then it should not exist.

That would exclude approximately 99% of all the businesses that have ever existed (including most of those that claim to have some other, loftier goal)

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

#386

Post by krishna2 »

Robin Marantz Henig: Monk in the Garden: Life of Gregor Mendel

An amazing biography. The perseverance and meticulousness with Mendel performed the experiments is very inspiring. He was not the typical gifted/talented student either. He would face many difficulties at school as well as while trying to be a priest.

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

#387

Post by pyuser583 »

neves wrote: post #255
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…

USA culture has this idolatry for the Rich that looks like what the aristocracy always did: my "beloved" king, the kind princess... Like the philanthropy of the robber barons that made them respectable, but when they are still alive. I prefer the French approach to take care of aristocrats.

America's attitude towards the rich is heavily qualified gratitude. Rich people tend to create lots of wealth. It's hard to argue Microsoft hasn't made America better. Same with Google, FB, etc.

But the rich are most likely to support effective political solutions (and be politely ignored).

Rich people have, in general, made America a better country, and there's a certain deference because of that.

But this isn't blind stupidity. The Sackler family is as unloved as the Manson family. But even folks who built their wealth in questionable ways (the Kennedys) tend to make America a better place.

I saw a video on Youtube where an American asked a Belgian where the "new money" families lived. The Belgian said "what are you talking about, there is no new money." Most Americans react in horror to that idea.

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

#388

Post by eig »

The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee.

This book describes how hundreds of people tried (and failed) to cure cancer over *millennia*. It spends a lot of time talking about how the modern approach, which works surprisingly well, was developed by Sidney Farber and others through great effort and a lot of good science.

My feeling when reading this book was similar to reading about the making of the atomic bomb- what happens when you put a bunch of smart people in a box and tell them to solve a problem. However, this time it didn't work nearly as well, because as we found out, curing cancer is an order of magnitude harder than building an atomic bomb. Building the bomb required new engineering, while curing cancer requires new science and new engineering.

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

#389

Post by ghaff »

markus_zhang wrote: post #383
ghaff wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They kept the podcasts fairly punchy. Actually both myself and Tom West's daughter were interviewed for it and we were both trimmed in the interests of length in favor of people they they were able to get who had first-hand involvement.

Ah that's unfortunate. I wish they kept everything in record at least.

Productions of things in any format, whether text, audio, or video, don't tend to preserve the cutting floor stuff--especially for public consumption. It's unedited. It's unvetted. It's not the material you're putting out for the public.

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

#390

Post by elendee »

phkahler wrote: post #251

"THE WRIGHT BROTHERS" by Fred C. Kelly. This is the one I read and it turns out to be on project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/67672/67672-h/67672-h.htm I'm really curious how that is considered public domain, it was published in 1943 and he died in 1959. Anyway, one of the things most fascinating to me was their attempts to sell an airplane to the US army and other business related things. You'd think i…

GPT tells me (take it or leave it) that books published before 1963 only had a copyright of 28 years generally, and it wasn't until 1978 that the "author life + 70 years" started
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