Ask HN: What are some technically inspiring movies, TV shows or documentaries? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What are some technically inspiring movies, TV shows or documentaries?

#111

Post by muzani » Fri, Nov 05, 2021, 7:18 AM UTC

The Wind Rises: A romantic story of a technologically backwards Japan creating the first Zero plane. It's extra inspirational for those of us in developing countries.

Spider-Man Homecoming: Probably low on the list, but I actually liked Vulture reverse engineering tech, cuts close to home.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi: More about the concept of shokunin and how deep it runs. Sushi is one of the simplest things out there, and Jiro makes it even simpler. And yet every piece is built to perfection - the rice, fish, and all the components down this supply chain from the fishermen to fish cleaner and rice merchant.

Re: Ask HN: What are some technically inspiring movies, TV shows or documentaries?

#112

Post by muzani » Fri, Nov 05, 2021, 7:26 AM UTC

dc-programmer wrote: post #72

kiawe_fire wrote: post #19

One that immediately comes to mind is "The Imitation Game", on the life of Alan Turing during WWII. For something less tech-oriented, "Molly's Game" is inspiring for me. The characterization of Molly as being both smart and relentlessly hard working is motivating to me, while also showing the dangers of taking it to the nth degree. In a similar vein to "Molly's Game", "The Queen's Gambit" series on Netflix is not abo…

I also found Imitation Game, Molly’s Game and Queens Gambit galvanizing. It’s interesting that those movies elicit that kind of response despite their ostensible message being the human cost of pursuing goals at the expense of everything else. In a similar vein a Beautiful Mind and The Social network also were motivating for me. I’m not sure if I’m just taking away the wrong message (like the people who read Liar’s D…

The good stories always hit you in the subconscious bits. I don't think you can really write good stories from some kind of formula. It has to cut really deeply somehow.

Re: Ask HN: What are some technically inspiring movies, TV shows or documentaries?

#113

Post by _f1dq » Fri, Nov 05, 2021, 2:41 PM UTC

Code Rush is one of my go-to's when I need inspiration. I was in tech when it came out and it really inspired me how much a group of dedicated programmers could do. https://archive.org/details/CodeRush_616

Same for Triumph Of The Nerds and its follow-up, Nerds 2.0.1 - A Brief History Of The Internet. Fascinating to hear what went on in the back rooms and halls of the people creating the Internet and Web. https://archive.org/details/nerds-2.0.1-a-brief-history-of-t...

Hackers Definitely some unrealistic Hollywood effects but, it's fun and is a good representation of how tech in the 90's felt.

Antitrust It's fun to see the obvious digs at Bill Gates. John "Maddog" Hall consulted on this film which is why you see things like Gnome on all the screens. I got to talk to him in the hall at a conference once right after Antitrust came out. Really interesting guy.

Sneakers: One of my all-time favorites. The premise wasn't super-realistic (guy figures out a back door to all encryption and murder ensues) but the technology of the time was otherwise pretty accurately represented, and the acting is superb.

You'll notice that all of these came out over 20 years ago. I haven't seen much since that captures the feeling of what being in technology felt like to me. People still had that sense from the 60's and 70's that technology could be used to make the world better. People really did want to use technology for more than making money off of ads and personal data.

Re: Ask HN: What are some technically inspiring movies, TV shows or documentaries?

#114

Post by rrss » Sat, Nov 06, 2021, 3:25 PM UTC

soheil wrote: post #78

rrss wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this sure sounds like external inspiration: “I think Apollo 11 was one of the most inspiring things in all of human history. Arguably the most inspiring thing. And one of the most universally good things in history. The level of inspiration that provided to the people of Earth was incredible. And it certainly inspired me. I’m not sure SpaceX would exist if not for Apollo 11.” - Elon Musk

Yes but that's not something a movie can give you or words can help with.

I don’t really follow - most people inspired by Apollo have only ever known about it via film or words.

A huge fraction of the movies people have suggested here are nonfiction about the space program.

Re: Ask HN: What are some technically inspiring movies, TV shows or documentaries?

#115

Post by warrenm » Sat, Nov 06, 2021, 11:13 PM UTC

Kaos-Industries wrote: post #103

warrenm wrote: post #102

In no particular order, and covering a variety of genres: - Sneakers (1993) - Antitrust (2001) - The Godfather (1972) - Mindwalk (1990) - Groundhog Day (1993) - Finding Forrester (2000) - Startup.com (2001) - Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999) - A Knight's Tale (2001) - Tron (1982) - Wargames (1983) - Quigley Down Under (1990) - True Grit (2010 (or 1969, but the 2010 is better (imho)) - Ender's Game (2013) - The Space…

I haven't seen many of these so I can't confirm, but from the look of the list there's a lot of generic movies that don't fit the bill here. I know for a fact that The Godfather, being probably my favourite movie of all time, has nothing to do with tech, sales or tbh anything that should be inspiring.

If the persistence of of Don Corleone and Michael's willingness to do whatever it takes isn't inspiring...not sure what would be