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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

#171

Post by phantom_wizard »

0xEF wrote: post #119
noufalibrahim wrote: post #75

One of the "hard things" I've come across was turn of the century explorations. The stories of polar explorers like Ernest Shackleton (chronicled in Lansing's Endurance) or tropical ones like "River of Doubt" detailing Roosevelt's exploration of the Amazon tributary are fascinating stories of how people's grit accomplished hard things.

Shackleton and his crew became something of a hero of mine after I read South and Endurance. Less so frok.a masculine perspective, but more of a fortitude thing. There is a certain triumph felt when we persevere through impossible odds, and ever since I've been attracted to a genre of stories that I loosely label as "Frozen Thrillers," where humans just have to deal with bad things happening in cold unforgiving envir…

I am reading a book about it right now and as I learn more it seems too crazy and unbelievable to sustain (and im quite gullible person), especially part about living on full ocean in small boats with no food, water and heat, in extreme cold, still travelling those 100s of kilometers.

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

#173

Post by piokoch »

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.

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

#174

Post by mtmail »

In the 1930s Phyllis Pearsall (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllis_Pearsall) walked 3000 miles of every street of London (23000), collected house numbers, to create a street atlas to sell. Took her 4 years of 18 hour days. The book title is "Mrs P's Journey". The whole history of early map making is fascinating.

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

#176

Post by relaxing »

InkCanon wrote: post #134
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…

I have a contrary opinion: most important things are started by apparently small things, but there is a huge amount of training, effort and persistence behind getting to that small thing. Zuckerberg was a serial entrepreneur who already made a few successful websites/apps before Facebook, Nvidia spent decades becoming the world's best GPU manufacturer (when they started there were ~300 graphics processor companies),…

I don’t think that’s contrary, rather both are usually true. You have to get lucky but also be in a position to take advantage when you do.

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

#177

Post by epolanski »

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.

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.

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

#179

Post by pjmorris »

GlennFarrant wrote: post #64

Apollo: The Race To The Moon Charles Murray, Catherine Bly Cox My favorite book of this type by far.

I came to recommend this as well. It's a study of the engineering and management efforts behind Apollo, and much more interesting and entertaining than that makes it sound. The section on how they developed the F-1 engines that powered the first stage of the Saturn V, including how they'd explode bombs inside the engine nozzle to be sure that it could cope with instabilities, is just one of dozens (hundreds?) of examples of how all the small pieces came together to accomplish their priorities, 'Man. Moon. Decade.'

An amazing book.

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

#180

Post by busyant »

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 requisition.

Looks like it was fully taken over by Harvard (at the time it was only peripherally associated).

Another funny Land story... My postdoc advisor was a faculty member at another university in the 1970s and Land and his entourage were there visiting various labs. My advisor thumped Land on the chest and said that he liked his shirt. According to my advisor, Land's handlers were visibly upset, but Land appreciated being treated like a regular human.

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