Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things ↗
The books people recommended
2025-01-06 · 495 points · 437 comments · 116 books named by at least one person here and at least 3 people overall. The number on the left is how many people named it in this thread.
- 22
- 16
- 14Endurance
- 11
- 10
- 9
- 7Longitude
- 6
- 6The Wright Brothers
- 5
- 5The Box
- 4
- 4The Idea Factory
- 4Apollo
- 4The Spy and the Traitor
- 4The Wager
- 4Eccentric Orbits
- 3The Dream Machine
- 3Moonwalking with Einstein
- 3Where Wizards Stay Up Late
- 3Shadow Divers
- 3Dreaming in Code
- 3Boyd
- 3Barbarians at the Gate
- 3Liftoff
- 3American Prometheus
- 3Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants
Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants
John D. Clark
3 here · 6 all-time · #1169 overall
- 3Tuxedo Park
- 2
- 2
- 2
- 2
- 2Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
- 2The Cuckoo's Egg
- 2
- 2
- 2Mindstorms
- 2The Art of Doing Science and Engineering
- 2Titan
- 2The Road to Character
- 2Against the Gods
- 2Good to Great
- 2Fermat's Last Theorem
- 2Dealers of Lightning
- 2Einstein
- 2Startup
- 2Losing My Virginity
- 2Unbroken
- 2The Invention of Nature
- 2The Man Who Knew Infinity
- 2Fire in the Valley
- 2West with the Night
- 2Build
- 2Empires of Light
- 2Working
- 2The Double Helix
- 2Idea Man
- 2Carrying the Fire
- 2Loonshots
- 2The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
Simon Winchester
2 here · 4 all-time · #1798 overall
- 2South
- 2Sunburst and Luminary: An Apollo Memoir
- 2Billion Dollar Spy
- 2The Worst Journey in the World
- 2Cadillac Desert
- 2Walt Disney
- 2The Secret Life of Groceries
- 2Freedom's Forge
- 2Exactly
- 2How to Make a Spaceship
- 2Failure Is Not an Option
- 2The Founders
- 2Conquistador
- 2Annapurna
- 2In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
Nathaniel Philbrick
2 here · 3 all-time · #2560 overall
- 2Stress Test
- 2The Rickover Effect
- 2The Logic of Failure
- 2The Great Bridge
- 2The Last Viking
- 2Engines That Move Markets
- 2Monk in the Garden
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1The Innovators
- 1Grit
- 1How to Get Rich
- 1Turing's Cathedral
- 1The Devil in the White City
- 1The Knowledge
- 1Benjamin Franklin
- 1iWoz
- 1Built to Last
- 1Colossus
- 1The Book of Five Rings
- 1In Search of Stupidity: Over Twenty Years of High Tech Marketing Disasters
In Search of Stupidity: Over Twenty Years of High Tech Marketing Disasters
Merril R. Chapman
1 here · 5 all-time · #1348 overall
- 1Skunkworks
- 1Reentry
- 1Doom Guy
- 1Seven Pillars of Wisdom
- 1Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy
- 1The Secret Race
- 1Our Band Could Be Your Life
- 1Made in America
- 1Sam Walton
- 1The Path to Power
- 1Losing the Signal
- 1Digital Apollo
- 1The Story of My Experiments with Truth