Ask HN: Inspirational Biographies

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=767443

by live_to_code • 17 years ago

6 7 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Hey,

  I'm looking for biographies to read. Some that have really inspired me are:

Nikola Tesla Steve Jobs Steve Woz Larry Ellison Lance Armstrong

HN have suggestions? In general I'm intereted in stories of how everyday individuals became great.

Thanks!

asp742• 17 years ago

I really enjoyed Isaacson's "Einstein: His Life and Universe".

SwellJoe• 17 years ago

I enjoyed all of Asimov's autobiographical books: In Memory Yet Green and In Joy Still Felt, and the posthumous memoir, I. Asimov. I'm a huge fan of Asimov's non-style literary style (clarity over all), and it works well in autobiography. If you like scifi, at all, Asimov was an eye witness to nearly its entire history from golden age onward, and thus worth reading. He's also perhaps one of the few truly credible witnesses to that history; a number of other genre favorites and stalwarts had psychological issues (Dick), personal feuds and vendettas (Ellison), an aversion to the community (Lem), or were just batshit crazy (Hubbard), and thus their accounts can't generally be taken without large grains of salt.

antiform• 17 years ago

There are two biographies that I think should be required reading for wannabe Silicon Valley entrepreneurs: (1) High St@kes, No Prisoners by Charles H. Ferguson and (2) The New New Thing by Michael Lewis, about Jim Clark

And two that, while light on content (i.e. math), never fail to stimulate the childlike nature of my inner aspiring mathematician: (1) The Man Who Knew Infinity by Robert Kanigel, on Ramanujan and (2) The Man Who Loved Only Numbers by Paul Hoffman, on Paul Erdos.

live_to_code• 17 years ago

Forgot Jim Clark. Really liked his story too.

dmfdmf• 17 years ago

Chuck Yeager

sidmitra• 17 years ago

"Surely, You're Joking Mr Feynman" was a fun read.

321abc• 17 years ago

John von Neumann

Gottfried Leibniz

Helen Keller

Kyle Maynard

Brooke Ellison

Ask HN: Inspirational Biographies

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