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Ask HN: Inspirational Biographies
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 17y agoI really enjoyed Isaacson's "Einstein: His Life and Universe".
- SwellJoe 17y agoI 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 17y agoThere 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 17y agoForgot Jim Clark. Really liked his story too.
- dmfdmf 17y agoChuck Yeager
- sidmitra 17y ago"Surely, You're Joking Mr Feynman" was a fun read.
- 321abc 17y agoJohn von Neumann Gottfried Leibniz Helen Keller Kyle Maynard Brooke Ellison