
Ask HN: Any Books on Inspirational  Computer Science Personalities ? - sree_nair
Recently I have read books on Nicola Tesla &#38; Richard Feynman and both were immensly inspirational.<p>Was Wondering if there are any similar books on famous Computer science Personalities ?
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edw519
My inspiration is Steve Wozniak. To this day, I try to write software with the
same thinking he used when he built the Apple II. Get a clear picture of what
you want, keep it as simple as possible, stand on the shoulders of giants but
build your own tools when you have to, and keep all the details in your head.
(This last one has made a huge difference in my work.)

You have no excuse not to read about this because Chapter 3 of Jessica
Livingston's "Founders at Work" is one of the best treatments of Woz and is on
line here:

<http://www.foundersatwork.com/steve-wozniak.html>

Then check out

"IWoz"

[http://www.amazon.com/iWoz-Computer-Invented-Personal-Co-
Fou...](http://www.amazon.com/iWoz-Computer-Invented-Personal-Co-
Founded/dp/0393330435/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263908387&sr=8-1)

"Founders at Work"

[http://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-
Problem...](http://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Problem-
Solution/dp/1430210788/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263908416&sr=1-1)

------
davi
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, by Steven Levy

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Computer...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Computer_Revolution)

[http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Steven-
Lev...](http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Steven-
Levy/dp/0141000511)

Stories from early in the personal computer era. This book inspired me greatly
when I read it as a high school sophomore. After reading it, I taught myself
Pascal (that dates me -- I guess this was in 1989) and started making little
drawing programs on our old Fat Mac.

At this point it's an old book, but it's still in print, and the profiles in
it are pretty timeless.

------
chriseidhof
Coders At Work is a book about a lot of high-profile programmers (Crockford,
Knuth, Peyton Jones, Thompson, among others). It's not a biography on any of
these people, but it was very inspiring to me.

~~~
ivenkys
This plus Founders At Work and as a side note - John Carmack's original .plan
files.

He goes into great details about issues he was having with Video cards(NVIdia
vs. ATI), 3D rendering etc and then his plans of how he was going to tackle
them, the approaches he tried, what did not work etc. I somehow find them very
unvarnished and inspirational.

------
sybreon
Not in the similar vein, but I would recommend "The Last Lecture" (by Randy
Pausch). It was very inspirational to me. [http://www.amazon.com/Last-Lecture-
Randy-Pausch/dp/140132325...](http://www.amazon.com/Last-Lecture-Randy-
Pausch/dp/1401323251)

------
michael_dorfman
I was going to recommend the Hodges biography of Alan Turing, but it appears
to be (sadly) out of print.

[http://www.amazon.com/Alan-Turing-Enigma-Andrew-
Hodges/dp/08...](http://www.amazon.com/Alan-Turing-Enigma-Andrew-
Hodges/dp/0802775802/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263905638&sr=8-1)

[edit: In the US. Someone else posted the link to the UK edition, thanks!]

------
cpach
Steven Levys "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution" from 1984 is a great
read. It pictures three major hacker cultures: the MIT hackers; Woz and the
other early hardware hackers; and the video game hackers of the 70's/80's.

[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Hackers:_Hero...](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Computer_Revolution)

John Markoffs "What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped
the Personal Computer Industry" from 2005 is another great book that follows
the history of the PC industry, from it's roots in the ideas of Vannevar Bush
and Doug Engelbart to the modern PC. IIRC Woz and the MIT hackers are
portrayed here as well, but there's not too much overlap with Levy's book.

[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/What_the_Dorm...](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/What_the_Dormouse_Said)

------
EdwardCoffin
In the same vein as Coders at Work is Programmers at Work by Susan Lammers:
[http://www.amazon.com/Programmers-Work-Interviews-
Computer-I...](http://www.amazon.com/Programmers-Work-Interviews-Computer-
Industry/dp/1556152116)

The book is now out of print, but the author has a blog on which she is
gradually posting all the old interviews and also provides a place to discuss
the interviews: <http://programmersatwork.wordpress.com/>

------
chanux
I kept adding Inspirational stories I find on HN and other places on
<http://inspiry.tumblr.com> (Just wanted to share)

------
rsaarelm
Portraits in Silicon: [http://www.amazon.com/Portraits-Silicon-Robert-
Slater/dp/026...](http://www.amazon.com/Portraits-Silicon-Robert-
Slater/dp/0262691310) It has short bios of several computing pioneers.

------
eraad
Jeff Bezos: King of Amazon.com is a very inspirational reading:

[http://www.amazon.com/Jeff-Bezos-King-Amazon-Com-
Techies/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/Jeff-Bezos-King-Amazon-Com-
Techies/dp/076131394X)

~~~
JamieEi
Oh the irony -- it's not available on Kindle.

------
jonsen
Grace Murray Hopper:

[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0766022730/thegreatid...](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0766022730/thegreatideafind)

Also googling her will turn up inspirational material.

------
dedalus
Out Of their Minds: [http://www.amazon.com/Out-their-Minds-Discoveries-
Scientists...](http://www.amazon.com/Out-their-Minds-Discoveries-
Scientists/dp/0387982698)

------
ludwig
Don't forget about Johnny von Neumann! Read his biographies too.

~~~
woodson
I recommend the following. Don't know why, but after I read a biography on
Oppenheimer I just had to read this too.

Aspray, William (1990) John von Neumann and the origins of modern computing.
MIT Press. ([http://www.amazon.com/Neumann-Origins-Modern-Computing-
Histo...](http://www.amazon.com/Neumann-Origins-Modern-Computing-
History/dp/0262011212/))

------
arethuza
<http://www.turing.org.uk/book/>

