The Boys in the Boat
Daniel James Brown’s robust book tells the story of the University of Washington’s 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities and finally the German crew rowing for Adolf Hitler in the Olympic games in Berlin, 1936. The emotional heart of the story lies with one rower, Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not for glory, but to regain his shattered self-regard and to find a place he can call home. The crew is assembled by an enigmatic coach and mentored by a visionary, eccentric British boat builder, but it is their trust in each other that makes them a victorious team. They remind the country of what can be done when everyone quite literally pulls together—a perfect melding of commitment, determination, and optimism. Drawing on the boys’ own diaries and journals, their photos and memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, The Boys in the Boat is an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate story of nine working-class boys from the American west who, in the depths of the Great Depression, showed the world what true grit really meant. It will appeal to readers of Erik Larson, Timothy Egan, James Bradley, and David Halberstam's The Amateurs.
Stats for nerds
4recommend
5mentions
4people
2017–2025years
100% recommend
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- There is this wonderful concept of "flow state", which I'm sure most of us are familiar with. It was originated by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Many of us in this thread (and Linus's essay quoted in OP) are referring in various ways of getting into the flow state while programming.
Something I learned late in the game as a programmer is how beautiful it is when multiple people somehow sync up and get into a flow state together. It is like a choir, where everyone is somehow elevated and together they achieve a lovely unity. Or a sports team where all of the players are locked in, seemingly reading each others' minds, and getting to some amazing transcendent place together. The book "The Boys in the Boat" describes this phenomenon beautifully. When all nine members of the team achieve this sort of locked-in unity, the boat just flies across the water.
In software, there are times when ideas seem to pass with electricity from person to person. People immediately build upon the thoughts of others. Ideas seemingly come from nowhere, a synthesis of the conceptual pieces held by each of the team members. You realize that some wonderful new way of doing things has emerged from the dialog, and no one person could have possibly gotten there on their own.
There is a wonderful old-fashioned phrase that describes this: "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts."
- After much initial resistance, I've become a fan of pair programming. When things are clicking, ideas spark back and forth. Frames collide and interfere, bits of partial insight are exchanged, and you and your partner arrive at a solution that would have been impossible for either of you to get to working individually.
There is the famous psychological notion of flow. The thing is, this can happen among multiple people. Think of a lovely choir or orchestra. Or a basketball team where every team member just seems to be reading other team members' minds. The book (and presumably the upcoming movie) "The Boys in the Boat" really emphasizes this and crystallizes this.
As the linked article mentions, the author and his father butted heads for three hours because they were not listening to each other and pairing very effectively! Really good pairing does take work and practice. But when it starts to work there can be moments when it feels like magic. It is a great way to grapple with the myriad of unforeseen "details" that are actually life-or-death critical issues to project success.
- The boys in the boat
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16158542-the-boys-in-the...
- I can’t resist the temptation to ask given this thread is on HN (a community I love) and Audible is a passion... for those who love Audible and Audio books, would you mind sharing 2-3 you particularly enjoyed? I’m always hunting for new ones. Here are some I would recommend:
Management
1. Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People
2. Getting to Yes Great book on negotiation in life and business
3. The Hard Thing About Hard Things On management
4. Influence The psychology of persuasion
Non-Fiction Recommendations
1. River of Doubt True story of Teddy Roosevelt's exploration of a previously unchartered region of the Amazon River where he and his team almost perished.
2. Endurance True story of Sir Ernest Shackelton's journey to be the first to reach the south pole. Arguably one of the greatest survival stories of all time.
3. The Disappearing Spoon Story behind the periodic table, the elements, the people who discovered them and the context under which they were discovered. Learn a lot about day to day things you don't put much thought into.
4. Business Adventures Bill Gates was interviewed and asked what his favorite business book is - this was it (out of print for 40 years until 5 months ago). It's a collection of about a dozen 1-1.5 hour true business case studies (20th century). A lot of them were seminal events in corporate America (for example, the event that resulted in modern day insider trading laws, the creation of the income tax, etc). You'll enjoy this if you like business books.
5. Creativity Inc by the cofounder of Pixar. Good story.
6. Alchemy of Air Story of the investors of the Haber-Bauche process to convert nitrogen in the air to ammonia (the key component of artificial fertilizer, gas and gunpowder). Arguably the greatest discovery of the 20th century if you take into account the fact without this process, Earth's arable land mass can only sustain 2bn people. It also has resulted in hundreds of millions of deaths by allowing wars to wage on indefinitely
7. A Short History of Nearly Everything A fast pace, well written science book by Bill Bryson that covers what we know about the creation of the world thus far. You'll enjoy it.
8. The Boys in the Boat Very inspiring story about the men's 1936 olympic gold metal rowing team
9. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight Very inspiring story by the creator of Nike. One of the best memoirs I've ever read.
10. Lessons of History by Will Durant Short and extremely thought provoking. Stylistically tough to get into but once you do it is quite good.
11. Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World The first half of this is better than the second but overall a very enlightening book about the impact of the Mongols, broadly considered to be Barbarians but in actuality far ahead of their time (first to broadly use printed currency, a postal system, a judicial system, military engineers, etc).
Fiction / Fantasy Recommendations
1. The Martian Awesome story and as realistic as fiction can get. Was a great listen.
2. Theft of Swords great story about two lovable characters. It is part of a trilogy
3. Red Rising Part of a trilogy, great listen but worth caveating it is an extreme hunger games like story that is quite violent
4. Name of the Wind Epic fantasy adventure, one of the highest rated books on Good Reads. Absolutely worth it but at 30 hours may be a large commitment as a first book
5. The Way of Kings This book gave me heart palpitations... again, a large commitment but I can't drop it from the list
6. Lies of Loch Lomura A very fun adventure story; reader's voice takes a moment to get used to but once you do it is very fun and endearing
7. Mistborn Great story in a unique world
- The Boys in the Boat: The True Story of an American Team's Epic Journey to Win Gold at the 1936 Olympics > https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24611866-the-boys-in-the...
Truly a remarkable story, well told.
