Benjamin Franklin

What Hacker News says

1. jerkstateDec 2025
   I got into audiobooks this year and so have “read” a lot more than usual. Here are some of the most memorable:

   Outlive by Attia - wouldn’t take everything he says as gospel but he helped me focus on what is really important in health and fitness and why

   I am a Strange Loop by Hofstadter - trying to get a grasp on Gödels incompleteness theorem, but this book is a lot more. I particularly enjoyed the bits about Albert Schweitzer, and the chapter on his late wife, how we host the souls of others crudely on our own hardware. Helpful book in the age of AI.

   The Man from the Future by Bhattacharya, a Von Neumann biography. Really helped understand the context of this great man’s achievements.

   On the Edge by Silver. The signal and the noise was a lot better (which I read last year)

   Benjamin Franklin by Isaacson. Fascinating renaissance man, interesting tour through US history

   Can’t Hurt Me by Goggins. This book helped me through some emotionally difficult times and has some really great life advice (mixed with some really self-destructive behavior)

   The Misbehavior of Markets by Mandelbrot, Hudson. Currently reading this, so far pretty fascinating

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2. sgtNov 2024
   Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (Walter Isaacson)

   Highly recommend it. Don't waste your time with Franklin's autobiography.

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3. Dig1tJul 2024
   You should read their biographies, both by Walter Isaacson, I don't know how you can read those books and not see that they are more than just marketers.

   Isaacson also wrote the definitive biographies for Einstein and Benjamin Franklin, among many other historical figures.

   Also "Masters of Doom" describes Carmack's career and idk about the word genius, but he is undeniably one of those engineers who's just 10x better than the average engineer.

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4. freedombenJun 2024
   Indeed! I love reading Benjamin Franklin for exaclty that. If you haven't read it, Walter Isaacson's biography on Franklin is absolutely fascinating. Brilliant, hilarious, driven, and wildly accomplished. The dude was (IMHO) one of the most interesting humans to have ever lived. Highly recommend.
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5. ck425Jan 2021
   Personally I thoroughly enjoyed both of Walter Isaacson's biographies on Jobs and Benjamin Franklin. I got a lot from both. What specifically makes the other biographies better? More details, wider points of view etc?
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6. augustinelNov 2019
   Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson: I assume a HN classic. Good read nonetheless. Crazy imaginative. Prior experience with Stephenson is limited to Snowcrash, which I found to be quite good as well.

   Benjamin Franklin - Walter Isaacson: Biographies are immensely underrated. A good biography has had the effect of raising my own aspirations by orders of magnitude. Not sure what it is exactly about them. Being reminded that accomplished figures were humans first and foremost is always good. Either way, struck by the practicality of the man -- something I'm looking to emulate in my own life.

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