BuiltRoma Agrawal
Built
by Roma Agrawal · first published 2018
3mentions
2recommended by
3HN commenters
2023–2025first – last mentioned
67% recommend33% neutral
Looks at the history of structural engineering, discusses the science behind the field, describes how engineers keep modern buildings from falling down and how a bridge can span distances, and compares modern solutions with those from ancient cultures. --Publisher.
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…Power Broker by Robert Caro - Robert Moses and New York infrastructure. 45. How Big Things Get Done - Large-scale project execution. 46. Dealers of Lightning by Michael A. Hiltzik - Xerox PARC. 47. Built by Roma Agrawal - Civil engineering insights. 48. The Will to Keep Winning by Daigo Umehara - Competitive gaming. 49. Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold - Low-temperature physics. 50. Carrying…
on “Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things” ↗…point was not saying that this project was not on time or on budget, it was mainly to illustrate that the 3 days of work that locals saw was based on 5 years of research and preparation. I recently read 'Built: The Hidden Stories Behind our Structures' by Roma Agrawal and it would be fairly rudimentary for a structural engineer, but for the average passerby it was a very interesting read on some of the structures…
on “Why Construction Projects Always Go over Budget” ↗The list (with Goodreads links that may be useful to get further information): -- Roma Agrawal - Built: The Hidden Stories Behind our Structures - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34921647-built -- Simon Winchester - The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35068671-the-perfectioni...…
on “Eight Books That Explain How the [Engineering] World Works” ↗