Einstein
by Walter Isaacson · first published 2007
46% recommend50% neutral4% critical
Why HN recommends it
Readable biography that ties Einstein's private life to his work and explains the ideas of relativity well enough to follow. Suits general readers and people put off by physics classes who want the human story.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Albert Einstein's life and times.
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Mentions per year
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…and several key characters really well (and Einstien lurks in the background). Also - Randall Munroe's explanation for the general theory of relativity[2] is a must read. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Einstein-Life-Universe-Walter-Isaacso... [1] https://www.amazon.com/Making-Atomic-Bomb-Richard-Rhodes-ebo... [2] https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-spac...
on “When Einstein Was Bohemian” ↗Favorite of the books I read in 2016: 1. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari 2. Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson - What was interesting for me to learn was that even though he was a great scientist, he was very humane in other aspects - and you can easily relate to. 3.…
on “Ask HN: What was the best book you read in 2016?” ↗…Drive - D Pink The Laws of Human Nature -R Greene Influence- Robert Cialdini 21st lessons for 21st century - Y. Harari Why we sleep -M. Walker Skin in the Game - Nassim T. Social Animal - David B. Einstein - Isaacson Steve Jobs - Isaacson Blink - malcolm gladwell Outlier - malcolm gladwell The tipping point - malcolm gladwell Game of Throne series
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?” ↗They also based the series (mostly) off of the book Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson. It's worth a read.
on “The Life of Einstein's First Wife” ↗I am in the middle of listening to Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson and would highly recommend this biography to anyone interested in more.
on “The night I met Einstein (1955)” ↗…I tried reading every comment but used chatGPT instead. 1. The Big Rich - Texas oil boom. 2. Barbarians at the Gate - Private equity origins. 3. Masters of Doom - John Carmack and Id Software. 4. Einstein by Walter Isaacson - Einstein's discoveries. 5. Houdini!!! - The escape artist and magician. 6. The Double Helix - DNA discovery. 7. Stress Test by Tim Geithner - Financial crisis. 8. Man's Search…
on “Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things” ↗…realistic description of personality, and thereby create a false idea of scientific work. Any recommendations for biographies which give a realistic look into famous scientists' lives? I am reading the Einstein biography by Walter Isaacson and it's pretty good so far. Completely off topic : how do you configure a LAN to have <domain>/~username urls (such as the linked post's url) exposed to the internet? I…
on “Lessons of an MIT Education” ↗I'm really looking forward to this book, so much so that I just preordered it (which I normally don't do for books). Walter Isaacson is a great biographer. His Einstein and Benjamin Franklin biographies are amazing, definitely worth a read. Since this is Isaacson's first biography of a living person, I'm really looking forward to reading the result. I guess it'll cover…
on “Official Steve Jobs biography set for November 21 release” ↗Walter Isaacson wrote the definitive biography of Einstein, so I believe he can grasp the technicals. The reason the book is not overly technical because like Apple itself, it's better to put people in front of technology.
on “The Jobs book” ↗…this topic called "The Alchemy of Air"@, which I highly recommend. It's one of the best non-fiction science books I've ever read. Also available on Audible. Fritz Haber's life story is intertwined with Einstein's and the book pairs extremely well with Walter Isaacson's Einstein biography, which is a MUST read (or audiobook listen). @ - Full title: "The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the…
on “Fritz Haber: A Monster Who Fed the World” ↗Isaacson's biography of Einstein changed how I think about the entire genre. Pre-ordered Jobs.
on “Official Steve Jobs biography set for November 21 release” ↗…check out Genius by James Gleick. Walter Isaacson also just came out with a biography on da Vinci and he has one on Benjamin Franklin, though I never finished it, it was written to the same standard as Einstein.
on “Lessons of an MIT Education” ↗I'm a fan of biographies. The first half of Walter Isaacson's Einstein biography fits this. Helped me appreciate how unobvious certain things were prior to discovery.
on “The Golden Age of Quantum Physics” ↗Thanks, this is serendipitous and fascinating timing for me. Literally just a few hours ago I finished Walter Isaacson's excellent biography on Einstein and was enthralled by the story of Einstein's brain. Remarkable the coincidences of life sometimes!
on “Einstein's Brain (1994) [video]” ↗I'm in the middle of the Einstein bio by Isaacson, who uses many of the documents referred to in this 2006 article to paint Einstein's private life as it complimented his public works. (I certainly recommend the book to you all!) One…
on “Einstein letters reveal a turmoil beyond science” ↗