For something less tech-oriented, "Molly's Game" is inspiring for me. The characterization of Molly as being both smart and relentlessly hard working is motivating to me, while also showing the dangers of taking it to the nth degree.
In a similar vein to "Molly's Game", "The Queen's Gambit" series on Netflix is not about tech, but very much on being the best you can be at something, along with the dangers of taking it too far.
"The Hundred Foot Journey" has nothing to do with technology at all, but rather cooking (which I usually hate). But, it captures the feeling of iteration, hard work, and self-improvement, and the notion of dealing with adversarial people and eventually becoming allies.
While definitely silly and kid-friendly, "Real Steel" gives me similar "iteration and self-improvement" vibes that give me a mental boost.
Finally, on the anime side, I have one hugely overlooked recommendation that I LOVED and yet got very little recognition: Knights and Magic. It's standard "isekai" setup has a software developer transported to another world, but he very much captures the excitement of taking an engineering mindset to problem solving when coming up with new mechanical solutions to each new fight. It's not as technical as I wish it were, but in terms of capturing the spirit of tech and engineering in a stylized way, this show was a ton of fun for me!
I’m not sure if I’m just taking away the wrong message (like the people who read Liar’s Dice and wanted to go into banking) or if the writer’s own subconscious admiration of these people permeated into the medium (or maybe they made it intentionally ambiguous). There is probably some deeper insight into how we all struggle with reconciling society’s veneration of individual success (monetary and/or reputational) with the social expectation that we conform to the norms of society (being social, not abusing drugs, placing social cohesion above everything else)
In addition to your points, I do think there is an aspect of human nature that is most strongly fascinated by people who achieve extraordinary things, but simultaneously have some major flaw or deficiency (especially a deficiency in something ordinary that we, ourselves, do not have).
It's as though, while we crave role models and achievements to aspire to, we are also comforted to think that our relative shortcomings with regards to our aspirations are made up for in other areas that our role models may lack.
Not joking, it's a silly and campy movie but it captures the enthusiasm I had as a kid for making computers do things.
Not about coding, but about achieving something through persistence and hard work: Fitzcarraldo (1982)
In-drama and out-drama?
> When shooting was nearly complete, the chief of the Machiguenga tribe, who were used extensively as extras, asked Herzog if they should kill Kinski for him
“Mr. Robot” is great if you don’t mind it’s overdramatized dystopian atmosphere. Probably one of the most realistic use of computers in a TV show. It has ups and downs, some of its best and worst episodes are in its final season, it’s a pretty interesting roller coaster.
“Computer Chess” is a weird black and white fictional movie about people trying to build the best Chess AI in the 80s. I really enjoyed it. Does a great job capturing the vibe of the era.
The movie watered down Watney’s technical know how quite a bit. That is to say if you liked the movie, you’ll love the book.
- Citizenfour 2014: Actual interview between Glenn Greenwald and Edward Snowden
- Voyage of Time: Life's Journey 2016: Voyager probes development and deployment
- Zero Days 2016: The background story and effects from Stuxnet
Films
- The Challenger Disaster 2013: Dramatization of Richard Feynman and his investigative work of this event
- Batteries Not Included 1987: When mechanical-based lifeforms descend into NYC to help an elderly couple
- Pi 1998: Fun film with lots of computers and wiring
- I Am Mother 2019: Post-apocalyptic robotic "rejuvenation" of the human race
- Gravity 2013: Fairly accurate dramatization of what space is really like
- Real Genius 1985: Silly film of college hackers before the 1995 film Hackers
- The Abyss 1989: Aliens under the sea, somewhat related to the 1998 film Sphere
- Innerspace 1987: Fun scifi version of Honey I Shrunk the Kids!
Documentaries
- The Airbnb Story[1] <-- Start here
- High Score (A netflix series on the history of games, the first episode has a part where some college guys had to change hardware to make games harder)
- The Pirate Bay, Away from Keyboard
- Silicon Cowboys; highly recommend this one, I believe we wouldn't have the industry as it is today, if it weren't for Compaq.
Movies
- Who Am I, No System is safe (Look for one with English Subtitles)
- Echelon Conspiracy
In fact, there's a portion of the movie where's psyching himself up to go and hustle by listening to a recording of Calvin Coolidge's speech on Persistence.
Like all that was really cool. My fave moment, though was when the McDonald brothers describe how they optimized the layout of their McDonald's location in San Bernardino.
In the last 3rd of the movie you see the bad part of Ray Kroc and how he ripped off the brothers but aside from that the first half is pretty inspirational to me.
Overall, a great movie.
Antitrust (2001) - The technical portion is goofy, but discusses the open source software movement, VCs, working for a major tech company (an evil bill gates character played by tim robbins)
Sneakers (1992) - Personally, one of my favorite movies of all-time. Code breaking, old school hacking (think wargames). I think the best description i've heard of it is an 1970s caper movie. You will never see a better cast in a movie. Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Ben Kingsley, James Earl Jones, Dan Ackroyd, River Phoenix, David Strathairn, Mary McDonnell all play major roles
Mythic Quest (2020) - Apple tv show about creating video games and running a tech company
Tomorrowland
Big Hero 6
Robots (2005)
The Martian
Sneakers
Real Genius
Wargames
Macguyver (80s show)
Cosmos
October Sky
Iron Man
The Astronaut Farmer
Flight of the Phoenix
Something Ventured
Now if I can only figure out how to get a team behind me like in those movies... :)
Should maybe have done this earlier but adding a few of the ones I've already watched.
Technical Motivation:
- Silicon Valley (TV show, 2014-2019)
- The Social Network (2010)
- The Imitation Game (2014)
- Halt & Catch Fire (TV show, 2014-2017)
- Iron Man (2008)
- Primer (2004)
- The Martian (2015)
- Hidden Figures (2016)
- Flight of the Phoenix (1965 original or 2004 remake)
- The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
- Door to Door (2002) - Underrated straight-to-TV film about a man with cerebral palsy who wants to become a door-to-door salesman
- Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) - Pure sales, persistence and Pacino
- Salesman (1969 documentary) (As above, but instead of Pacino it's real door-to-door bible salesmen and what they go through)
- Mr Robot (2015-2019): probably the most thrilling and technically accurate depiction of technology and hacking ever put to a screen, but as someone else said it's also very dystopian and depressing, and not too motivational except in the brief bursts that they show Elliot setting up a hack. Either way no VisualBasic GUIs here.
- Flash of Genius (2008): about the inventor of the modern windshield wiper who had it stolen from Ford and sued them. The premise is motivational, but I personally found it more of a cautionary tale on what you can lose for your principles when you go up against the giants.
Same for Triumph Of The Nerds and its follow-up, Nerds 2.0.1 - A Brief History Of The Internet. Fascinating to hear what went on in the back rooms and halls of the people creating the Internet and Web. https://archive.org/details/nerds-2.0.1-a-brief-history-of-t...
Hackers Definitely some unrealistic Hollywood effects but, it's fun and is a good representation of how tech in the 90's felt.
Antitrust It's fun to see the obvious digs at Bill Gates. John "Maddog" Hall consulted on this film which is why you see things like Gnome on all the screens. I got to talk to him in the hall at a conference once right after Antitrust came out. Really interesting guy.
Sneakers: One of my all-time favorites. The premise wasn't super-realistic (guy figures out a back door to all encryption and murder ensues) but the technology of the time was otherwise pretty accurately represented, and the acting is superb.
You'll notice that all of these came out over 20 years ago. I haven't seen much since that captures the feeling of what being in technology felt like to me. People still had that sense from the 60's and 70's that technology could be used to make the world better. People really did want to use technology for more than making money off of ads and personal data.
My favourite fact is that they only had ~80 mins of film donated to them. This meant they couldn't afford retakes. Normally there's a ~10:1 ratio of shot film to final run length. With Primer and their constraints, they storyboarded everything in such detail and rehearsed so much that they managed to shoot just 74 minutes for a 72 minute run length.
If motivation were a battery you wouldn't try to recharge it and use it at the same time. It might get you a little more uptime but the stress leads to early failure.
Thank you for this. I've not thought of it in that way, but it is very accurate.
That's putting it mildly—the alignment Voyager used occurs once every 176 years! That we went from mucking around with sounding rockets in the New Mexico desert to venturing out of the solar system in a couple decades remains, in my opinion, the crowning technical achievement of humankind.
- Physics/Astonomy
- Nature
- Social
- Economy
- Informatics
- etc
They have awesome youtube channels, but I know only about the frenchs one (they probably have french, german and english)
There is no narrator for this documentary. All of the "narration" is from recorded tv, radio, and home movies from the time. It is really inspiring to watch humans overcome Earth's gravity to get to the Moon as it happened over 50 years ago.
[0] https://www.natgeotv.com/int/apollo-missions-to-the-moon
However it's also beneficial to have a dollop of reality on top of Iron Man fantasies. I think that docs like Indie Game and Startup.com must be on the first year CS cirriculum and a required viewing after Social Network. For many, it would help setting expectations a bit more straight.
It's funny, silly, totally 80s, but one of the best inspirational business movies out there. It is my go-to when in the same demotivated funk.
Spider-Man Homecoming: Probably low on the list, but I actually liked Vulture reverse engineering tech, cuts close to home.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi: More about the concept of shokunin and how deep it runs. Sushi is one of the simplest things out there, and Jiro makes it even simpler. And yet every piece is built to perfection - the rice, fish, and all the components down this supply chain from the fishermen to fish cleaner and rice merchant.
The movies Singin' in the Rain (1952) and The Artist (2011) are both about response to technological change: the introduction of sound into the movies. The classic noir Sunset Boulevard (1950) touches on a dark side of that.
The musical My Fair Lady (1956) is about education, science, and technology for personal and social transformation. The movie version (1964) shows some early sound recording technology to comic effect.
War Games
Real Genius
Any of the 'How it's made' series.
- the recent Apollo 11 movie with restored footage
- in the shadow of the moon documentary (and the related Moon machines series), awesome music as well
- Moonwalk one
It's a documentary. Worth the time.
In the space race era, two Italian brothers mount a big antenna in their house with a RF transceiver to communicate with those in the outer space.
They not only talked with some astronauts, but also keep a really good register of what they done, even some controversial things like a Russian person who died in a mission that no newspaper informed about in that time.
Connections - James Burke
The Origins of Precision - Machine Thought - Youtube
MacGyver - 1980s TV show
Discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28942285
Inspiration: Free Solo (watching someone with singular focus that achieves excellence, it's absolutely incredible)
Tech: meh, not sure much does it here. Tons of entertaining stuff, but not sure what else. Sorkin is good I guess: Steve Jobs and The Social Network.
Moneyball Margin Call Limitless The Big Short Wolf of Wall Street That Fyre documentary and at Christmas - Trading Places
- Sneakers (1993)
- Antitrust (2001)
- The Godfather (1972)
- Mindwalk (1990)
- Groundhog Day (1993)
- Finding Forrester (2000)
- Startup.com (2001)
- Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)
- A Knight's Tale (2001)
- Tron (1982)
- Wargames (1983)
- Quigley Down Under (1990)
- True Grit (2010 (or 1969, but the 2010 is better (imho))
- Ender's Game (2013)
- The Space Between Us (2017)
- Hackers (1995)
- Apollo 13 (1995)
- Twister (1996)
- The Matrix (1999)
- Sharknado (2013)
- Dark Passage (1947)
- Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
- The Dreamer of Oz (1990)
There're a few to get you going :)
I tend to agree with Elon Musk, he said: "If you need inspiring words, don't do it." [0]
[0] https://www.facebook.com/drivelinebaseball/videos/if-you-nee...
Mr. Robot Who am I (a movie, which is released a bit earlier than Mr. Robot but eerily similar)
Leaving aside all the technical correctness especially on Mr. Robot, they both inspired me a lot.
- Hamilton
- Jiro Dreams of Sushi
- Senna
- Band of Brothers
- A Beautiful Mind
- The Theory of Everything
I tend to agree with Elon Musk, he said: "If you need inspiring words, don't do it." [0]
[0] https://www.facebook.com/drivelinebaseball/videos/if-you-nee...