The best biographies, according to hackers
9 biographies were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one. None of them earns the Hacker Approved badge yet.
All 9 biographies, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Man from the Futureby Ananyo Bhattacharya | 9 | 1 | 90% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 2 | Steve Jobs in Exileby Geoffrey Cain | 7 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 2 | Steve Jobs and the NeXT Big Thingby Randall E. Stross | 7 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 4 | The Years of Lyndon Johnsonby Robert A. Caro | 6 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 4 | The Infinity Machineby Sebastian Mallaby | 6 | 1 | 86% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 4 | Mountains Beyond Mountainsby Tracy Kidder | 6 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
| Tied 7 | Elon Muskby Walter Isaacson | 4 | 5 | 44% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 7 | Becoming Steve Jobsby Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli | 4 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
| 9 | The Path to Powerby Robert A. Caro | 3 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same biography in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to biographies that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
Rankings are never for sale. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. It never changes the order.