Ignition!
Ignition! by John D. Clarkby John D. Clark
Shares rank 28 of 51 history books by recommenders
Recommended for an engaging look at how rocket engineers worked in the past, especially their very different safety culture.
Recommended for an engaging look at how rocket engineers worked in the past, especially their very different safety culture.
5 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 4
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 80%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 4 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Shows how engineering was done back then
“it is generally very good in giving you a sense of how different (and similar) the engineering job was back in the day”
Comment from 20 Oct 2026 in “Demographic "doomsday" misses the mark” Interesting account of past safety culture
“Most interesting, and amusing (in a morbid way), is the quite different culture of safety”
Comment from 1 Apr 2026 in “Artemis II is not safe to fly” Covers these issues, highly recommended
“both of which cover these issues. Highly recommended.”
Comment from 11 Apr 2026 in “Artemis II safely splashes down” Gives insight into the why
“This book gives you some insights into the why”
Comment from 15 Mar 2026 in “$96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor”
Other history books people recommend
The four most recommended other history books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Dawn of Everythingby David Graeber and David Wengrow | 23 | 5 | 82% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Cadillac Desertby Marc Reisner | 18 | 0 | 100% | 11 | — | Approved |
| The Boxby Marc Levinson | 16 | 0 | 100% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Sapiensby Yuval Noah Harari | 13 | 9 | 59% | 8 | — | — |
| Ignition!by John D. ClarkThis page | 4 | 1 | 80% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
All 5 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it is generally very good in giving you a sense of how different (and similar) the engineering job was back in the day”
“both of which cover these issues. Highly recommended.”
“Most interesting, and amusing (in a morbid way), is the quite different culture of safety”
“This book gives you some insights into the why”
“I found working with normal `dnf` and normal config files much easier than dealing with Ignition and Butane.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.