Good books about a long and difficult journey to competence and success
October 30, 2023 3:58 PM Subscribe
I'm looking for books/stories about the journey of a protagonist who is incompetent and unskilled, puts in a lot of work, makes a ton of mistakes, and slowly and painfully gains skill and competence. Snowflake details below..
I'm looking for:
- Fiction or non-fiction
- The more detail, the better
- Preferably no fantasy (or fables or fairytales)
- Preferably books written for adults not kids (e.g. NOT these books)
I'm looking for:
- Fiction or non-fiction
- The more detail, the better
- Preferably no fantasy (or fables or fairytales)
- Preferably books written for adults not kids (e.g. NOT these books)
I haven't finished it yet, but Tokyo Vice (American crime reporter in Japan) seems to be in this category.
posted by praemunire at 5:42 PM on October 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by praemunire at 5:42 PM on October 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
Shopgirl a very good novel written by Steve Martin (yes that Steve Martin). Th movie is also pretty good.
posted by forkisbetter at 6:28 PM on October 30, 2023
posted by forkisbetter at 6:28 PM on October 30, 2023
A somewhat critical take on this: Keep The Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell.
posted by splitpeasoup at 7:16 PM on October 30, 2023
posted by splitpeasoup at 7:16 PM on October 30, 2023
* The Power Broker by Robert Caro - Exceptionally detailed account of Robert Moses going from a smart kid to the most powerful person in New York by learning how to work a bureaucracy
* Roots by Alex Haley - A few growth stories, but Kunta learning to be a man and Chicken George learning to cockfight are first to mind
* Wild by Cheryl Strayed - Cheryl learned to hike starting from scratch, though perhaps more focused on personal growth than hiking expertise
posted by matrixclown at 7:39 PM on October 30, 2023
* Roots by Alex Haley - A few growth stories, but Kunta learning to be a man and Chicken George learning to cockfight are first to mind
* Wild by Cheryl Strayed - Cheryl learned to hike starting from scratch, though perhaps more focused on personal growth than hiking expertise
posted by matrixclown at 7:39 PM on October 30, 2023
the great influenza follows a research scientist whose entire career seemed a failure, until he found the thing.
of course, that's a sub-narrative of the main story.
posted by j_curiouser at 8:53 PM on October 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
of course, that's a sub-narrative of the main story.
posted by j_curiouser at 8:53 PM on October 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
One L, Scott Turow, about the 1st year at Harvard Law. Very engaging.
posted by theora55 at 10:08 PM on October 30, 2023
posted by theora55 at 10:08 PM on October 30, 2023
Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold has quite a lot about the protagonist's learning to be a great stage magician.
posted by crocomancer at 2:35 AM on October 31, 2023
posted by crocomancer at 2:35 AM on October 31, 2023
H is for Hawk follows the author as she makes mistakes and learns how to care for and train a goshawk. It is one of the best books I've read.
In The Biggest Bluff, the author (who has never played poker) becomes a tournament poker player.
posted by quadrilaterals at 6:40 AM on October 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
In The Biggest Bluff, the author (who has never played poker) becomes a tournament poker player.
posted by quadrilaterals at 6:40 AM on October 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
Seconding the memoirs "Educated" and "One L". Also the novel "China Mountain Zhang" by Maureen McHugh.
posted by brainwane at 7:24 AM on October 31, 2023
posted by brainwane at 7:24 AM on October 31, 2023
The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay is very much in this mold.
posted by jdroth at 8:27 AM on October 31, 2023
posted by jdroth at 8:27 AM on October 31, 2023
I think Julie and Julia by Julie Powell fits this description
posted by Jenny'sCricket at 8:53 AM on October 31, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Jenny'sCricket at 8:53 AM on October 31, 2023 [3 favorites]
Endurance, by Scott Kelly (astronaut)
A warning about "Educated" - a LOT of that book is about her very difficult upbringing in a fundamentalist family. The parts about her education are pretty light on detail IMO. It does go into her emotional journey pretty well though.
posted by bluesky78987 at 12:52 PM on October 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
A warning about "Educated" - a LOT of that book is about her very difficult upbringing in a fundamentalist family. The parts about her education are pretty light on detail IMO. It does go into her emotional journey pretty well though.
posted by bluesky78987 at 12:52 PM on October 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
Strong Medicine by Arthur Hailey might fit the bill, but YMMV. It is a story about one protagonist's rise from pharmaceutical saleswoman to CEO of a big pharma company. She makes plenty of mistakes and learn a lot along the way - the book goes into a satisfying amount of detail about each rung of her rise and doesn't handwave her rise to success - literally the whole book is about how she rises every step of the way. HOWEVER it is also "competence porn" (which is what always pisses me off slightly about book protagonists). I cannot imagine describing the protagonist as "incompetent" or "unskilled" at any point in the book, even in the very beginning. On the contrary she is ridiculously competent - not to mention lucky - every step of the way, though not in a prescient way or anything where she knows it all before she can know it all. IDK I have mixed feelings about this as you can tell but it might fit the bill.
posted by MiraK at 1:51 PM on October 31, 2023
posted by MiraK at 1:51 PM on October 31, 2023
On re-reading your question, let me remove all the caveats and say that Strong Medicine is likely exactly what you're looking for. (I think I misinterpreted some of your requirements earlier, you don't mean them the way I thought you meant them.)
I think you'll find Arthur Hailey's books interesting. For example, The Final Diagnosis is a fascinating look into the lifetime careers of hospital doctors, spanning several years chronicling the rise of one newbie doctor struggling with narcissistic tendencies facing off against the department lead who is a man at the end of his career.
Other books such as Airport and The Evening News are more focused on short periods/single events and dive deep into the work of airport managers and air traffic controllers, or TV journalists (respectively).
posted by MiraK at 1:58 PM on October 31, 2023
I think you'll find Arthur Hailey's books interesting. For example, The Final Diagnosis is a fascinating look into the lifetime careers of hospital doctors, spanning several years chronicling the rise of one newbie doctor struggling with narcissistic tendencies facing off against the department lead who is a man at the end of his career.
Other books such as Airport and The Evening News are more focused on short periods/single events and dive deep into the work of airport managers and air traffic controllers, or TV journalists (respectively).
posted by MiraK at 1:58 PM on October 31, 2023
Oh, and how about Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer - one of the two protagonists (Abel Rosnovski) has a story arc that fits your requirements perfectly.
On a completely different note, I think Les Miserables also meets your criteria very well an is a much better book than any I've mentioned so far :)
posted by MiraK at 2:52 PM on October 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
On a completely different note, I think Les Miserables also meets your criteria very well an is a much better book than any I've mentioned so far :)
posted by MiraK at 2:52 PM on October 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm late to this, but I wanted to suggest Diana Nyad's memoir Find a Way. It details all the times she failed at her dream of swimming from Cuba to Florida - she failed four times before finally doing it at the age of 64. Each time she failed, she and her team had to figure out what went wrong and what they should do differently the next time. The last time, the people who had worked with her told her that she should n'teven try again.
I'm not sure that this fits your criteria of starting out inept - I don't remember the details of her early life well enough. But it's very inspiring to see how she kept trying even after multiple failures. And I love that she was 64 when she finally did it.
posted by FencingGal at 8:20 AM on November 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
I'm not sure that this fits your criteria of starting out inept - I don't remember the details of her early life well enough. But it's very inspiring to see how she kept trying even after multiple failures. And I love that she was 64 when she finally did it.
posted by FencingGal at 8:20 AM on November 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
Spaceman, Mike Massimino. He was rejected from NASA multiple times and once he made it in he really had to work hard. Not at all your typical image of an astronaut!
posted by librarylis at 10:02 PM on November 21, 2023
posted by librarylis at 10:02 PM on November 21, 2023
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