Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age

Paul Graham

"O'Reilly Media, Inc.", May 18, 2004 - Computers - 258 pages

"The computer world is like an intellectual Wild West, in which you can shoot anyone you wish with your ideas, if you're willing to risk the consequences. " --from Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age, by Paul Graham

We are living in the computer age, in a world increasingly designed and engineered by computer programmers and software designers, by people who call themselves hackers. Who are these people, what motivates them, and why should you care?

Consider these facts: Everything around us is turning into computers. Your typewriter is gone, replaced by a computer. Your phone has turned into a computer. So has your camera. Soon your TV will. Your car was not only designed on computers, but has more processing power in it than a room-sized mainframe did in 1970. Letters, encyclopedias, newspapers, and even your local store are being replaced by the Internet.

Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age, by Paul Graham, explains this world and the motivations of the people who occupy it. In clear, thoughtful prose that draws on illuminating historical examples, Graham takes readers on an unflinching exploration into what he calls "an intellectual Wild West."

The ideas discussed in this book will have a powerful and lasting impact on how we think, how we work, how we develop technology, and how we live. Topics include the importance of beauty in software design, how to make wealth, heresy and free speech, the programming language renaissance, the open-source movement, digital design, internet startups, and more.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - The-Social-Hermit - LibraryThing

A little boring, far from a page turner, but otherwise entertaining book that let you rethink that nerds are a creative species but that creative people aren't necessarily nerds. Programming goes beyond a profession, it is a devotion.

Awesome book

User Review  - Albert L. - Overstock.com

The author has a lot of insight. I encourage him to look beyond the containers of wealth and ego and for him to encourage his colleagues particularly Peter Thiel and Sam Altman to do the same.

Contents

• Why Nerds Are Unpopular: 1
• Hackers and Painters: 18
• What You Cant Say: 34
• Good Bad Attitude: 50
• The Other Road Ahead: 56
• How to Make Wealth: 87
• Mind the Gap: 109
• A Plan for Spam: 121
• Taste for Makers: 130
• Programming Languages Explained: 146
• The HundredYear Language: 155
• Beating the Averages: 169
• Revenge of the Nerds: 181
• The Dream Language: 200
• Design and Research: 216
• Notes: 223
• Acknowledgments: 237
• Image Credits: 239
• Glossary: 241
• Index: 251

About the author

Paul Graham , designer of the new Arc language, was the creator of Yahoo Store, the first web-based application. His technique for spam filtering inspired most current filters. He has a PhD in Computer Science from Harvard and studied painting at RISD and the Accademia in Florence.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age; O'Reilly Series
• Author: Paul Graham
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc.", 2004
• ISBN: 0596006624, 9780596006624
• Length: 258 pages
• Subjects: Computers / General; Computers / Information Technology; Computers / Information Theory; Computers / Internet / General; Computers / Operating Systems / Linux; Computers / Programming / Algorithms; Computers / Social Aspects