Hackers & painters : big ideas from the computer age

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"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.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This book, written by Graham, cocreator of the seminal server-based program Viaweb, the prototype of Yahoo!Store, is indeed full of ideas. There are suggestions to successfully launch a startup company; an explanation of why nerds are unpopular; a method of filtering out spam; the probing of the psyche of a hacker, as "expert programmers refer to themselves"; a chapter on principles of good program design. The writing is precise and seemingly effortless, exceptional for a self-professed hacker. But Graham does not succeed in his aim "to explain to the world at large what goes on in the world of computers." The reason is that hackers rarely recognize how foreign their world is to the layperson. The discussion of programming languages, for instance, is a brilliant tour-de-force ranging from object code to LISP and beyond. Yet, captivating as it must be to the computer-savvy, the uninitiated will not comprehend. An introduction to programming languages and some examples ("hello world" in several languages?) would have helped. But for computer scientists and hackers alike, this book should be a challenge and an inspiration. Extensive notes; good glossary; detailed index. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals. J. Mayer emeritus, Lebanon Valley College