Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age 1st Edition

by Paul Graham (Author)

113 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-1449389550

ISBN-10: 1449389554

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"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.

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Editorial Reviews

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.

Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (June 7, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1449389554
ISBN-13: 978-1449389550
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 113 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #58,679 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #20 in Books > Textbooks > Computer Science > Algorithms
- #21 in Books > Computers & Technology > Computer Science > Information Theory
- #42 in Books > Computers & Technology > Operating Systems > Linux

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Du Nguyen

Hackers and painters is a book which reads like a collection of random essays

January 4, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Hackers and painters is a book written by Paul Graham who ran a startup in the 1990’s which was later sold to Yahoo. He is now running Y Combinator.

Hackers and painters is a book which reads like a collection of random essays. The first few chapters is about the start of computing and about childhood while later chapters are about both starting a startup and socioeconomic policies. The last chapters are about programming languages where he strongly argues for lisp.

Anyone so have read one of his essays know how well articulate Graham can be and the this book is no exception. The chapters themselves are really well written even though he sometimes argues unconvincingly.

In the end I did not feel that this book was anything else than a collection of essays and while some are interesting, it does not save the entire book. A stronger focus and some narrative between the chapters would improve this book immensely.

10 people found this helpful11 people found this helpful

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Gina Lynch, Tomorrows Tech Podcast

Founders You Need This Guy

September 17, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Not to get too personal but Paul's essays speak to my soul. His blog is the first one i recommend for founders and one I keep going back to.

Oh the chapter about nerds! oh my. Growing up a severe bookworm I always felt traditional schooling was the kid version of the shawshank redemption. Apparently I wasn't the only one.

What this Paul fellow is doing with his ycombinator startup monopoly in Silicon Valley is fixing the inefficiencies of a broken school system and sharing the education on his blog and youtube.

If you haven't seen Stanford CS -183b (his is lecture 3) it is a refreshing reminder of where the focus should be ~ learning how to create things people actually want not gaming and tricking the system with a bunch of hype.

4 people found this helpful5 people found this helpful

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Bas Vodde

A fun read

January 1, 2009

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Paul Graham's "Hackers and Painters" is a collection of separate articles from Paul. The articles are well written and funny, though I frequently did not agree with the content. Since one of the earlier articles was on censorship, I'd say... that was probably the intention :)

The first article is triggered by Pauls growing up and asks why nerds are unpopular when you are younger. He explores memories of his childhood and tries to clarify them. He continues with a article after which the book is named. He explains that he has *some* education in painting and explores the similarity between hacking and painting.

The next couple chapters are an attack to taboos in general. What can we say? Why can we say that? And he claims that hackers are more comfortable breaking taboos, breaking the rules.

In the article "The road ahead" he is making predictions related to web-based server software, of which some are insightful (or were insightful). He claims that server-based software will be the future and the recent years have certainly shown that to be true.

The next couple of articles relate to capitalism and I did disagree with a lot of the statements he made in here. Though, often his points are carefully crafts.. here I found them simplistic. It annoyed me and even thought about stop reading it. The well-written-ness made me continue though.

The middle of the book contains an article about spam. This one doesn't fit well in the book and could have better left out, in my opinion.

The last articles in the book relate to programming languages and were fun to read. Paul is a serious Lisp fan and tries to argue about programming languages in such a way that it always supports his chose of lisp. He does make a couple of good points.

All in all, I've enjoyed reading "Hackers & Painters". Its an easy read with interesting strong opinions from Paul. I'd rate it between 3 and 4 stars, mainly because the amount of learning is not high. Though, I remember some articles got me laughing out loud, so decided to go for a 4. Worth reading if you like strong opinions relate to hacker cultures.

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Randall Degges

Various Essays from a Hacker's Point of View

January 3, 2011

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Disclaimer: I'm a big fan of Paul Graham's writing and works. I've been reading his blog for ages, and am a somewhat obsessive reader of his website Hacker News.

I recently decided to purchase and read Graham's book, "Hackers & Painters", to casually read through some of his favorite essays. This book is comprised of 15 of Graham's essays pulled from his blog, which he updates several times a year. The topics of his essays are diverse, but all represent a hacker's point of view.

What makes this book worth reading is that you get inside of Paul Graham's mind. He has an amazingly clear writing style (one that I am extremely fond of), and is able to walk you through his thoughts and arguments in a clear manner.

If you're at all interested in entrepreneurship, technology, or programming, I would give this book a read. It can be read casually in a day or so, and will make you think deeply about the topics discussed for weeks afterwards.

One person found this helpful2 people found this helpful

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James W. Ingersoll

I enjoyed this book so much the first time I read ...

October 12, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I enjoyed this book so much the first time I read it that I decided to get a copy for my friend.

3 people found this helpful4 people found this helpful

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NicNic8

Hidden powers

July 6, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book, purportedly about some aspects of programming, provides wonderful examples of the power of small teams that trust each other.

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Amazon Customer

Going to read again! So cool!

June 22, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This book is really good. This book is well written for the non computer literate person. I finished it in about 2 days. Paul is a awesome writer and I'm going to buy some more books of his! I'm going to read this book again. One last thing, the essays in this book are awesome!

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Sergio

Must read for founders

December 30, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I enjoyed the book. It's got good advice for hackers that are trying to start their own startup for business or for fun. I guess it's advice you get when your in YC just not personalized for your startup.

Even for non hackers it's a good book to understand that approach and how important is to have that technical founder in your startup.

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