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

by Paul Graham (Author)

111 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.

Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age

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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.

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Product details

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: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (111 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #193,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #41 in Books > Textbooks > Computer Science > Algorithms
- #53 in Books > Computers & Technology > Computer Science > Information Theory
- #115 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Algorithms

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Customer Reviews

111

4.2 out of 5 stars

5 star		58%
4 star		19%
3 star		11%
2 star		8%
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Top Customer Reviews

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

ByDu Nguyenon 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.

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A fun read

ByBas Voddeon 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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Founders You Need This Guy

ByGina Lynchon 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.

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PG for the win

ByJonathan Pepinon February 17, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I'm a devbootcamp alum, and while I was there, surrounded by dozens of super smart people, the majority of them, me included, were strongly agreeing on one point:
No matter if they were already successful or not in a career before, in a past life, or just trying to figure out what to do in their life, Paul Graham was the one that made us make the decision about going into programming. He writes so well, and knows so much, that it's easy for him to convince you that programming is the way to go (if your meant to be of course).
And I'm sure that this books can be related to any other career you're looking into.

a must read.

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Essential reading for technology age. PG is one of ...

Bytheadooron May 28, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Essential reading for technology age. PG is one of the few persons who are masters in both art and technology and the depth of his understanding for the two trades really shines through his writing.

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Paul Graham is a great thinker, this book is filled with fascinating insights

ByRamoneon August 11, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Paul Graham is a great thinker, this book is filled with fascinating insights. Do note that he's not always right - there are a few small things he says that demonstrate some kind of misunderstanding - but overall it's pretty bloody great. If you're not into Software, just skip the couple of chapters on that - even my Mum loved this book.

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Various Essays from a Hacker's Point of View

ByRandall Deggeson 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.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

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Published 10 months ago by Zihan Zhang

Going to read again! So cool!

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Published 11 months ago by Amazon Customer

An interesting read, but somewhat repetitive and incoherent at times.

Interesting read, but a bit of a let down. Given its reputation and the high expectations that follow, I expected much more.Read more

Published 11 months ago by Dimosthenis Kaponis

One chapter was all about how web based applications were going to be the future - maybe this would have been amazing to read te

Only a few of the chapters were worth reading. One chapter was all about how web based applications were going to be the future - maybe this would have been amazing to read ten...Read more

Published 1 year ago by Kevin Stubbs

Good

Really easy to read and to understand the concept of software development. I love how Paul organically connect painting with programming.Read more

Published 1 year ago by Hanyu Jiang

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