You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
54 reviews for:
Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age
Paul Graham, Allen Noren, Matt Hutchinson
3.79 AVERAGE
54 reviews for:
Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age
Paul Graham, Allen Noren, Matt Hutchinson
3.79 AVERAGE
Very interestingly. Not sure if it will appeal to many non-IT readers.
I could probably say many things about this book. But all I will say right now is: it provides a clear conception of what it means to be a hacker.
(Mon 07 Feb 2022 04:50:14 AM CST)
(Mon 07 Feb 2022 04:50:14 AM CST)
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.
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.
Big ideas here. Takes a while to read if you stop to absorb the content. Worth a read for most everyone, programmers especially.
I wish I had read this book in college when it came out. I don't agree with everything he puts forth, but [a:Paul Graham|23551|Paul Graham|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1235405249p2/23551.jpg] has a clear writing style and an internally consistent and logical world view (kind of like when Project Runway contestants have the much lauded by judges' "point of view" but the good kind, not the kind when you think everything is just consistently ugly and over the top...ahem Josh McKinley). He's also brilliant and an original thinker. People mention the "Why Nerds Are Unpopular" essay frequently but I prefer the "How to Make Wealth" essay. Also, this was first published in 2004 and in a footnote, he tosses off: "If Apple were to grow the iPod into a cell phone with a web browser, Microsoft would be in big trouble." (iPhone was announced in 2007) I would love to see a 10 year anniversary update to it.
This is recommended if you're interested the development of technology at all and have any libertarian inclinations (another footnote: "Part of the reason this subject is so contentious is that some of the most vocal on the subject of wealth [as defined by creating something that people want]--university students, heirs, professors, politicians, and journalists--have the least experience creating it. This phenomenon will be familiar to anyone who has overhead conversations about sports in a bar." In another section, he casually tosses off a line about how being able to create wealth line by line in writing a program is probably why most programmers are libertarians). I think you can actually read most (if not all?) of the essays on his site here http://paulgraham.com/articles.html but it's nice to have them collected into a book. I started with the "How to Do What You Love" essay, which is probably a good a place as any to get an overall sense of what his essays are like.
This is recommended if you're interested the development of technology at all and have any libertarian inclinations (another footnote: "Part of the reason this subject is so contentious is that some of the most vocal on the subject of wealth [as defined by creating something that people want]--university students, heirs, professors, politicians, and journalists--have the least experience creating it. This phenomenon will be familiar to anyone who has overhead conversations about sports in a bar." In another section, he casually tosses off a line about how being able to create wealth line by line in writing a program is probably why most programmers are libertarians). I think you can actually read most (if not all?) of the essays on his site here http://paulgraham.com/articles.html but it's nice to have them collected into a book. I started with the "How to Do What You Love" essay, which is probably a good a place as any to get an overall sense of what his essays are like.
This was a very different "book"; Hackers & Painters is a collection of essays by Paul Graham on topics ranging from startups to creating wealth to programming languages. The best part about the book is that each chapter is independent and you can jump around without FOMO. I take 2 stars away because while PG talks about some big controversial ideas, he doesn't actually provide enough evidence to make the claims stand in many places. And so as a reader I fail to understand how exactly PG is thinking and why. Still an interesting read if you have a few hours to kill.
I had serious problems with this book. So Paul Graham is a successful Lisp hacker who made a lot of money from his start-up. Good for him. To be sure, this earns him some credibility in discussing languages and start-ups. Unfortunately, he takes it upon himself to extrapolate from this single data point to universal laws of what makes you successful. Moreover, he seems to think that his success as a geek entrepreneur somehow lends validity to whatever unsubstantiated thoughts, feelings and prejudices he may cook up, including some completely ridiculous views on the general superiority of geeks over regular people. The only reason so many of his readers seem to accept these views must be that he's preaching to the choir: certainly his geek audience would dearly like them to be true. His arcane and naive notions of art and aesthetics are too embarrassing to even discuss. Oh, and the smugness is just insufferable.
The first half of the book was quite good. Later, however, with essays on spam and language design I quickly lost interest. I might have felt different if this topics excited me.
I thought this was a good read. The various essays do make you think regardless of agreement with the author.
As another person who enjoys Lisps (even though I lack a ton of experience with them) I enjoyed Graham's reasons to use the language.
As another person who enjoys Lisps (even though I lack a ton of experience with them) I enjoyed Graham's reasons to use the language.