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kwugirl 's review for:
Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age
by Paul Graham
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.