Hackers and Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age
By Paul Graham
You can view this book's Amazon detail page here.
Tags: creative process, software
- Started reading:
- 23rd August 2008
- Finished reading:
- 13th September 2008
Review
Rating: 9
Hackers and Painters celebrates the life of the hacker and celebrates their work as that of the great artists. To Paul Graham, real hackers undergo the same creative process as their “liberal arts” colleagues. Mr. Graham argues that the process of design, and refinement are the same for both artists and hackers.
Written in a conversational style, this book exposes many aspects of the hacker personality and encourages you to think differently about the phenomenon. Why are hackers unpopular in high school? How do you generate real “wealth”? What IS real wealth? How do you use technology as a lever? After discussing these topics, it homes in on programming languages - the science, the tool, and it’s future. Paul also talks about what the perfect programming language would be as seen in the eyes of a hacker.
Pick this book up if you are a technologist and want to be inspired about fostering your own creative process.