Hackers & Painters

Hackers & Painters

by Paul Graham
Released May 2004
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9780596006624

Explore a preview version of Hackers & Painters right now.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to live online training experiences, plus books, videos, and digital content from 200+ publishers.

Buy on Amazon
Start your free trial

Book description

"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.

Publisher resources

View/Submit Errata

Table of contents

  1. Dedication
  2. Acknowledgments
  3. Image Credits
  4. Note to readers
  5. Preface
  6. 1. Why Nerds Are Unpopular
  7. 2. Hackers and Painters
  8. 3. What You Can’t Say
    1. 3.1. The Conformist Test
    2. 3.2. Trouble
    3. 3.3. Heresy
    4. 3.4. Time and Space
    5. 3.5. Prigs
    6. 3.6. Mechanism
    7. 3.7. Why
    8. 3.8. Pensieri Stretti
    9. 3.9. Viso Sciolto?
    10. 3.10. Always Be Questioning
  9. 4. Good Bad Attitude
  10. 5. The Other Road Ahead
    1. 5.1. The Next Thing?
    2. 5.2. The Win for Users
    3. 5.3. City of Code
    4. 5.4. Releases
    5. 5.5. Bugs
    6. 5.6. Support
    7. 5.7. Morale
    8. 5.8. Brooks in Reverse
    9. 5.9. Watching Users
    10. 5.10. Money
    11. 5.11. Customers
    12. 5.12. Son of Server
    13. 5.13. Microsoft
    14. 5.14. Startups but More So
    15. 5.15. Just Good Enough
    16. 5.16. Why Not?
  11. 6. How to Make Wealth
    1. 6.1. The Proposition
    2. 6.2. Millions, not Billions
    3. 6.3. Money Is Not Wealth
    4. 6.4. The Pie Fallacy
    5. 6.5. Craftsmen
    6. 6.6. What a Job Is
    7. 6.7. Working Harder
    8. 6.8. Measurement and Leverage
    9. 6.9. Smallness = Measurement
    10. 6.10. Technology = Leverage
    11. 6.11. The Catch(es)
    12. 6.12. Get Users
    13. 6.13. Wealth and Power
  12. 7. Mind the Gap
    1. 7.1. The Daddy Model of Wealth
    2. 7.2. Stealing It
    3. 7.3. The Lever of Technology
    4. 7.4. Alternative to an Axiom
  13. 8. A Plan for Spam
  14. 9. Taste for Makers
  15. 10. Programming Languages Explained
    1. 10.1. Machine Language
    2. 10.2. High-Level Languages
    3. 10.3. Open Source
    4. 10.4. Language Wars
    5. 10.5. Abstractness
    6. 10.6. Seat Belts or Handcuffs?
    7. 10.7. OO
    8. 10.8. Renaissance
  16. 11. The Hundred-Year Language
  17. 12. Beating the Averages
    1. 12.1. The Secret Weapon
    2. 12.2. The Blub Paradox
    3. 12.3. Aikido for Startups
  18. 13. Revenge of the Nerds
    1. 13.1. Catching Up with Math
    2. 13.2. What Made Lisp Different
    3. 13.3. Where Languages Matter
    4. 13.4. Centripetal Forces
    5. 13.5. The Cost of Being Average
    6. 13.6. A Recipe
    7. 13.7. Appendix: Power
  19. 14. The Dream Language
    1. 14.1. The Mechanics of Popularity
    2. 14.2. External Factors
    3. 14.3. Succinctness
    4. 14.4. Hackability
    5. 14.5. Throwaway Programs
    6. 14.6. Libraries
    7. 14.7. Efficiency
    8. 14.8. Time
    9. 14.9. Redesign
    10. 14.10. The Dream Language
  20. 15. Design and Research
  21. A. Notes
    1. Chapter 1
    2. Chapter 2
    3. Chapter 3
    4. Chapter 4
    5. Chapter 5
    6. Chapter 6
    7. Chapter 7
    8. Chapter 8
    9. Chapter 9
    10. Chapter 10
    11. Chapter 11
    12. Chapter 12
    13. Chapter 13
    14. Chapter 14
  22. Glossary
  23. About the Author
  24. Copyright

Product information

  • Title: Hackers & Painters
  • Author(s): Paul Graham
  • Release date: May 2004
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9780596006624