|
Hackers and Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age :: 0596006624
Description
| Product 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. And here's a taste of what you'll find in Hackers & Painters: "In most fields the great work is done early on. The paintings made between 1430 and 1500 are still unsurpassed. Shakespeare appeared just as professional theater was being born, and pushed the medium so far that every playwright since has had to live in his shadow. Albrecht Durer did the same thing with engraving, and Jane Austen with the novel. Over and over we see the same pattern. A new medium appears, and people are so excited about it that they explore most of its possibilities in the first couple generations. Hacking seems to be in this phase now. Painting was not, in Leonardo's time, as cool as his work helped make it. How cool hacking turns out to be will depend on what we can do with this new medium." Andy Hertzfeld, co-creator of the Macintosh computer, says about Hackers & Painters: "Paul Graham is a hacker, painter and a terrific writer. His lucid, humorous prose is brimming with contrarian insight and practical wisdom on writing great code at the intersection of art, science and commerce." Paul Graham, designer of the new Arc language, was the creator of Yahoo Store, the first web-based application. In addition to his PhD in Computer Science from Harvard, Graham also studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. Editorial Descriptions are usually submitted by the manufacturers, publishers and authors. Contact us if you are one of them, and wish to change the above description. |
Reviews
Customer feedback
|
|
Voting |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Author: Guest
In "Hackers and Painters," Paul Graham presents 15 essays on topics that are variously related to computer programming. Graham has two major accomplishments to his name in the hacking world: He was one of the architects of Viaweb, an internet startup which ultimately became Yahoo Shops, and one of the first succesful hosted web applications. He was also one of the first to talk about applying Bayesian filtering to the spam problem; Bayesian filtering has arguably been the most successful technique for reducing spam in individual mailboxes.
I'd advise prospective readers of this book to skip chapters 1, 3, 6 and 7, at least until after you've read the rest of the book. These four essays are the weakest in the book, and having them clustered near the beginning almost made me put the book down and stop reading.
I'm glad I didn't stop, though. The chapters on software development are excellent; Graham provides some of the best insight I've seen into how programmers think. Programmers will find useful ideas that can be applied to their work; non-programmers may get an insight into how programmers think.
The last seven chapters are particularly well done; in these, Graham discusses the nitty-gritty details of program design, choice of programming languages, and design of programming languages. Graham is occasionally arrogant, but his arrogance here comes from experience and success; although not everyone may agree with his arguments about the superiority of LISP over every other programming language, one can at least recognize the thoroughness of the discussion and draw one's own conclusions.
The four essays I mentioned above, by contrast, are much more poorly edited. In particular, I found Graham's economic arguments to be particularly clumsy in their lack of acknowledgement of any other points of view. It's not that Graham's wrong-- I agree with many of his ideas-- but particularly in these somewhat political chapters, he wields his words more like a blunt instrument than like a musical one.
|
Author: Guest
Graham's book is indeed well written (most parts), but the author seems to really appreciate himself a much more than he's actually worth. He made a successful internet startup during the dotcom era, and discovered the usefulness of bayesian data analysis to fight spam. That's it.
What makes him average, is that 1) he treats other people's ideas less worth than his own, and 2) his views are fixed to the One True Way (which is often also different than the way of the others). This is a combination of elitism and ignorance -- and also exactly what he is proclaiming against.
The author writes about ideas that he believes being 'heretic', or unspeakable. Things that cannot be said in public. Personally, I find some of these ideas just small, interesting steps of intellectual exploring. The rest of the opinions are just plain conservative - to the European reader at least.
I believe that this book would be a good read to the average middle manager of a big software development company. After this book you might know a little bit more about how computer programmers think. For hackers, go to the author's website and see the essays there.
|
Author: Guest
I'm an experiensed software developer and to me reading this book was absolutely refreshing. It won't teach you anything in particular but it will feed your mind and curiosity great deal - just one needs after years of office work.
This book is a collection of assorted essays, each covering some more or less software-related topic, like history of arts (huh ?). Political correctness, design of things, nerds' life and simply ways of life made their way into this marvellous book.
Some author's points are controversial, while to some I couldn't agree more. The magic part is that the author's judgements are based on not just what he knows or believes, but also on what he feels for no particular reason, and this is the approach I fully appreciate. Only the best books make your mind feel free, and this is one of them.
|
Author: Guest
For the past few months I've taken to reading all of Paul Graham's essays on his website and eventually devided to get this book. The writing is top-notch to be sure. He even inspired me to pick up a Lisp dialect (Scheme). I just have two gripes about this book though. First is that you only get a few more essays that he does not publish on his website. I knew this when I bought the book, but I don't think that the essays that can be only found in his book are wholly that remarkable. Second, I wish the footnotes could be found at the bottom of each page, or maybe even at the end of each chapter instead of all grouped at the end of the book. Other than that I was very impressed by the book.
|
Author: Guest
first off let me say that this collection of essays is certainly an entertaining and quite amusing read. i often found myself (as a hacker and LISP programmer) chuckling and nodding in recognition , but... the author is very presumptuous and a bit full of himself. these are not big ideas and they are certainly not 'philosophical' as another reviewer commented. philosophy like computer science is difficult, which these essays certainly aren't. they are in many places opinionated and quite narrow minded. i found his opinions often conservative or at least naive when it came to both painting and politics. if you want a light read pick it up, if you're looking for big ideas go for SICP or Nietzsche or something. p.s. you can read many of his essays on line at his website.
|
Send to Friend
Send to friend
|
|
