Hackers & painters : big ideas from the computer age / Paul Graham.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Graham, Paul, 1964-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Computer programmers.

Physical Description:

xi, 258 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

Hackers and painters

Big ideas from the computer age

Place of Publication:

Beijing ; Sebastopol, CA : O'Reilly, [2004]

Summary:

Written in clear, narrative style, "Hackers & Painters examines issues such as the rightness of web-based applications, the programming language renaissance, spam filtering, the Open Source Movement, Internet startups and more. In each essay, Graham moves beyond widely held beliefs about the way that programmers work as he tells important stories about the kinds of people behind tech innovations, revealing distinctions about their characters and their craft. No hackers reading this book will fail to recognize themselves within these pages. No programmer will put it down without new thoughts actively percolating.

Contents:

1. Why Nerds Are Unpopular: Their minds are not on the game 1

2. Hackers and Painters: Hackers are makers, like painters or architects or writers 18

3. What You Can't Say: How to think heretical thoughts and what to do with them 34

4. Good Bad Attitude: Like Americans, hackers with by breaking rules 50

5. The Other Road Ahead: Web-based software offers the biggest opportunity since the arrival of the microcomputer 56

6. How to Make Wealth: The best way to get rich is to create wealth. And startups are the best way to do that 87

7. Mind the Gap: Could "unequal income distribution" be less of a problem than we think? 109

8. A Plan for Spam: Till recently most experts thought spam filtering wouldn't work. This proposal changed their minds 121

9. Taste for Makers: How do you make great things? 130

10. Programming Languages Explained: What a programming language is and why they are a hot topic now 146

11. The Hundred-Year Language: How will we program in a hundred years? Why not start now? 155

12. Beating the Averages: For web-based applications you can use whatever language you want. So can your competitors 169

13. Revenge of the Nerds: In technology, "industry best practice" is a recipe for losing 181

14. The Dream Language: A good programming language is one that lets hackers have their way with it 200

15. Design and Research: Research has to be original. Design has to be good 216.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0596006624

OCLC:

55499541