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Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age

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Author:: Paul Graham (author)
Language:: English
Original language:: English
Publisher:: O'Reilly
Categories:: Computing and science
Publication year:: 2004
ISBN:: 0-596-00662-4
Pages:: 271
Synopsis:: This book is a collection of essays from Paul Graham, most of which can be found on his web site (with the exceptions of Good Bad Attitude, Mind the Gap, Programming Languages Explained, and The Dream Language). The essays deal with the hacker culture, startups, and how to make good things.
Has read?: Yes
Debut?: No
Images:
High-res images:: [Back flap (2.28 MB)] [Back (3.58 MB)] [Spine (830.64 KB)] [Front (5.03 MB)] [Front flap (2.32 MB)]
Table of Contents:: [Toggle visibility]

Preface

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

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

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

4. Good Bad Attitude
Like Americans, hackers win by breaking rules.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Notes

Acknowledgments

Image Credits

Glossary

Index

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