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Loading... Hackers and Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Ageby Paul Graham
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. A little boring, far from a page turner, but otherwise entertaining book that let you rethink that nerds are a creative species but that creative people aren't necessarily nerds. Programming goes beyond a profession, it is a devotion. ( )Somewhat disappointing. Unstructured story about what mr Graham thinks is right. Not very well written and no interesting insights. I would recommend reading the Hacker Ethic instead: at least a hunderd times better. Software as an Art Form Paul Graham penned a unique book: A collection of essays that combine personal and business experience. The author sees great software development as an art form. “Great software, likewise, requires a fanatical devotion to beauty,” Graham writes. “If you look inspire good software, you will find that parts no one is ever supposed to see are beautiful too.” The collection offers readers positive advice and leadership tips; a roadmap to what is increasingly becoming a computerized future. A collection of essays that talk about computer science, art, and society. No real technical knowledge necessary to understand, and he makes a lot of good points. A worthwhile read for anyone who wants to be exposed to new ideas. 0.054 seconds to build listing no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0596006624, Hardcover)"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 and1500 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.(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:03 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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