computers and internet

A friend of mine introduced me to this book and I am glad that he did. While I am not a programmer and, as a result, got lost a couple of times in the essays, "Beating the Averages" and "The Dream Language", I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

It clearly and crisply explains the art and science of programming and where it fits into a larger historical and social context. It also provides many thought-provoking insights for technical and non-technical folks alike.

You can see in Graham's writing style his passion for simple, succinct prose as well as code. It was a very pleasurable read.

Nerds will like the book, even if they feel defensive or irritated by Graham's comments that hit too close to home.

Hypersensitive types (pedants, "experts") should avoid the book -- Graham will gore your sacred cow, and the fact that such an insolent non-expert has cashed out with many millions will bother you. You'd best read something else.

If you are a programmer (who doesn't hack lisp), the book may really make you wonder. You may think that your favorite language is the best -- but do you really have enough experience to back it up?

Graham knows the languages you know. He chooses lisp. He and two other programmers built a $49 million company in 3 years. In the same time period, you didn't. In the "Fantasy Football" sense, you got whupped.

If this intrigues you, check out "On Lisp" (avail free online), by the same author, as it illustrates those things that a lisp master can do that you cannot.

Hello Paul,
I read your essays "Hackers and Painters" and "Taste for
Makers", and I find them GREAT, even if many months later
the first publication.

I searched the Internet since 1995+ for texts like yours,
but I was able to find *zero* occurrencies of the big
evidence: painters and hackers share common traits.

Of course, they are akin not in the foolish sense that one
can write a program to display some pixels at random or
fixed positions.
Instead, painters and hackers are equals in taste, design,
and skecthing.

I studied painting at Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan, but
I thinker with computers since I was 12, I started with an
Apple IIe clone built by my brother (when he was 18) using
a do-it-yourself kit.
Now I work as a "corporate drone" programmer in Milan.

That's why when I read your essays I was so impressed:
I am not smart enough to be a "real hacker," AND I am not
good enough to be a famous painter, but today this Middle
Land seems to me no longer too much strange.

Thanks Paul,
Claudio Destro

PS:
To be a painter or to be an hacker, that's the question.

I really need to stress the fact that I am really split in
two personalities (as seen from the outside, of course.)
In fact, when I was 14~15, I was really stucked (for about
two years) on the following (in)decision: to study fine
arts or to study information technology?

Did I choose correctly? The fact that now I am a "corporate
drone" programmer makes me think "No, I did not choose
correctly." Indeed, the fact that you, a _real_ computer
scientist, wrote such essays, makes me think that at least
I was right.