Great Hackers - by paul graham - The Diigo Meta page

• 27 Jun 09
  

  York Jong

  viewpoint essay Python

  • if your society has no variation
    in productivity, it's probably not because everyone is Thomas
    Edison. It's probably because you have no Thomas Edisons.
  • In a low-tech society you don't see much variation in productivity
  • 12 more annotations...
  • • when you hand people a complex tool
      like a computer, the variation in what they can do with
      it is enormous
    • In programming, as
      in many fields, the hard part isn't solving problems, but deciding
      what problems to solve.
    • Ordinary programmers write code to pay
      the bills. Great hackers think of it as something they do for fun,
      and which they're delighted to find people will pay them for.
    • What do hackers want? Like all craftsmen, hackers like good tools.
    • Good hackers find it unbearable
      to use bad tools. They'll simply refuse to work on projects with
      the wrong infrastructure.
    • At any given time,
      there are only about ten or twenty places where hackers most want to
      work, and if you aren't one of them, you won't just have fewer
      great hackers, you'll have zero.
    • The
      smart ones learn who the other smart ones are, and together
      they cook up new projects of their own.
    • I've found that people who
      are great at something are not so much convinced of their own
      greatness as mystified at why everyone else seems so incompetent.
    • But it's particularly hard for hackers to know how good they are,
      because it's hard to compare their work.
    • The key to being a good hacker may be to work on what you like.
    • you never have
      to work on boring projects
    • you'll never allow yourself to do a half-assed job.
• 07 Apr 07
  

  eyal matsliah

  cyber-culture hackers paul-graham

  • In a low-tech society you don't see much variation in productivity.
    If you have a tribe of nomads collecting sticks for a fire, how
    much more productive is the best stick gatherer going to be than
    the worst? A factor of two? Whereas when you hand people a complex tool
    like a computer, the variation in what they can do with
    it is enormous.
  • Productivity varies in any field, but there are few in which it
    varies so much. The variation between programmers
    is so great that it becomes a difference in kind. I don't
    think this is something intrinsic to programming, though. In every field,
    technology magnifies differences in productivity. I think what's
    happening in programming is just that we have a lot of technological
    leverage. But in every field the lever is getting longer, so the
    variation we see is something that more and more fields will see
    as time goes on. And the success of companies, and countries, will
    depend increasingly on how they deal with it.
  • 10 more annotations...
  • • If we want to get the most out of them, we need to understand these
      especially productive people. What motivates them? What do they
      need to do their jobs? How do you recognize them? How do you
      get them to come and work for you? And then of course there's the
      question, how do you become one?
    • More than Money
      
      I know a handful of super-hackers, so I sat down and thought about
      what they have in common. Their defining quality is probably that
      they really love to program. Ordinary programmers write code to pay
      the bills. Great hackers think of it as something they do for fun,
      and which they're delighted to find people will pay them for.
    • As I'll explain later, this is
      partly because great hackers don't know how good they are. But
      it's also because money is not the main thing they want.
    • What do hackers want? Like all craftsmen, hackers like good tools.
      In fact, that's an understatement. Good hackers find it unbearable
      to use bad tools. They'll simply refuse to work on projects with
      the wrong infrastructure.
    • 
      Interesting
      
      Along with good tools, hackers want interesting projects. What
      makes a project interesting?
    • But a programming language isn't just a format.
      A programming language is a medium of expression.
    • Clumping
      
      Along with interesting problems, what good hackers like is other
      good hackers. Great hackers tend to clump together-
    • The key to being a good hacker may be to work on what you like.
      When I think about the great hackers I know, one thing they have
      in common is the extreme
      difficulty of making them work
      on anything they
      don't want to. I don't know if this is cause or effect; it may be
      both.
      
      To do something well you have to love it.
      So to the extent you
      can preserve hacking as something you love, you're likely to do it
      well.
    • Is there some quality that's unique to hackers?
      I asked some friends, and the number one thing they mentioned was
      curiosity.
    • One difference I've noticed between great hackers and smart people
      in general is that hackers are more
      politically incorrect.
• 22 Jan 07
  

  sungolem

  article book review author hacking programming culture technology software for:calebc for:lithesomewiz

• 15 Aug 04
  

  yogo94

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