Hackers & Painters
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
Hackers & Painters
| Full title | Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age |
|---|---|
| Author | Paul Graham |
| Published | 2004 |
| Pages | 258 |
| Recommended | 2 times |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | Paul Graham’s collected essays on programmers as makers rather than scientists, on wealth creation, on why nerds are unpopular, and on the Lisp advantage behind Viaweb — a primary document of how the founder generation that followed learned to think. |
Where I heard about it
- A reply to @typesfast — named in answer to his question “What’s the best history book you’ve read?” in a thread on X, June 2025 — not history in the usual sense. The full recovered list lives on What’s the best history book… (tweet).
- In Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s Full Reading List (Investor Field Guide, 2016) — the archive of his monthly book-club recommendations, saved by Kyle in April 2020 — Full Reading List (Investor Field Guide).
Connections
- What’s the best history book… (tweet) — the thread this came out of; the full recovered list lives there.
- Paul Graham — the author.
- Silicon Valley — the culture these essays helped set.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.