Link: O’Reilly Network Safari Bookshelf - Hackers & Painters.

What big companies do instead of implementing features is plan them.
- Paul Graham

All of us had been trained by Kelly Johnson and believed fanatically in his insistence that an airplane that looked beautiful would fly the same way.
- Ben Rich, Skunk Works

I just got done with “Hackers and Painters”. If you have not read the essays on PG’s website, then this would be a great purchase. There is a good mixture of essays ranging from lisp advocacy, programming language discussions to starting a startup. Most of the essays can be read on his website. There only seem to be minor tweaks in the book. Nothing major.

Two of the strongest essays I’ve enjoyed are “The Other Road Ahead” and “Taste for Makers”. Although TORA starts talking about the web replacing the PC, it goes off to discussing how big companies don’t get anything until much later. That notion rings true to me after events from the last couple of months. The PG quote from above was taken from this essay. TFM should be read by people who plan on designing and making things. The entire essay tries to drill various design heuristics into your brain. If you stop and think about it, they make sense especially if put into context of beautifully designed things (for me they were: SR-71, Porsche 911, Armani Suits, Lisp).

Sometimes I’m irked by his elitist attitude (LFM vs LFSP, Python Paradox) but I finally understand why I enjoy Paul Graham’s writing. He is a programmer who can write. Or a writer who can program. When I’m reading his essays, there are numerous moments where I go “That’s Exactly It!”. He writes what I’m thinking subconsciously but not able to express consciously.