The Gift

What Hacker News says

1. neilkJun 2015
   Chomsky's oeuvre on politics, in general. There isn't one single book that states a thesis, it's about a perspective. So perhaps start with The Chomsky Reader. An easier-to-digest intro is the documentary Manufacturing Consent. The twist is that a lot of the things you think of as "bugs" in the political and economic systems of the Western democracies are "features" from the perspective of powerful elites. But the meta-lesson is that big questions can be answered. If you get past the mythology in your culture, and read primary sources, you can really figure this stuff out. Chomsky can go off the deep end at times (and his fanclub does so a lot), but his documentation is meticulous. Well worth reading.

   For very different perspectives on programming, check out Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programming (read it a decade ago and I use techniques from there every day.)

   The Gift by Lewis Hyde. Although directed at artists, it is highly relevant to creative programmers and the phenomenon of open source. He is able to articulate things which are very hard to talk about, like the intersection of economics and artistry, and how the gifting ethos is necessary for any culture to thrive. If you think ESR had the last word on how open source works, you need to read this.

   Another book of interest by Hyde is Trickster Makes This World, wherein you learn the hacker archetype - the giver of technology; the player of tricks - has been around since prehistory. It's not a coincidence that those two aspects are always seen together.

   Show morethread
2. suncanonApr 2015
   The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property (1983) by Lewis Hyde.

   It is not only a powerful deconstruction of the creative process, but it details the history of relationships between gift/craft and acquisition/capital. A valuable read for anyone who has ever wanted to put more into their projects than what is asked or required.

   thread
3. djtumoloDec 2010
   I've been reading a great book called "The Gift" by Lewis Hyde about just this difference in feeling. Like you seemed to intuit, giving is very different from trading.

   Beautiful OP as well.

   thread
4. bradrnJul 2022
   I can say very little about the books referenced, but one comment struck me as perhaps having wider applicability:

   > Hyde, who published [The Gift] in 1983, helped me understand that gift exchanges were much more important than economists and cultural historians lead us to believe. In particular, I gradually came to grasp that talented musicians often struggle because, as gifted peopled, they tend to view their songs in this light. They are punished for building their vocation on gift exchanges in a society that wants to treat everything on a transaction basis. I’d even claim that the biggest problem with the music ecosystem today is the dominance of platforms (YouTube, TikTok, etc.) that pretend to be gift exchanges, but really aren’t.

   In particular, I can’t help but wonder if FOSS projects are subject to similar dynamics…

   Show morethread
5. henryvw1Jun 2022
   Lewis Hyde writes in his 1979 book The Gift about the roots of our modern word “genius”: the Latin genius, or what the ancient Greeks call your daemon.

   Today we use these words for a select type that we elevate above ourselves: “he’s a genius.” In the ancient world, everyone had a genius.

   “According to Apuleius, if a man cultivated his genius through such sacrifice it would become a lar, a protective household god, when he died. But if a man ignored his genius, it became a larva or a lemurwhen he died, a troublesome, restless spook that preys on the living. The genius or daemon comes to us at birth. It carries with it the fullness of our undeveloped powers."

   #creativity #genius #gift #work #art

   Show morethread
6. wrsh07Aug 2016
   With regard to analog music, ie record players, I have some understanding. There's something novel about having a unique item, where it gets worn and changes. It's yours. It's physical. It's sensual [1].

   You can give it away. You can loan it to a friend. Your friend can have the same record and yet ... it is different.

   There is something special about having an analog night -- putting on the record player and reading a book.

   [1]: https://www.amazon.com/Gift-Imagination-Erotic-Life-Property...

   Show morethread