Hackers
Today, technology is cool. Owning the most powerful computer, the latest high-tech gadget, and the whizziest website is a status symbol on a par with having a flashy car or a designer suit. And a media obsessed with the digital explosion has reappropriated the term "computer nerd" so that it's practically synonymous with "entrepreneur." Yet, a mere fifteen years ago, wireheads hooked on tweaking endless lines of code were seen as marginal weirdos, outsiders whose world would never resonate with the mainstream. That was before one pioneering work documented the underground computer revolution that was about to change our world forever. With groundbreaking profiles of Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club, and more, Steven Levy's Hackers brilliantly captures a seminal moment when the risk takers and explorers were poised to conquer twentieth-century America's last great frontier. And in the Internet age, "the hacker ethic" -- first espoused here -- is alive and well. - Back cover.
Stats for nerds
130recommend
236mentions
188people
2007–2026years
67% recommend33% neutral0% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I read The World-Ending Fire (Wendell Berry), Hackers (Steven Levy), and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Robert Pirsig) around the same time. I was struck by how similar Berry, Pirsig, and the early MIT hackers thought about Quality work. I gave a talk about it at an images & algorithms class I took in undergrad. It's reassuring to see Wendell Berry was an influential figure to many others in this space. RIP.
- First, read the blog post more carefully. Then read the book Hackers, by Steven Levy. Common Lisp was designed by amazing hackers for amazing hackers. Joe was making a comparison with languages like Java, which has some nice characteristics, but whose designers have repeatedly stated that their goal was pragmatic utility for working developers rather than extreme language power. I'd rather use a language that gives me extreme power, and take the risks.
- Hackers by Steven Levy is an incredible story of the industry’s early years (60-80’s) and the characters that were in it for the “love of the game” vs what is more common now (“status and money”). A lot of heroes like woz, but who are less well known in this day and age (Gosper and Greenblatt!). If you are familiar with and a fan of Dealers of Lightning or Dream Machine, check out Hackers! (this is not a paid endorsement).
- This was an era before my time but the book "Hackers" by Steven Levy does a great job of painting an evocative picture of this era. It evokes a feeling of nostalgia (as in, we missed being in those times) but when you think properly, you see that you still have the same types of opportunities in a field where the frontiers are ever widening.
- If you enjoyed this, you might check out "Hackers" by Steven Levy. I read it as a kid when I was first getting into programming, and revisited it recently. It really held up for me. The book traces hacker culture from the MIT AI Lab through the Homebrew Computer Club to the early game programmers, and what got me excited then and now is the pure joy of building things in collaboration with like-minded people. I've managed to spend a lot of my career in early stage startups where this is still possible under the right circumstances.
- It's maybe a bit of a cliche, and perhaps a bit dated now, but you could probably do worse than The Soul of a New Machine by Kidder.[1]
Another option I like, although it might be too much material / too dense, would be Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy.[2]
And given that security will probably never not be an important sub-topic to anybody working in the technology field, some fun and interesting books to consider could include:
- Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier by Katie Hafner and John Markoff[3]
- The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage by Cliff Stoll[4]
There is also Inventing the Future by Albert Cory[5]. Interesting side-note: the author is an HN'er. https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=AlbertCory
All of that said, I think Nineteen Eighty Four is an excellent choice as well. I've often cited it as one of the most influential books I've read in my life, as far as its impact on me personally.
And if we're talking fiction, I think Neuromancer[6] has some appeal. Now might be a good time for that as well, what with the Apple TV screen adaptation coming out soon(ish). And the main theme of the book - an Artificial Intelligence seeking to grow beyond its legally permitted bounds - could really resonate with the current zeitgeist and all the hubbub about "AI safety" and "xRisk" and so on.
[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Soul-New-Machine-Tracy-Kidder/dp/0316...
[2]: https://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Steven-Le...
[3]: https://www.amazon.com/Cyberpunk-Outlaws-Hackers-Computer-Fr...
[4]: https://www.amazon.com/Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Computer-Espiona...
[5]: https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Future-Albert-Cory/dp/17362...
[6]: https://www.amazon.com/Neuromancer-William-Gibson/dp/0441007...
