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This book has 5 recommendations

Evan Williams (Co-creator/Blogger)

I want everybody I know to read "How to Make Wealth" and "Mind the Gap" (chapters 6 and 7), which brilliantly articulate the most commonly, and frustratingly, misunderstood core economic principles of everyday life.

Rob Malda (Creator & Director/Slashdot)

Paul Graham's Hackers & Painters is one diverse book, but it doesn't matter if you're learning why nerds get beat up in high school, or the subtleties of language design and acceptance. Paul approaches each of his subjects with an entertaining insight that will make you smile and think. Highly recommended to anyone.

Yukihiro Matsumoto (Creator/Ruby)

Since programmers create programs out of nothing, imagination is our only limitation. Thus, in the world of programming, the hero is the one who has great vision. Paul Graham is one of our contemporary heroes. He has the ability to embrace the vision, and to express it plainly. His works are my favorites, especially the ones describing language design. He explains secrets of programming, languages, and human nature that can only be learned from the hacker experience. This book shows you his great vision, and tells you the truth about the nature of hacking.

Bob Frankston (Co-founder/Software Arts)

A wonderful book and required reading. Paul helps others understand why I chose the name 'Software Arts' for the company Dan Bricklin and I started. Those who don't understand the language of software cannot consider themselves literate.

Chris Anderson (Editor-in-Chief/Wired)

A delightful ping-pong around the brain of a really smart guy. The chapter that answers the key question of our age-- why are nerds unpopular?-- is worth the price of admission alone.

Amazon description

We are living in the computer age, in a world increasingly designed and engineered by computer programmers and software designers, by people who call themselves hackers. Who are these people, what motivates them, and why should you care?

Consider these facts: Everything around us is turning into computers. Your typewriter is gone, replaced by a computer. Your phone has turned into a computer. So has your camera. Soon your TV will. Your car was not only designed on computers, but has more processing power in it than a room-sized mainframe did in 1970. Letters, encyclopedias, newspapers, and even your local store are being replaced by the Internet. Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age, by Paul Graham, explains this world and the motivations of the people who occupy it.

In clear, thoughtful prose that draws on illuminating historical examples, Graham takes readers on an unflinching exploration into what he calls "an intellectual Wild West." The ideas discussed in this book will have a powerful and lasting impact on how we think, how we work, how we develop technology, and how we live. Topics include the importance of beauty in software design, how to make wealth, heresy and free speech, the programming language renaissance, the open-source movement, digital design, internet startups, and more.

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Evan Williams, Rob Malda, Yukihiro Matsumoto, Bob Frankston, Chris Anderson

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Paul Graham

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