
PG's Hackers & Painters is O'Reilly's $10 ebook deal today - dreyfiz
http://twitter.com/OReillyMedia/status/18336810142
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grinich
It's also on Scribd for free. You can download the PDF as well.

[http://www.scribd.com/doc/47180/Paul-Graham-Hackers-And-
Pain...](http://www.scribd.com/doc/47180/Paul-Graham-Hackers-And-Painters)

~~~
andrewtj
Gotta wander off on a tangent here — scribd is a beautiful site! I'm probably
the last one around here to find out since this is the first time I've looked
at their site since they dropped Flash (which I ignored) but wow, what a
difference — if you found scribd not to your taste and haven't been back
since, it's time to revisit it.

~~~
dreyfiz
Yes, scribd is great now. I used to hate it. I recently Googled the Blueprint
CSS cheat sheet and...not bad, Scribd! No Flash!

[http://www.scribd.com/doc/12850249/Blueprint-CSS-
framework-v...](http://www.scribd.com/doc/12850249/Blueprint-CSS-framework-
version-08-cheat-sheet)

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dantheman
It's only $12.23 on amazon: [http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Painters-Big-Ideas-
Computer/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Painters-Big-Ideas-
Computer/dp/1449389554)

for the dead tree version.

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acangiano
I'll always be fond of this book because, directly or indirectly, it changed
my life.

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jacquesm
A funny if not totally consistent counterpoint:

<http://www.idlewords.com/2005/04/dabblers_and_blowhards.htm>

~~~
jon_dahl
I always found this counterpoint article fatuous.

 _To which I'd add, what hackers and painters don't have in common is
everything else. The fatuousness of the parallel becomes obvious if you think
for five seconds about what computer programmers and painters actually do.

Computer programmers cause a machine to perform a sequence of transformations
on electronically stored data.

Painters apply colored goo to cloth using animal hairs tied to a stick._

How many programmers sit down and say "It's time to do some electronic data
transformations"? How many painters say "Time to push some paint"?

PG is right that programming is a fundamentally creative activity, and so are
the visual arts. Plenty of programmers forget that. It's not that the medium
is irrelevant, but then again PG isn't claiming complete identity between
programming and painting.

(Personally, I prefer the analogy of programming to either writing or music
composition, because the _writing_ connection is quite strong.
[http://www.infoq.com/presentations/dahl-programming-
minimali...](http://www.infoq.com/presentations/dahl-programming-minimalism)
if you're interested.)

~~~
pvg
Is your criticism really "fatuous? no YOU'RE fatuous!"? That comes across as a
little, well, petulant. The point is not about what programmers or painters or
line cooks say when they get down to work - it's whether any insight-bearing
parallels can be drawn between them. The important thing being insight-
bearing, rather than insecurity-assuaging.

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Revisor
Direct link to the book, skipping the tweet
<http://oreilly.com/catalog/9781449389550/>

Or at Amazon.com for $12.23 [http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Painters-Big-Ideas-
Computer/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Painters-Big-Ideas-
Computer/dp/1449389554/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1278947858&sr=1-1)

~~~
strick
FYI the kindle edition is always $9.99 and available at the Amazon link above.

~~~
jayliew
yeah, that's what I was thinking too. I already have a Kindle, and it makes
more sense for me to do long form reading on my Kindle.

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jlangenauer
I got the real dead-tree edition of Hacker & Painters that someone left in the
book exchange rack at the Green Tortiose Hostel in SF. Just another reason I
love that place.

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qeorge
Good book. Recommend taking advantage of this deal if you haven't yet read it,
its a easy read that will get the gears turning.

~~~
tomh-
Is there new content compared to whats available for free online anyway?

~~~
qeorge
A lot of similar material appears in both the book and in his essays posted
online, but there's also some unpublished stuff in the book as well.

As to the ratio, I couldn't say. But as with Hacker Monthly, I find reading a
print edition to be a new experience anyway, even if I've read the online text
beforehand.

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mdg
It should be free. Spain did win the WC after all. Just sayin'

~~~
TrevorBurnham
All of the essays from the book are available at
<http://paulgraham.com/essays.html>, though with some differences. (Some have
different titles as well.) It's a great opportunity to use Readability,

~~~
mdg
<http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail164.html>

and

<http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail657.html>

also.

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GiraffeNecktie
WTF? Why are we retweeting on HN?

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rbanffy
Because I didn't catch the original tweet. Thanks to this a couple other
people who would benefit from the book will read it.

And Tim and Paul will make some money out of it.

~~~
duck
Yeah, and I think this is a perfect example of a valid retweet for HN. Most
aren't, but this is from the source and includes the discount code.

