
An Interview with Paul Graham: Hackers & Painters 10 Years Later - castig
http://blog.onemonthrails.com/interview-paul-graham-hackers-and-painters-ten-years-later/
======
NAFV_P
PG: ”Hacking is getting a lot cooler now. But I think it is probably better
for picking people up at parties if you can say you’re a painter.”

At a party, I say I used to be a painter, but gave it up because I can paint
utter shit and still get recognition for it. When you code utter shit, nothing
matters unless that shit works.

Most people don't understand either profession. Nowadays I just say - "I'm
still a practising artist, but I only practise the black arts." Then I try and
explain recursion to them.

~~~
mindslight
"Nothing matters unless that shit works" applies to painting as well - the
paint still has to stick to the canvas. And _plenty_ of coded "utter shit"
gets heaps of recognition - like every middleman-creating user-disempowering
"web 2.0" data silo.

~~~
NAFV_P
> _" Nothing matters unless that shit works" applies to painting as well - the
> paint still has to stick to the canvas._

Any artist with half a brain cell can get round that conundrum, just sell the
collector an empty canvas and then sell them a bullshit story that it is art.

> _And plenty of coded "utter shit" gets heaps of recognition - like every
> middleman-creating user-disempowering "web 2.0" data silo._

Wait up, are you suggesting that _every middleman-creating user-disempowering
"web 2.0" data silo_ works well and has few known bugs?

~~~
msutherl
> Any artist with half a brain cell can get round that conundrum, just sell
> the collector an empty canvas and then sell them a bullshit story that it is
> art.

Evidently you have never tried to do this before.

~~~
NAFV_P
> _Evidently you have never tried to do this before._

No I haven't tried this, I have better things to do, like working out how to
use the POSIX library.

But Lucio Fontano did something very similar, and it worked.

~~~
smonff
Lucio Fontan _a_ is nothing comparing to Piero Manzoni.

He get through making an artwork featuring 90 tin can filled with 30g of his
own shit. Please read the label that said _Merda d 'artista_ ( _artist shit_ )
:

    
    
        Artist's Shit
        Contents 30 gr net
        Freshly preserved
        Produced and tinned
        in May 1961 
    

Quoting Wikipedia : _The cans were originally to be valued according to their
equivalent weight in gold — $37 each in 1961 — with the price fluctuating
according to the market._

But the stuff is today shown in biggest museum, and one can has been sold
$160300 in 2008.

~~~
NAFV_P
I referenced Fontana specifically because he used to work with canvas.

At least Piero was being honest about being dishonest (a common trait in post-
modernist art).

~~~
smonff
_Nothing matters unless that shit works_

~~~
NAFV_P
Hmm, a new meme...

"nothing matters unless that _tinned_ shit works"

------
jmduke
_When Hackers & Painters came out in 2003… hacking was not cool. Computer
science was not cool. Having a startup was not cool._

I'm sort of curious about this, as I was still in grade school at the time.
Can someone who was, say, in college or a recent graduate in 2003 comment to
this? What was the climate like?

~~~
dragonwriter
If they weren't cool in 2003, it was only as a short-term aftereffect of the
dot-com collapse. Those were certainly cool things when I graduated in 1998
and shortly afterwards.

~~~
jonahx
My experience is different. I worked for 2 successful startups back then and
it never felt that cool. Maybe it was a _little_ cool, but basically it
wasn't. The feeling and conversation was much more along the lines of "lol,
can you believe what these fools are paying us? this whole thing makes no
sense! and look at everyone trying to make work hip by installing ping pong
tables and slides in the office. what a joke!" it seems like the big
difference is that now a lot more real money has been made, and it seems like
less of a joke, and more people have bought into the new office culture.

------
smonff
_Paul Graham addressing the Y Combinator crowd_

White, males, crowd.

