Hackers and Painters - Paul Graham

Overall

As the preface of the book says, ‘This book is an attempt to explain to the world at large what goes on in the world of computers.’ Hackers and Painters really tries to answer a lot of non-technical questions in a technical way.

Hackers are Makers

• Hackers are not cold and precise, they are messy. Hackers need taste.
• The ‘computer science’ terminology is mostly a hodge-podge.

Measurement and Leverage

• Measurement is needed for transforming work into impact
• Technology is leverage

The Hundred Year Language

• Modern languages are adopting more and more layers of in-directions
• Newer languages will be easier for human to reason about
• More of future CPU cycles are going to be used for building abstractions