Andrewglass1 · March 12, 2012 13:32
diff --git a/hackers_painters b/hackers_painters
 ***chapter 1***

 a.  The author looks back on his childhood as a ‘ smart nerd’ and offers his perspective why nerds are unpopular growing up.

 b.  I was both surprised and interested by his retrospective and the motive for this chapter.  While I primarily agree with his assertions, it  came off to me as a bitter rant.  

 c  I am under the impression that the book will delve into theories of computer programming as an art and not a science.   I am assuming this retrospective laid the groundwork for this.

 d. While I agree with many of his points, I feel strongly that the cliques he defined in chapter one were different than the ones I experienced growing up.  I knew intelligent and less intelligent kids who were both popular and unpopular in high school.  Because of this, I certainly disagree with his assertion that ‘nerds’ are destined to be more successful in the real world.  

 e.   A further confirmation that our public school systems are not the most effective means of education

 ***chapter 2***

 a.  Programming, like painting, is an art-form.  Programming languages are merely mediums to build products, as paint is a medium to build masterpieces.

 b.  I was struck by his statement about how creating something beautiful often involves tweaking something already created and/or combining ideas in new ways.  I read an interesting article citing Steve Jobs genius as a ‘tweaker’ and not a ‘creator’, so this chapter cemented this concept as a major building block  of my philosophy on product development. 

 c.  I was curious to read Graham’s thoughts on both universities and companies creating environments not conducive to hacking.  I wonder if this really holds true.  I know Facebook’s constant innovation has been sparked by ‘the hacker way’, so I wonder if more corporate environments are interested in such ideas.  

 d.  Is it really true that there isn’t overlap in software that makes money and is interesting to write?  Sounds bogus to me.
 e.  Hacking is the art of tweaking or merging old ideas to create innovative products.  

 ***chapter 3***

 a. Graham discussing the nature of censorship and the boundary of ideas to which we are all confined.

 b.  I definitely agree with his assertion about conforming to agree with what is commonly held as true.  This isn’t the path to accomplishing great things.  I was also interested to read his thoughts about how we frame the world for kids.

 c.  I was curious as to why the author seemed to get so hostile when referring to conforming zealots.  There must be comformity of some sort- that is how those who think like the author are valuable.  

 d.  While I agree with Graham that these processes can be negative and stifle innovation and creativity, I think he must realize not all conformity is bad.  It is a good thing that we conform to traffic regulations and most laws.

 e.  The value of of having a passionate curiousity is enormous.  This behavior can develop the mental capacity to pursue great ideas.

 ***chapter 4***
 a.  Hacking is a product of American values, and a key enabler to success

 b.  I was very interested to read about Graham’s philosophy on the hacker mentality’s role in American success.  I agree that this attitude sparks innovation is a key driver in economic growth and success. His assertion about GNP and civil liberties was very intriguing.  

 c.  While I agree with his argument on the fear of copyright regulations, I certainly think there must be some law in this regard.  For one, he seems to blur the difference between companies and artists protecting their intellectual property when he discusses Hollywood’s support of such laws.  

 d. What is Graham’s solution to intellectual property issues?  A proper legal framework here is essential to the global economy (I am not pretending to have an answer for this)

 e.  Following convention is a sure-fire way to avoid success.

 ***chapter 5***

 a.  The shift to web-based software represents a major opportunity for developers

 b.  I have never really considered the alternates to web-based software, but reading 
 Grahams narrative let me understand the benefits- including ease of launch, ability to update without ‘releases’, ability to track user click-streams, etc. His take on how piracy as a form of price discrimination seemed sensible to me.  The ‘test run’ model is obviously a standard principle of web-design, but reading this chapter drilled it home further for me.

 c. I am still slightly confused on how web-based servers work and exist.  I am hoping to learn more on this in the upcoming weeks.

 d.  Nothing really to disagree with here.  

 e.   This was an aspiring chapter for me.  Graham provided many encouragements and tips for starting a business- his message on gradual improve was most memorable to me.  

 ***chapter 6***

 a.  Creating wealth is not the same as making money (although there is certainly an intersection here.)  Value generation is the key to creating wealth and a prime method of accomplishing this is via a startup.

 b.  The entire concept of this chapter captivated me.  Graham’s definitions of measurement and leverage were spot on.  The Pie Fallacy argument he proposed definitely stood out to me; it is possible to increase the size of the pie by creating wealth.  

 c. I was amazed to hear the strategy of Viaweb  in seeking out the more difficult challenges in an effort to make itself less replicable.  This seems genius, but how replicable is this across other umbrellas in tech world?  It seems to go against the mantra, ‘always be shipping’

 d.  His anecdote about a 10 rower team vs a 1000 rower team seemed to be a matter of physics rather than motivation.  

 e. Measurement and leverage is the key to becoming rich.  When acquiring start-ups, companies attempt to measure wealth creation by seeing how many users a service has.


 ***chapter 7***
 a.  The author analyzes why we view wealth and the gap between rich and poor so negatively

 b.  I was at first turned off by the preachy nature of this chapter, but finished in agreement.  His perspective detailing how technology both enabled the widening of the income gap and and closing of ‘life-quality’ gap was profound. Technologies that open doors for all may widen the gap between rich and poor, but can also unveil paths for upward mobility.

 c. The one thing Graham has ignored in his analysis of income disparity and how people make their money is a change in how people are making money.  The largest increase in ‘1 percent-ers’ in past years is form the finance industry.  Is ‘wealth’ created in making money through financial derivatives?

 d.  I didn’t understand where Graham was going in talking about societies confiscating private fortunes.  I agree we must be careful of where we sit along the Laffer Curve, but Graham is continuing his annoying trend of oversimplifying about a large, complicated problem and offering no real solution. 

 e. It is important to look at the rich-poor gap not only based on income, but also on the gap in life quality, which has narrowed.


 ***chapter 8***

 a.  Graham boasts about the effective spam algorithms he has written.  Bayesian filtering (X is or is not spam) is the best method to accomplish this.

 b.  It was interesting to read about the technical workings of the filtering technology. Machine learning is a fascinating concept.  It was cool how the filter utilizes data from the users actions (delete as non spam, addresses mailed to) to continually improve the filter.  The amount of man-hours spent deleting spam is absurd.

 c.  Was somewhat confused with the workings of the probability algorithms Graham published in this chapter- they are over my head!

 d.  Graham seemed confident that ‘neutral’ spam messages (he provides an example of one) would certainly not make it past filters.  With the emphasis on avoiding false positives at all costs, this seemed  slightly unbelievable to me.

 e. Machine learning is an incredibly powerful technique.  Paul Graham was successful in implementing it to cut spam.

 ***Chapter 9***

 a.  Taste is the recognition of good design, which can be more of a science than an art

 b. The importance of repetition, recursion and imitation in good design.  Graham’s theory on the selflessness of the greats in using these tactics is remarkable. Investigation the creation of masterful design provides guidance on how to approach similar problems.

 c. Nothing really unanswered here.

 d.   I was interested to read his theory on recursion.  Graham states recursion is the best way to solve math and programming problems.  Can this really always be the case?

 e. Great design is a product of science as much as art.  Imitation should not be viewed as a shortcut to beautiful design, but perhaps as a ingredient of it.

 ***Chapter 10***

 a.  Programming languages write source code which is fed into compilers (or interpreters).  There is much debate over preference of programming languages and functions

 b.  The debate over object-oriented programming was intriguing to me, as I am an novice who has never coded without an oo language.  It is interesting that proper development techniques are so highly debatable with things such as oo, language ‘hand cuffs’, etc.  I hope to gain a better understanding of this in the upcoming weeks.

 c. I would be very interested to see a pro-con list or some form of taxonomy categorizing the high-level programming languages.  Which are ‘hand-cuffs’? Which force object orientation?  What is it better to use some for than others?

 d.  No arguments in this chapter.

 e. All programming languages are different and have different theories on how they are to be used.  

 ***Chapter 11***

 a.  Graham provides his view on where programming languages will evolve to- a more malleable format designed to reduce waste of programmer effort

 b.  The entire concept of language design is very fascinating. At first, Graham forced me to think of language formation in relation to utility and function.  Next he spoke of evolution and highly compatible and varied use languages.  

 c. It is difficult for me to rationalize the concept of how the ‘hundred-year’ language will eliminate human coding differently than we do today.  Graham speaks of moving away from designing based on implementation.  How would that work? It seems counter-intuitive.

 d.  I don’t understand how flattening data structure by removing strings, arrays, etc.  Doesn’t having different data structures make perfect sense

 e. Don’t think of the nature of Ruby or any other language as definite or correct.  As there is always other ways to do things, it is possible to re-invent practically any method or technique.

 ***Chapter 12***

 a.  Using Lisp enabled Graham to rapidly develop code,which was a key factor in keeping Viaweb along the curve
 b.  I was very intrigued to read how programming languages have different powers.  It is fascinating to think that using Lisp for example can enable a company to more rapidly develop code than by using Ruby for instance.  

 c. The way Graham describes the world, it seems there would be 1 language that is most commonly used, but obviously this is not the case. I am curious as to why we have not evolved to a point like this

 d. Graham points out that when developing an app, it makes sense to use the most powerful language that can make that app and lists a reason of exceptions.  It seems to me if you are an expert in Ruby for example, that you should write the app in Ruby (if possible).  Is this not the case?

 e. Programming languages have varying powers and sit along a sliding scale of abstractness.

 ***Chapter 13***

 a.  Graham reveals some of the inner workings of Lisp’s competitive advantage and urges readers to further consider that all languages are not created equally

 b.  The entire concept of macros is very noteworthy.  When Graham stated in the previous chapter that 20-25% of Viaweb’s code was macros, this peaked my interest. I am curious as to how Lisp is able to enable this while other languages cannot.  

 c. I am very curious if there is any macro-like functionality in Ruby.  Is it possible to simply write gems that can merge the distinction between read time, run time and compile time?

 d. I am curious as why if Lisp is as powerful as Graham asserts, it	is not used as commonly as other languages.  Wouldn’t this power translate to popularity at some level?

 e. This chapter further drilled home the concept of languages having power over other languages.

 ***Chapter 14***
 a.  Graham describes the perfect coding language- very hackable (open design), easy to build libraries for, succinct, fast and efficient

 b.  The concept of designing a language to be easily hackable makes obvious sense.  Hackers tinker by nature, so enabling them to improve their medium can only yield a net positive for the language and it’s community.  It was interesting to read Graham say that a language must be popular to be good.

 c. What are some ‘less-popular’ languages that have thrived?  It would seem as if some languages could be very specialized to perform specific functions.

 d.  No objections or disagreements with this chapter

 e. The power of a programming language lies in it’s libraries and ability to build more libraries.  These are very related to popularity. 

 ***Chapter 15***

 a.  Graham talks about his philosophy in designing a new language- focused on the user.  

 b.  Graham pointing out the necessity for user-focused design caught my attention.  I read that Steve Jobs said he designs products users don't even know they want yet.  Graham definitely mirrors this philosophy.  I enjoyed his perspective on moral while designing

 c. I am not sold on the ‘worse is better’ principle as valuable in all scenarios.  Yes, it is often important to always be shipping, but delivering shitty products is not good business.

 d.  Graham mentioned it is hard to stay interested in something you don’t like yourself, but I think it is entirely possible to be designing for a different cohort of users.  	

 e. Design doesn’t have to be new, but it must be good.  Research doesn’t have to be good, but it must be new.  This is huge.  I will take Graham’s thoughts on moral while designing to heart.
	*chapter 1*

	a. The author looks back on his childhood as a ‘ smart nerd’ and offers his perspective why nerds are unpopular growing up.

	b. I was both surprised and interested by his retrospective and the motive for this chapter. While I primarily agree with his assertions, it came off to me as a bitter rant.

	c I am under the impression that the book will delve into theories of computer programming as an art and not a science. I am assuming this retrospective laid the groundwork for this.

	d. While I agree with many of his points, I feel strongly that the cliques he defined in chapter one were different than the ones I experienced growing up. I knew intelligent and less intelligent kids who were both popular and unpopular in high school. Because of this, I certainly disagree with his assertion that ‘nerds’ are destined to be more successful in the real world.

	e. A further confirmation that our public school systems are not the most effective means of education

	*chapter 2*

	a. Programming, like painting, is an art-form. Programming languages are merely mediums to build products, as paint is a medium to build masterpieces.

	b. I was struck by his statement about how creating something beautiful often involves tweaking something already created and/or combining ideas in new ways. I read an interesting article citing Steve Jobs genius as a ‘tweaker’ and not a ‘creator’, so this chapter cemented this concept as a major building block of my philosophy on product development.

	c. I was curious to read Graham’s thoughts on both universities and companies creating environments not conducive to hacking. I wonder if this really holds true. I know Facebook’s constant innovation has been sparked by ‘the hacker way’, so I wonder if more corporate environments are interested in such ideas.

	d. Is it really true that there isn’t overlap in software that makes money and is interesting to write? Sounds bogus to me.
	e. Hacking is the art of tweaking or merging old ideas to create innovative products.

	*chapter 3*

	a. Graham discussing the nature of censorship and the boundary of ideas to which we are all confined.

	b. I definitely agree with his assertion about conforming to agree with what is commonly held as true. This isn’t the path to accomplishing great things. I was also interested to read his thoughts about how we frame the world for kids.

	c. I was curious as to why the author seemed to get so hostile when referring to conforming zealots. There must be comformity of some sort- that is how those who think like the author are valuable.

	d. While I agree with Graham that these processes can be negative and stifle innovation and creativity, I think he must realize not all conformity is bad. It is a good thing that we conform to traffic regulations and most laws.

	e. The value of of having a passionate curiousity is enormous. This behavior can develop the mental capacity to pursue great ideas.

	*chapter 4*
	a. Hacking is a product of American values, and a key enabler to success

	b. I was very interested to read about Graham’s philosophy on the hacker mentality’s role in American success. I agree that this attitude sparks innovation is a key driver in economic growth and success. His assertion about GNP and civil liberties was very intriguing.

	c. While I agree with his argument on the fear of copyright regulations, I certainly think there must be some law in this regard. For one, he seems to blur the difference between companies and artists protecting their intellectual property when he discusses Hollywood’s support of such laws.

	d. What is Graham’s solution to intellectual property issues? A proper legal framework here is essential to the global economy (I am not pretending to have an answer for this)

	e. Following convention is a sure-fire way to avoid success.

	*chapter 5*

	a. The shift to web-based software represents a major opportunity for developers

	b. I have never really considered the alternates to web-based software, but reading
	Grahams narrative let me understand the benefits- including ease of launch, ability to update without ‘releases’, ability to track user click-streams, etc. His take on how piracy as a form of price discrimination seemed sensible to me. The ‘test run’ model is obviously a standard principle of web-design, but reading this chapter drilled it home further for me.

	c. I am still slightly confused on how web-based servers work and exist. I am hoping to learn more on this in the upcoming weeks.

	d. Nothing really to disagree with here.

	e. This was an aspiring chapter for me. Graham provided many encouragements and tips for starting a business- his message on gradual improve was most memorable to me.

	*chapter 6*

	a. Creating wealth is not the same as making money (although there is certainly an intersection here.) Value generation is the key to creating wealth and a prime method of accomplishing this is via a startup.

	b. The entire concept of this chapter captivated me. Graham’s definitions of measurement and leverage were spot on. The Pie Fallacy argument he proposed definitely stood out to me; it is possible to increase the size of the pie by creating wealth.

	c. I was amazed to hear the strategy of Viaweb in seeking out the more difficult challenges in an effort to make itself less replicable. This seems genius, but how replicable is this across other umbrellas in tech world? It seems to go against the mantra, ‘always be shipping’

	d. His anecdote about a 10 rower team vs a 1000 rower team seemed to be a matter of physics rather than motivation.

	e. Measurement and leverage is the key to becoming rich. When acquiring start-ups, companies attempt to measure wealth creation by seeing how many users a service has.


	*chapter 7*
	a. The author analyzes why we view wealth and the gap between rich and poor so negatively

	b. I was at first turned off by the preachy nature of this chapter, but finished in agreement. His perspective detailing how technology both enabled the widening of the income gap and and closing of ‘life-quality’ gap was profound. Technologies that open doors for all may widen the gap between rich and poor, but can also unveil paths for upward mobility.

	c. The one thing Graham has ignored in his analysis of income disparity and how people make their money is a change in how people are making money. The largest increase in ‘1 percent-ers’ in past years is form the finance industry. Is ‘wealth’ created in making money through financial derivatives?

	d. I didn’t understand where Graham was going in talking about societies confiscating private fortunes. I agree we must be careful of where we sit along the Laffer Curve, but Graham is continuing his annoying trend of oversimplifying about a large, complicated problem and offering no real solution.

	e. It is important to look at the rich-poor gap not only based on income, but also on the gap in life quality, which has narrowed.


	*chapter 8*

	a. Graham boasts about the effective spam algorithms he has written. Bayesian filtering (X is or is not spam) is the best method to accomplish this.

	b. It was interesting to read about the technical workings of the filtering technology. Machine learning is a fascinating concept. It was cool how the filter utilizes data from the users actions (delete as non spam, addresses mailed to) to continually improve the filter. The amount of man-hours spent deleting spam is absurd.

	c. Was somewhat confused with the workings of the probability algorithms Graham published in this chapter- they are over my head!

	d. Graham seemed confident that ‘neutral’ spam messages (he provides an example of one) would certainly not make it past filters. With the emphasis on avoiding false positives at all costs, this seemed slightly unbelievable to me.

	e. Machine learning is an incredibly powerful technique. Paul Graham was successful in implementing it to cut spam.

	*Chapter 9*

	a. Taste is the recognition of good design, which can be more of a science than an art

	b. The importance of repetition, recursion and imitation in good design. Graham’s theory on the selflessness of the greats in using these tactics is remarkable. Investigation the creation of masterful design provides guidance on how to approach similar problems.

	c. Nothing really unanswered here.

	d. I was interested to read his theory on recursion. Graham states recursion is the best way to solve math and programming problems. Can this really always be the case?

	e. Great design is a product of science as much as art. Imitation should not be viewed as a shortcut to beautiful design, but perhaps as a ingredient of it.

	*Chapter 10*

	a. Programming languages write source code which is fed into compilers (or interpreters). There is much debate over preference of programming languages and functions

	b. The debate over object-oriented programming was intriguing to me, as I am an novice who has never coded without an oo language. It is interesting that proper development techniques are so highly debatable with things such as oo, language ‘hand cuffs’, etc. I hope to gain a better understanding of this in the upcoming weeks.

	c. I would be very interested to see a pro-con list or some form of taxonomy categorizing the high-level programming languages. Which are ‘hand-cuffs’? Which force object orientation? What is it better to use some for than others?

	d. No arguments in this chapter.

	e. All programming languages are different and have different theories on how they are to be used.

	*Chapter 11*

	a. Graham provides his view on where programming languages will evolve to- a more malleable format designed to reduce waste of programmer effort

	b. The entire concept of language design is very fascinating. At first, Graham forced me to think of language formation in relation to utility and function. Next he spoke of evolution and highly compatible and varied use languages.

	c. It is difficult for me to rationalize the concept of how the ‘hundred-year’ language will eliminate human coding differently than we do today. Graham speaks of moving away from designing based on implementation. How would that work? It seems counter-intuitive.

	d. I don’t understand how flattening data structure by removing strings, arrays, etc. Doesn’t having different data structures make perfect sense

	e. Don’t think of the nature of Ruby or any other language as definite or correct. As there is always other ways to do things, it is possible to re-invent practically any method or technique.

	*Chapter 12*

	a. Using Lisp enabled Graham to rapidly develop code,which was a key factor in keeping Viaweb along the curve
	b. I was very intrigued to read how programming languages have different powers. It is fascinating to think that using Lisp for example can enable a company to more rapidly develop code than by using Ruby for instance.

	c. The way Graham describes the world, it seems there would be 1 language that is most commonly used, but obviously this is not the case. I am curious as to why we have not evolved to a point like this

	d. Graham points out that when developing an app, it makes sense to use the most powerful language that can make that app and lists a reason of exceptions. It seems to me if you are an expert in Ruby for example, that you should write the app in Ruby (if possible). Is this not the case?

	e. Programming languages have varying powers and sit along a sliding scale of abstractness.

	*Chapter 13*

	a. Graham reveals some of the inner workings of Lisp’s competitive advantage and urges readers to further consider that all languages are not created equally

	b. The entire concept of macros is very noteworthy. When Graham stated in the previous chapter that 20-25% of Viaweb’s code was macros, this peaked my interest. I am curious as to how Lisp is able to enable this while other languages cannot.

	c. I am very curious if there is any macro-like functionality in Ruby. Is it possible to simply write gems that can merge the distinction between read time, run time and compile time?

	d. I am curious as why if Lisp is as powerful as Graham asserts, it is not used as commonly as other languages. Wouldn’t this power translate to popularity at some level?

	e. This chapter further drilled home the concept of languages having power over other languages.

	*Chapter 14*
	a. Graham describes the perfect coding language- very hackable (open design), easy to build libraries for, succinct, fast and efficient

	b. The concept of designing a language to be easily hackable makes obvious sense. Hackers tinker by nature, so enabling them to improve their medium can only yield a net positive for the language and it’s community. It was interesting to read Graham say that a language must be popular to be good.

	c. What are some ‘less-popular’ languages that have thrived? It would seem as if some languages could be very specialized to perform specific functions.

	d. No objections or disagreements with this chapter

	e. The power of a programming language lies in it’s libraries and ability to build more libraries. These are very related to popularity.

	*Chapter 15*

	a. Graham talks about his philosophy in designing a new language- focused on the user.

	b. Graham pointing out the necessity for user-focused design caught my attention. I read that Steve Jobs said he designs products users don't even know they want yet. Graham definitely mirrors this philosophy. I enjoyed his perspective on moral while designing

	c. I am not sold on the ‘worse is better’ principle as valuable in all scenarios. Yes, it is often important to always be shipping, but delivering shitty products is not good business.

	d. Graham mentioned it is hard to stay interested in something you don’t like yourself, but I think it is entirely possible to be designing for a different cohort of users.

	e. Design doesn’t have to be new, but it must be good. Research doesn’t have to be good, but it must be new. This is huge. I will take Graham’s thoughts on moral while designing to heart.