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Great Hackers - by paul graham

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Saved by 4 people (0 private), first by anonymouse user on 2007-04-07


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if your society has no variation in productivity, it's probably not because everyone is Thomas Edison. It's probably because you have no Thomas Edisons.

Highlighted by yorkjong

In a low-tech society you don't see much variation in productivity

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when you hand people a complex tool like a computer, the variation in what they can do with it is enormous

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In a low-tech society you don't see much variation in productivity. If you have a tribe of nomads collecting sticks for a fire, how much more productive is the best stick gatherer going to be than the worst? A factor of two? Whereas when you hand people a complex tool like a computer, the variation in what they can do with it is enormous.

Highlighted by eyalnow

In programming, as in many fields, the hard part isn't solving problems, but deciding what problems to solve.

Highlighted by yorkjong

Productivity varies in any field, but there are few in which it varies so much. The variation between programmers is so great that it becomes a difference in kind. I don't think this is something intrinsic to programming, though. In every field, technology magnifies differences in productivity. I think what's happening in programming is just that we have a lot of technological leverage. But in every field the lever is getting longer, so the variation we see is something that more and more fields will see as time goes on. And the success of companies, and countries, will depend increasingly on how they deal with it.

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Ordinary programmers write code to pay the bills. Great hackers think of it as something they do for fun, and which they're delighted to find people will pay them for.

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If we want to get the most out of them, we need to understand these especially productive people. What motivates them? What do they need to do their jobs? How do you recognize them? How do you get them to come and work for you? And then of course there's the question, how do you become one?

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More than Money

I know a handful of super-hackers, so I sat down and thought about what they have in common. Their defining quality is probably that they really love to program. Ordinary programmers write code to pay the bills. Great hackers think of it as something they do for fun, and which they're delighted to find people will pay them for.

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What do hackers want? Like all craftsmen, hackers like good tools.

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Good hackers find it unbearable to use bad tools. They'll simply refuse to work on projects with the wrong infrastructure.

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As I'll explain later, this is partly because great hackers don't know how good they are. But it's also because money is not the main thing they want.

Highlighted by eyalnow

What do hackers want? Like all craftsmen, hackers like good tools. In fact, that's an understatement. Good hackers find it unbearable to use bad tools. They'll simply refuse to work on projects with the wrong infrastructure.

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Interesting

Along with good tools, hackers want interesting projects. What makes a project interesting?

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But a programming language isn't just a format. A programming language is a medium of expression.

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At any given time, there are only about ten or twenty places where hackers most want to work, and if you aren't one of them, you won't just have fewer great hackers, you'll have zero.

Highlighted by yorkjong

The smart ones learn who the other smart ones are, and together they cook up new projects of their own.

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I've found that people who are great at something are not so much convinced of their own greatness as mystified at why everyone else seems so incompetent.

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But it's particularly hard for hackers to know how good they are, because it's hard to compare their work.

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The key to being a good hacker may be to work on what you like.

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you never have to work on boring projects

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you'll never allow yourself to do a half-assed job.

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Clumping

Along with interesting problems, what good hackers like is other good hackers. Great hackers tend to clump together-

Highlighted by eyalnow

The key to being a good hacker may be to work on what you like. When I think about the great hackers I know, one thing they have in common is the extreme difficulty of making them work on anything they don't want to. I don't know if this is cause or effect; it may be both.

To do something well you have to love it. So to the extent you can preserve hacking as something you love, you're likely to do it well.

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Is there some quality that's unique to hackers? I asked some friends, and the number one thing they mentioned was curiosity.

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One difference I've noticed between great hackers and smart people in general is that hackers are more politically incorrect.

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