Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Hackers & Painters

  • Big Ideas from the Computer Age
  • By: Paul Graham
  • Narrated by: Mark Sando
  • Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (22 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Hackers & Painters cover art

Hackers & Painters

By: Paul Graham
Narrated by: Mark Sando
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £29.99

Buy Now for £29.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Founders at Work cover art
Fooled by Randomness cover art
The Hard Thing About Hard Things cover art
Super Founders cover art
Titan cover art
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products cover art
The Mom Test cover art
The Sovereign Individual cover art
Artificial Intelligence and You cover art
Thinking in Bets cover art
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant cover art
Smart until It’s Dumb cover art
The Myths of Innovation cover art
Coders at Work cover art
The Dream Machine cover art
Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach cover art

Summary

"The computer world is like an intellectual Wild West, in which you can shoot anyone you wish with your ideas, if you're willing to risk the consequences. " (from Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age, by Paul Graham)

We are living in the computer age, in a world increasingly designed and engineered by computer programmers and software designers, by people who call themselves hackers. Who are these people, what motivates them, and why should you care? 

Consider these facts: Everything around us is turning into computers. Your typewriter is gone, replaced by a computer. Your phone has turned into a computer. So has your camera. Soon your TV will. Your car was not only designed on computers, but has more processing power in it than a room-sized mainframe did in 1970. Letters, encyclopedias, newspapers, and even your local store are being replaced by the internet. 

Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age, by Paul Graham, explains this world and the motivations of the people who occupy it. In clear, thoughtful prose that draws on illuminating historical examples, Graham takes readers on an unflinching exploration into what he calls "an intellectual Wild West". 

The ideas discussed in this book will have a powerful and lasting impact on how we think, how we work, how we develop technology, and how we live. Topics include the importance of beauty in software design, how to make wealth, heresy and free speech, the programming language renaissance, the open-source movement, digital design, internet startups, and more.

©2008 Paul Graham (P)2021 Upfront Books

What listeners say about Hackers & Painters

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    14
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great and thought provoking

Great memoir of a very talented and successful hacker who wishes to share his thoughts in hope it will help others. i loved it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

very interesting collection of tech essays

very enriching. the only flaw is that it's not read personally by Paul Graham, who would have add, I am quite sure, a touch of extra passion to the reading.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!