Rating: 
Summary: This is an eye opener
Review: There are many who may disagree with this book, but the viewpoints and in-depth analysis by the authors is inspiring. They will make you reexamine life, the workplace, and even your free time. Looking at the world through hacker glasses is really interesting. Not something you'll see on any Nova or Discovery show. You'll need to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing Viewpoints
Review: This book compares the so-called "hacker work ethic" as compared to the old "Protestant work ethic," examining so-called hacker culture and their motivations for working and completing projects, as opposed to the world view of working "because you are supposed to." It makes a number of interesting observations, and points out that in our world, the pressure to "work, work, work" never seems to escape us, in spite of all the technological advances of our world designed to "make life easier."It also points out that "true hackers" are willing to work at something in order to improve it and are not always motivated to do so by the almighty dollar. I long have worked with engineers who come in to work at 10 or 11 am but stay until almost midnight every day and never quite understood why until now. It's the desire to continue to tinker with and ultimately complete a project. I will never be a "true hacker," since I lack the aptitude and ultimately patience to sit at a computer screen all hours of the day and night trying to solve programming problems, but books like these give me a much better understanding of the ones who are.
Rating:
Summary: Insightfully Obvious.
Review: This is an excellent book that often inspired me to anger - not at the book itself, but at how obvious most of the insights within it are. I'm sorry, but I've been up to speed with this book for most of my life, and yet I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It's concise an clear. It makes its point (I say "it" since there are several sections, not all written by the same person). It's a great book, and definitely deserves the very cool iconic cover (once you remove the silly plastic wraparound). I would call it revelatory if I wasn't already aware of the hacker culture and idealogy.
Rating:
Summary: no time like the present
Review: Who IS this guy? I bought this for Torvalds and Castells, but Pekka Himanen's essay is stunning. If he makes a bit much of the Significance of the new ethic that's emerged, fair enough -- what's really mind-blowing here is his argument about why we're all hardwired to think about time and work the way we do -- especially time. The internal rhythms of our life are a cultural inheritance it's hard to get perspective on, and this guy puts our values in a big-picture historical context that's -- phew! -- pretty staggering.
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