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The Hacker Ethic

The Hacker Ethic

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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
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: 5 stars
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.


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