Graham - Hackers & Painters Exzerpt
Aus Leowiki
Graham, P. (2004): Hackers & Painters. Big Ideas from the Computer Age. O’Reilly: Sebastopol.
“Why do hackers care so much about free speech? Partly, I think, because innovation is so important in software, and innovation and heresy are practically the same thing.” (S. xi)
„Another example we can take from painting is the way that paintings are created by gradual refinement. Paintings usually begin with a sketch. Gradually the details get filled in. But it is not merely a process of filling in. Sometimes the original plans turn out to be mistaken. Countless paintings, when you look at them in x-rays, turn out to have limbs that have been moved or facial features that have been readjusted. […] I think hacking sould work this way too. It’s unrealistic to expect that the specifications for a program will be perfect. You’re better off if you admit this up front, and write programs in a way that allows specifications to change on the fly. (The structure of large companies makes this hard for them to do, so there is another place where startups have an advantage.)” (S. 27)
Seite 50 zur doppelten Bedeutung des Begriffs “hack“ als Kompliment und Beleidigung.
„Mistakes are natural. Instead of treating them as disasters, make them easy to acknoledge and easy to fix. Leonardo more or less invented the sketch, as a way to make drawing bear a greater weight of exploration. Open source software has fewer bugs because it admits the possibility of bugs.” (S. 141)
„The inhabitants of fifteenth century Florence included Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, Masaccio, Filippo Lippi, Frau Angelico, Verrocchio, Boticcelli, Leonardo, and Michelangelo. Milan at the time was as big as Florence. How many fifteenth century Milanese artists can you name?” (S. 143; Anm.: schönes Beispiel für Pfadabhängigkeit)
Die zwei Abschnitte über die Vorteile von “Throwaway Programs“ auf Seite 206f. sowie „Redesign“ auf Seite 212f.
