In Paul Graham’s essays, specifically in “Good Bad Attitude”, he describes hackers as “unruly” and “smart-alecks”(p.53). He also writes that “disobedience is a byproduct of the qualities that make them good programmers” (p.51). If we take disobedience to mean breaking the rules in order to find out more about computers, then Graham’s description does align with Steven Levy’s description of the Hacker Ethic, specifically to the point of “all information should be free.”
In “Hackers and Painters,” Graham writes “Great software… requires a fanatical devotion to beauty” (p. 29), which connects directly to Levy’s part of the Hacker Ethic that states “You can create art and beauty on a computer.” So generally, I think Graham and Levy’s descriptions of hackers and hackerism aren’t that divergent.
I think both descriptions are based on the passion necessary to be a true hacker, and that Graham just takes it a step further by labeling hackers as unruly and disobedient in nature due to the lengths hackers (in his view) will go to to improve software or attempt to access information.
Paul Graham’s essays are meant to be a little controversial or spark some discussion. In class, we discussed whether or not it was a good thing to be called a “nerd.” I never liked it, because I felt like there was more to me than how well I did on a math test or what I was planning to study in college. I definitely don’t think being a nerd is a bad thing or something to be ashamed of. I think it just means one has passion for something the average person might not. In Paul Graham’s essay, “Why Nerds Aren’t Popular,” he asserts that people labeled nerds aren’t popular because they care more about other, more important things than popularity. In my experience as a former “smart kid” in high school, I didn’t find being a nerd and being popular to be mutually exclusive. I bought my own arduino in 9th grade because my intro to engineering teacher (who also taught digital electronics) thought I’d like wiring it (and I did) but I was still equally as excited about the homecoming dance and dance team practice (silly things but still very fun). So I don’t really agree with Graham on this essay topic. I think that there are other qualities that can make someone unpopular but being a nerd doesn’t have to necessarily drag you down the popularity totem pole.
I liked “What You Can’t Say” though, and thought a lot of Graham’s points were really interesting. As a US history freak I thought his point about the Soviet Union also being a winner of WWII in the so-called “triumph of freedom over totalitarianism” (p.42) was compelling to his argument that events and struggles are made out to be about ideas even if there are obvious caveats to the representation.
Speaking of being a US history freak, we talked about that word in class as well. We discussed that Notre Dame might be anti-hacker because it looks for the most well-rounded students. I slightly disagree with this idea. I will say there’s definitely a baseline of a 4.0, athlete probably, service, and clubs for admission, but that doesn’t set anyone apart honestly. I think everyone at Notre Dame is a freak in some way (freak in an endearing way as Amelie was saying in class), and that’s why they got in. Everyone’s a freak in the sense that we all have at least one incredibly niche interest that set us apart. I think mine was my very passionate and specific essay about Harry Truman (my favorite president) that had nothing to do with engineering, what I was actually applying for. I just remember freshman year talking and meeting people and being blown away by how passionate they were about really niche things I knew nothing about. Perhaps over the last 3-4 years the passion has slightly declined and we all just want to graduate, but at the very least when we got here we were all some sort of freak that impressed the admissions people. So I don’t think Notre Dame admissions is downright anti-hacker.
Ultimately, Paul Graham paints a new image of a hacker compared to Steven Levy, but underlying principles of the Hacker Ethic are present in both descriptions. Graham also presents a lot of thought-provoking points in his essays that sparked interesting discussions we had in class.
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