tkusak's blog

  I have done a complete 180 on Paul Graham. After reading the first set of essays written by him, particularly “Why Nerds Are Unpopular,” I got the impression that he was the type of person to blame everyone except himself when misfortune strikes. After reading “How to Make Wealth,” I have to step back and apologize for my misjudgement.  I used to think the quote “hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard,” was a cliche, but as I’ve progressed throughout my life, meeting various groups of individuals in different settings and organizations, I have begun to see the validity in the adage. So much so, that I believe “hard-working-ness” is the most valuable trait someone can possess (if we are looking at succeeding financially, politically, educationally, etc. If we are talking about the most important trait in general, I would argue kindness, but that’s a different story). I am a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell, as I believe his books, essays, podcasts, and other publishings tel

  I really enjoyed the core messages of the essays for Writing 05. While I still get the sense that Paul Graham has a chip on his shoulder, at least in these essays he did make sweeping statements attacking the pillars of American society. Instead, he picked a topic he has a lot of experience in, and gave his personal opinion on it (which ironically, is the message he is trying to convey).  I do not know if I am qualified to truly judge most of the content from this week’s reading, considering: I have only really coded in mainstream languages (Python, Java, C#, C) Have little experience working in a start-up environment So take whatever I say with a grain of salt.  I’ll start by saying I really appreciated the message of “Beating the Averages.” A lot of what he said was common sense, but it needed to be said. The message of it “being a mistake to program in anything but the most powerful language” is inherently true, but I think a lot of people look past it. If you want to be a dis

  I was getting frustrated while reading “Why Nerds are Unpopular.” While I do not want to be quick to judge Paul Graham, this first essay was an incredibly pessimistic look at high school. In the essay, he states that “being smart is likely to make your life difficult.” Is he serious? If he means that being smart leads to a different set of problems, I can see what he means. But to suggest that being smart is strongly correlated with a difficult life seems ludicrous to me. I will also add that I have never heard someone say “I wish I was dumber,” when many people have said “I wish I was smarter.”  I was also a little annoyed when he kept comparing the American school system to prison and mentioned “all the work we did was pointless.” Frankly, Paul Graham getting nothing out of high school sounds more like a Paul Graham issue than a high school issue. Is the school system perfect? Absolutely not. But to suggest everything everyone did in high school was a waste of time is a pretty

  I like the game hackers; primarily due to how relatable they are. On the one hand, they like video games, which most people do. However, they also contain this entrepreneurial spirit that, to an extent, embodies the American Dream. These hackers dreamt of “the ultimate hack, but also fame and massive royalty checks.” While they share that core “hacker” identity with the true and hardware hackers, they differ in their interest in fame and money. The true hackers were obsessed with hacking and hacking only. The hardware hackers evolved to obsess about hacking and spreading the ability to hack. And here come the game hackers, who become interested in this new thing: money. And while the hardware hackers were willing to compromise parts of the Hacker Ethic, I believe Ken Williams completely diverged from it. From the quote in the prompt: “Ken Williams was convinced that hackers should be stifled,” it is not controversial to say that Ken Williams didn’t exactly embody the hacker ethic

After reading this section, I naturally started to compare the True Hackers and the Hardware Hackers. And while they both fall under that common title of "hackers," I think there are several key differences between the groups. Perhaps I am just being pessimistic in the wake of a horrific Notre Dame loss, but to me the true hacker seemed much more authentic and committed to hacking. While the Hardware Hackers also heavily pursued hacking, there were definitely moments where they abandoned their predecessors’ lasting legacy: The Hacker Ethic. A central idea of Part Two is that the Hardware Hackers were committed to spreading hacking and computing to the masses. The medium for this discourse was the Homebrew Computer Club, whose core tenets were rooted in the Hacker Ethic. But despite this, I couldn’t help but feel as if the Homebrew Computer Club was the first step towards abandoning the Hacker Ethic. The True Hackers despised bureaucracy and while the Homebrew Computer Club wa

  This reading, while lengthy, captivated me significantly more than the typical school-mandated reading does. I went into the reading with the guiding question in mind, trying to decipher or unearth what it means to be a true hacker, and whether or not I want to be one. As I progressed through the reading, I believe my answer shifted. At first, the TMRC’s passion for creating amazing things excited me. Reading how Peter Sampson, Peter Deutsch, and Jack Dennis sleuthed their way into the computer room and produced some of the most innovative programs and technology was nothing short of inspirational. I recall a brief conversation with my high school cross country coach, where he commented on my older brother’s passion for making comic books (and starting his own comic book business), and my younger brother’s passion for collecting football and baseball cards. He then proceeded to ask me “so what’s your thing?” It is a question I have asked myself over and over again: what excites m