Reading 04: Negativity

  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 wild generalization. 

Regardless of my strong personal disagreement with Graham’s messages in the first essay, I do think he describes nerds in the similar way they were described in Hackers: Heroes. Nerds are smart, nerds aren’t as concerned with looks and appearances, and nerds have niche interests. 

“Hackers and Painters” is a different story than “Why Nerds are Unpopular.” I think it is much less pessimistic and he provides more analysis into being a hacker, as opposed to just complaining about how the world treats nerds. I disagree with his statement that hackers don’t need to understand theory: I think understanding the theory behind computation is essential to becoming the best hacker you can be. Now, I do agree with him that he doesn’t like the name “computer science.” After all, hackers are makers, not scientists, and the act of hacking does not necessarily require you to understand some deep, abstract concepts about the theory of computation. But I still see the value in it. Personally, I really enjoyed Theory of Computing, despite being someone who generally prefers much more concrete, objective, hands-on classes. But maybe Graham means to make a distinction: hackers and CS majors are not the same. Do they overlap? Yes. But he seems to describe a hacker as a much more objective, hands-on do-er, whereas I feel like a CS major requires a more well-rounded background and understanding of the fundamentals of computing.

But as I kept reading Hackers and Painters I found more Paul Graham pessimism: “hackers aren’t cool.” Says who? In class last week we saw presentations from several different movies and tv-shows, most of which seem to portray hackers in a positive light. Yes, hackers are nerds, but Graham is so quick to name call those groups. In Hackers: Heroes, there was a lot of discussion about hackers being the next pop stars. Why doesn’t Graham see hackers this way?


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