[cynwoody]

Some years ago now, I came upon a lovely essay entitled "Hackers and Painters†". Here is how it begins:

    When I finished grad school in computer
    science I went to art school to study
    painting. A lot of people seemed
    surprised that someone interested in
    computers would also be interested in
    painting. They seemed to think that
    hacking and painting were very different
    kinds of work-- that hacking was cold,
    precise, and methodical, and that
    painting was the frenzied expression of
    some primal urge.

    Both of these images are wrong. Hacking
    and painting have a lot in common. In
    fact, of all the different types of
    people I've known, hackers and painters
    are among the most alike.

    What hackers and painters have in common
    is that they're both makers. Along with
    composers, architects, and writers, what
    hackers and painters are trying to do is
    make good things. They're not doing
    research per se, though if in the course
    of trying to make good things they
    discover some new technique, so much the
    better.

I think he got it right.

†http://www.paulgraham.com/hp.html

[ardivekar]

Paul has an entire book of his essays by the same title, it's a great read all kinds of programmers. :)