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The Hacker Ethic (Hardcover)

by Linus Torvalds (Author), Pekka Himanen (Author), Manuel Castells (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd (1 Feb 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0436205505
  • ISBN-13: 978-0436205507
  • Product Dimensions: 19 x 13.6 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 226,505 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Despite the title The Hacker Ethic is a philosophical essay contrasting the Western capitalist world view with those of hackers. In this context, hackers are those passionate about any subject, not just computers.

The book starts with an essay by Linus Torvalds and finishes with a thoughtful 75-page essay by Manual Cassels called "Informationalism and the Network Society". At its heart though, is the paradox summed up on page 60, "Present capitalism is based on the exploitation of scientific communism". This simply means companies make money based on information provided by scientists for free. This results in an ethical quandary. Companies eagerly seize information freely provided by hackers yet withhold information discovered by themselves. An indefensible position.

Himamen claims hackers work because what they're doing interests them and disseminating what they learn brings the respect of their peers while others work for money and enjoy the envy of their peers. His arguments are well illustrated with ideas from Plato, through medieval village life, protestantism, academia, the industrial revolution and more. He concludes the information revolution makes work central to our lives, soaking up the time and energy necessary for play, for the pursuit of personal passions.

He isn't whistling "Dixie". Who do you know with a hobby? How many talk to their families? Most spend their free time watching actors pretend to be members of passionate families. This is essential reading for anyone who wonders what their life is about. Hackers don't need to read it. --Steve Patient



Product Description

Nearly a century ago, Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism articulated the animating spirit of the industrial age, the Protestant ethic. Now, Pekka Himanen-together with Linus Torvalds and Manuel Castells-articulates how hackers represent a new, opposing ethos for the information age. Underlying hackers' technical creations - such as the Internet and the personal computer, which have become symbols of our time - are the hacker values that produced them and that challenge us all. These values promote passionate and freely-rhythmed work; the belief that individuals can create great things by joining forces in imaginative ways; and the need to maintain our existing ethical ideals, such as privacy and equality, in our new, increasingly technologized society. The Hacker Ethic takes us on a journey through fundamental questions about life in the information age - a trip of constant surprises, after which our time and our lives can be seen from unexpected perspectives. *In the original meaning of the word, hackers are enthusiastic computer programmers who share their work with others, not computer criminals.
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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 (1)
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but simplified, 22 Jan 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: The Hacker Ethic (Hardcover)
Interesting book. Personaly I thinik that Himanen's discourse of the hacker ethic is probably based on too few informants. Eric Raymond is used heavily, and he is an eccentric even among hackers. Being such a thin book it's also quite superficial I feel. But his points about work ethic does stand even so. Definitly worth a read, and if you ever speak to a sociologist that's interested in technology it's sure to give you something to talk about :-)

Getting to the epilogue by Castells I completely lost track. Castells kept pulling in more and more context until I overflowed.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Worth a look, 9 Feb 2003
By M. D. Beaney "mark_beaney" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Hacker Ethic (Hardcover)
If you expecting a book about the guys who created Linux or founded the open source movement then look elsewhere. What you get here is a discussion on ethics and the philosophy behind meaningful work which, to my mind, is much more interesting.

In particular, Himanen's comparison of the hacker ethic to the protestant work ethic struck me as apposite. There's lots of other good stuff in there too, including a great joke about God designing the earth by committee (well, it made me smile).

The introduction by Linus Torvalds is certainly worth a read, although I found the final chapter by Manuel Castells a little verbose - to me, it was stylistically quite different from either of the other authors and seemed out of place.

All in all though, I'd thoroughly recommend this book. It's a quick read and most people will get something out of it.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Good philosophy, but preaches to the converted, 26 May 2002
By J. Brand "jbrand" (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This book is great for the first six chapters. You'll come away from reading this knowing exactly why you should work on Sunday and play on Friday and why if your boss doesn't understand it's because he's still stuck in the 19th century. But after that it tries to overextend the analogies of corporate life and industrialisation. There's nothing wrong with the analogy but it didn't need to be pushed so far.

A great comparison of individualism and indutrialisation, creativity and the production line, morality and profit, (linux and microsoft?), intellectual honesty and trade secrets. Its comparisons of the two models are not investigated very deeply but if you have more than a passing familiarity with the two models you'll recognise why one wins over the other in all cases. Unfortunately I suspect that unless you have that understanding this wi ll do little to explain what the difference really is.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars A Bit Philosophical
Certainly an interesting read on the core values the "Hacker" supposedly stands by. It makes frequent references to "The Protestant Work ethic and the spirit of capitalism" and I... Read more
Published on 3 May 2004 by Alexander Smith

3.0 out of 5 stars Snappy Title, Not So Clear on the Details
This isn't at all bad, but if you want an idea of what makes hackers tick, you'd be better off reading Glyn Moody's history of open source software, Rebel Code. Read more
Published on 4 April 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent walk around a hackers ideology
Picked it up, and didn't put it down until I finished it. I read about the world I knew and the world I wanted to know. Read more
Published on 28 Mar 2001 by Mr. T. Wylie

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