I think hackers may be more like architects than painters, for example.
I've always felt that the character of Howard Roark captures the quintessential hacker quite well. Not being an architect, I can't comment on how well he represents architects, or how common that overlap might be :)
At least as I interpreted it, your essay doesn't argue for the connection between the activities of hacking and painting as much as between the people who do these things. Devotion to a craft that brings artistic satisfaction attracts a certain sort of person.
Hahaha, I'm not sure "we hackers" can take credit for him -- he's Ayn Rand's creation, after all, and she didn't even use a typewriter. Although, on the subject of "Hackers and Blank", her essays on writing always very much echoed my feelings about programming.
I collected some illustrative quotes from the book in this blog post:
I've always felt that the character of Howard Roark captures the quintessential hacker quite well. Not being an architect, I can't comment on how well he represents architects, or how common that overlap might be :)
At least as I interpreted it, your essay doesn't argue for the connection between the activities of hacking and painting as much as between the people who do these things. Devotion to a craft that brings artistic satisfaction attracts a certain sort of person.