The Word Hacker (2004)

1 squircle 2 6/19/2025, 3:46:43 PM paulgraham.com ↗

Comments (2)

billy99k · 4h ago
"Why are programmers so violently opposed to these laws? "

With AI, these views have now been reversed.

It seems when a group of people think they have the power, they only want the rules to apply to them. When someone more powerful comes along (or someone that the masses disagree with politically) and wants to follow the same rules, there is outrage and calls for legislation.

My term for it is authoritarians with no power. Most activists/hacktivists fall into this group.

"Imagine an American president saying that today. Like the remarks of an outspoken old grandmother, the sayings of the founding fathers have embarrassed generations of their less confident successors. They remind us where we come from. They remind us that it is the people who break rules that are the source of America's wealth and power."

This is pretty universal. If you follow the rules and keep your head down, you won't get too far in life.

squircle · 1h ago
Generalizing here, and this certainly deserves scrutiny, but if I was an old man advising a young man, my advice:

Be like Kant, not a C*nt.