OK, so I read Hackers and Painters while in LA. I'd arrived after 3 years of studying computer graphics, 2D, 3D, image compositing, 3D animation. I wanted to be a VFX artist. I was starting to put together a decent portfolio of some stuff I'd done. <p>Then I made some friends who worked in the VFX industry, and I realized how much the life of an FX artist sucked. So, shortly after I got my first offer to work for an FX firm, I decided to leave town. <p>One of my friends, (he teaches FX at Sony Imageworks now) told me: The guys at Imageworks who have the most creative freedom are the programmers. The artists have to reproduce what someone else tells them to reproduce for 16 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. The programers write code whatever way they want to as long as the code gets the job done.<p>So, I picked up a copy of Hackers and Painters, left LA and enrolled in a CS program. That was 3 years ago. I've been plugging away at school ever since. <p>I've since moved to the Bay area, I'm finishing my degree in two more semesters, and I'll finally have a go at my startup. <p>I agonized and complained for months after I read Hackers and Painters because I couldn't hack and I didn't think I'd ever be able to. I was intimidated. But, then I figured if I didn't take the leap and dive in, I'd still be whining about it months or years from now. <p>So, if you're upset that you don't fit in in hacker culture, and that your not a hacker... Maybe you're trying to tell yourself something. Maybe what you really want to do is learn how to hack. It's what I wanted all along. I just didn't know it.