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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.