Eric S. Raymond
catb.org/~esr · Personal blog · on HN since 2007
Eric S. Raymond's personal site, hosting essays on hacker culture, open source, and Unix design, including The Cathedral and the Bazaar.
What HN saysCommenters cite his How To Become A Hacker page as a formative influence and recommend The Art of Unix Programming. His question-asking guide is debated.
667HN people shared it
499linked it in comments
217stories submitted
2.2Kstory points
3 months agolast shared
2007people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1How To Ask Questions The Smart Way126 people · 168 points · first shared 2007 · 29 comments on HN
- 2How To Become A Hacker118 people · 238 points · first shared 2007 · 41 comments on HN
- 3The Cathedral and the Bazaar (1997)20 people · 49 points · first shared 2008 · 30 comments on HN
- 4The Halloween Documents20 people · 26 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
- 5Remind HN: The Art of Unix Programming18 people · 14 points · first shared 2007 · 1 comments on HN
- 6Rules of Unix Design Philosophy17 people · 8 points · first shared 2009 · discussion on HN
- 7The Cathedral and the Bazaar15 people · 9 points · first shared 2012 · 2 comments on HN
- 8Rootless Root13 people · 3 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 9Master Foo and the Ten Thousand Lines12 people · 5 points · first shared 2012 · 1 comments on HN
- 10Some AI Koans [Lisp jokes from the old MIT AI Lab]10 people · 7 points · first shared 2007 · 1 comments on HN
- 11Open source10 people · first shared 2010
- 12The Art of Unix Programming8 people · 281 points · first shared 2008 · 40 comments on HN
- 13The Story of Mel8 people · 13 points · first shared 2008 · 2 comments on HN
- 14Eric Raymond's open-source collection8 people · 10 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
- 15The Cathedral and the Bazaar8 people · 5 points · first shared 2009 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
0xEF · 2025-07-21
I don't even think it's been about asking good questions, at least not for many years. I used SO regularly and even when I wasn't asking a question at all, it was an incredible slog to just find a concise and correct answer instead of sniping comments from people who wanted to flex knowledge, or others answering from some oblique perspective that had nothing to do with the original problem. Asking good questions is always important, yes, but if the community does not know how to provide good answers, seekers seek elsewhere.
Side note, great html book here on asking good questions, since we still absolutely have that problem to deal with even when using Gen AI as a starting point; http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
moobsen · 2025-02-12
This is hacker news. Hackers generally do not like authoritarianism.
If that surprises you, I recommend reading the hacker howto.
"Hackers are naturally anti-authoritarian. Anyone who can give you orders can stop you from solving whatever problem you're being fascinated by — and, given the way authoritarian minds work, will generally find some appallingly stupid reason to do so. So the authoritarian attitude has to be fought wherever you find it, lest it smother you and other hackers."
There is a difference between a hacker and a cracker, which might these days be called "tech-bro". Even if it might not be obvious to everyone.
https://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html
duckmysick · 2024-10-23
This is what the Jargon File says:
> [common; also adj. open-source] Term coined in March 1998 following the Mozilla release to describe software distributed in source under licenses guaranteeing anybody rights to freely use, modify, and redistribute, the code. The intent was to be able to sell the hackers' ways of doing software to industry and the mainstream by avoiding the negative connotations (to suits) of the term “free software”.
http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/O/open-source.html
I looks like open source means more that just ability to read the code.
hiAndrewQuinn · 2024-06-03
It's cliche, but I really do feel reading the Art of Unix Programming gave me a very good sense early on for how to walk this line carefully. Unix programs are high quality - but they're also, ideally, small, and written with an eye to compositionality with the rest of the ecosystem. The best architecture is in the middle, and often the best first draft is a simple series of pipes.
https://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/
mportela · 2023-12-14
This movie is the reason why I became a programmer.
I watched it when I was starting in high school and got inspired by it. Then, I literally googled "How to become a hacker" and found this incredible page by Eric Raymond [0], which I used as an mentor throughout my high school and college years. I ended up developing the recommended hard skills (learning programming, UNIX, open source culture...) but also the "points of style" (martial arts, science fiction, meditation, music). In fact, when I was trying to search for a hacker community online, I stumbled upon Hacker News and haven't left ever since!
As expected, I didn't become a black hat hacker as in the movie but, to this day, I still believe this movie changed the course of my life.
[0] https://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html
arnaudsm · 2023-11-01
There is no silver bullet. Money works on most contexts, but sometimes reputation, social structure and idealism work too. The open-source culture and Wikipedia are great examples.
Reminds me of Eric Steven Raymond's hacker howto from 2001 [1]
"Like most cultures without a money economy, hackerdom runs on reputation"
[1] http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html
starkparker · 2023-10-15
The Debian version is BSD Trek, which was also a SST-like extension of Trek. Sounds like BSD Trek and SST diverged around 1978: http://www.catb.org/~esr/super-star-trek/
That link's from Eric S. Raymond himself, who has a (still maintained!) GitLab repo for SST2K, under a BSD license: https://gitlab.com/esr/super-star-trek
That link also mentions Jason Shankel's OpenTrek, which was a GNU GPL-licensed, cross-platform, TNG-flavored port of SST in rudimentary 3D, ca. 1995-1999: https://web.archive.org/web/20070210032231/http://shankel.best.vwh.net… (the source download link on that IA snapshot works)
webmaven · 2023-07-19
> This is why we intend to build MLS into Google Messages and support its wide deployment across the industry by open sourcing our implementation in the Android codebase.
Weeeell…
Let's just say that this might also be a very smart move on Google's part, a classic "using Open as a weapon" strategy that sidesteps their historic issues with "yet another (cancelled) messaging app" by baking the functionality into a lower level of their platform:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/magic-cauldron/ar01…
https://blog.gardeviance.org/2015/12/open-source-as-weapon.html
Whether this ultimately solves the "blue vs. green bubbles" issue is an open question, but I suspect they'll (eventually) at least gain some leverage by introducing an equivalent UI affordance that legitimately indicates something like more-/less-/insecure.
teddyh · 2023-05-14
“LISP is worth learning for a different reason – the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it. That experience will make you a better programmer for the rest of your days, even if you never actually use LISP itself a lot.”
— <http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#skills1>
foooobaba · 2022-10-05
When I was 12 I followed ESR’s guide on “how to become a hacker”. I wanted to learn hacking but didn’t know where to start or have anyone to ask. Started with html then c++ and using linux. For me, it’s probably one of the most important things I read, because it ultimately altered the trajectory of my whole life.
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html
mcswell · 2022-07-16
"the advantage is slight at best (comments...)" I suppose that's true if the data is generated by machine and consumed by machine, and never edited or looked at by humans. But JSON seems to be used in a lot of datasets that humans do touch, like config files that you can edit. Visual Studio Code is one such user, and I've had to edit my own VSC config files. And I use comments, because http://catb.org/~esr/writings/unix-koans/prodigy.html. Fortunately, VSC allows comments between a // and a following newline.
listenfaster · 2022-04-20
Good: split your time between activities and reading something as satisfying as the things you “devour”. To that end, I would plus one Hackers (Levy) and Code (Petzold). Also, the Cathedral and the Bazaar by esr
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/
and other things from esr at
http://www.catb.org/~esr/
including the aforementioned jargon file. Here’s one I hadn’t stumbled on before, ‘Things Every Hacker Once Knew’
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/things-every-hacker-once-knew/
For an activity ymmv depending on how much time you can spend; an alternative to building a computer from scratch, or an OS from scratch, is to buy a vintage cheapie running cp/m or dos, something where the OS isn’t abstracting memory management for you. Growing up in the 80s, I think managing my own memory and _everything_ that implies was the greatest teacher.
nanidin · 2022-04-20
I don't agree - I think if the original poster adhered to something like "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way: Use meaningful, specific subject headers" [0] then we would not even be having this conversation because the original poster would have found their target audience of Linux Laptop Recommenders rather than a bunch of people that arrived to comment their favorite laptop and found that they were cut off by the original poster with no real explanation for WHY Windows/MacOS are not acceptable.
It would be similar to "Ask HN: Which text editor should I use for software development" with a body that contains "I have no intention of using an IDE or mouse". It's a poorly formed request if your intent is to ask for recommendations amongst the keyboard driven tiled editors.
[0] http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#bespecific
shagie · 2022-03-02
One of my favorite collections of "stories" of software development is The Codeless Code http://thecodelesscode.com/contents (which draws some inspiration from The Rootless Root - http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/unix-koans/ )
The story of The Purple Beggar ( http://thecodelesscode.com/case/170 ) is about that phenomenon.
donatj · 2022-02-27
“The Art of Unix Programming” TAOUP is something I wish I had read much earlier in my career.
It’s non-technical, far more philosophical, and the very few parts where it wades into the technical side are outdated. That said, what it does is a great job of embodying the sort of Zen of the Unix ethos. Almost a high level “this is how you keep your sanity”, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
I want to say it was formative but it moreso just helped solidify the lessons I had come to on my own.
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ (also available as a physical book or kindle ebook)
jmiserez · 2021-12-19
I'd also recommend the classic "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" essay by Eric Steven Raymond:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/
From Wikipedia:
>In 1998, the essay helped the final push for Netscape Communications Corporation to release the source code for Netscape Communicator and start the Mozilla project; it was cited by Frank Hecker and other employees as an outside independent validation of his arguments.
Netscape's public recognition of this influence brought Raymond renown in hacker culture.
TeeMassive · 2021-10-13
Oh yeah the early 2000s, not a great day to be a hacker (by hacker I mean actual hacker: http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html).
I remember getting yelled at for changing the display resolution and typing a few commands in DOS to change file names quickly.
Computers were never up to date of course, we had cathodic displays up to 2010.
revolvingocelot · 2021-10-08
I didn't organically encounter it [0], but my favourite is probably
* You are not expected to understand this.
I find the ultimately misplaced confidence [1] of the comment quietly inspiring, in the context of who wrote it. Even the titans of yesteryear fallaciously convince themselves that, hey, the code works fine, let's get going, and consequently have to bash their heads against some weird quirk they're unintentionally exploiting (and then just rewrite the whole thing).
[0] http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/Y/You-are-not-expected-to-understand-…
[1] https://archive.is/eeYMW <- this is the dead hyperlink "explained this in detail" in the Hacker's Dictionary link above
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions%27_Commentary_on_UNIX_6th_Edition,…
robaato · 2021-07-13
Well there are questions and questions, and also many ways of and times of asking them.
For example, and oldie but goodie is: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
That might be overkill for internal review situations, but it is worth reading and bearing in mind.
Context is all. Sometimes it is the problem of the person you asked. Sometimes it is just the wrong time. Sometimes they are under pressure or just feeling a bit grumpy and snap at you. Sometimes there really is a "stoopid question"! Sometimes you need to try asking the rubber duck first (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging)!
Keep your chin up and don't take it personally!
gnull · 2021-06-01
Even though I'm a big admirer of keyboard-driven interfaces, I don't think mouse should be eliminated. Mouse can be better than keyboard for some tasks.
The problem I see is: a lot of things that non-modal, GUI interfaces use mouse for can be better done with a keyboard.
For example, all sorts of drop-down menus and icons that you click on to launch programs. This kind of interface is inherently synchronous: the computer suggests, you pick. To me, it's way more natural to asyncronously type in what I want without having my attention hijacked by whatever suggestions my machine has (sometimes those actually make me forget what I was trying to do in the first place). I love the related metaphor ESR came up with in his Unix Coans [1].
[1]: http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/unix-koans/gui-programmer.html
nfoz · 2021-04-28
I do love "informational" command-line tools like this. I refer to `ascii` [1] regularly (although [2] is my favourite website... nothing is so accessible as a tool on my command-line!) Anyone know of other command-line info-dump/explorer tools like this?
[1] http://www.catb.org/~esr/ascii/ (available as just the debian package "ascii")
[2] https://www.asciihex.com/
prepend · 2021-02-19
Comically my favorite reference is a paper fold out cheat sheet I got 30 years ago. I’d link you to the company but it’s in my office gathering dust for the past year. I could find it through googling and don’t want to point you to one I don’t know about.
Beyond man, I use a very inefficient system of googling “man ls” (or whatever) and using the example sites, and end up using Linux.die.net [0] the most and find it easier to use than the actual man command.
And I found ESR’s guides [1] really helpful for understanding just how stuff works.
I’m sure I would drive a proper Unix user/sysadmin fits, but I just never am root and always have a backup to restore when I break stuff. So it’s hard for me to really break something.
[0] https://linux.die.net/man
[1] http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ch10s05.html
asymptosis · 2021-01-21
Not precisely jokes, but the Unix Koans are both fun and insightful: https://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/unix-koans/
chubot · 2020-12-05
Turns out, nothing substantial had been published since the 1980s.
The best reference I've found on this is The Art of Unix Programming, which was published in 2003:
https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Programming-Addison-Wesley-Professional-Co…
The book is also online for free:
Command Line Options: http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ch10s05.html
User Interface Design Patterns: http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ch11s06.html
Still it's nice to see this knowledge circulating!
Joel Spolsky's 2003 review of this book: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2003/12/14/biculturalism/
MaxBarraclough · 2020-09-14
A fine complement to ESR's classic essay on netiquette, How To Ask Questions The Smart Way.
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
Not that ESR has outgrown straight-up flaming, mind: http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=4650
csours · 2020-08-24
Best resource I've found on asking technical questions (also linked at the bottom of the post):
"How to Ask Questions The Smart Way"
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
'Smart Questions' should be required reading when onboarding college hires to technical jobs. I still think about it when writing emails, and it helped me greatly when I was a tester to write better bugs.
pankajdoharey · 2020-07-12
China is a great place for manufacturing which is why it succeeded. But the next place has to be surely cheaper than china. The average salaries have increased in china, but African countries do have same advantages as China. The ideal mix as I proposed could be African Resources + Chinese Engineers + Scientists etc ...
More than my answers I think you need this http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
Once you learn that google is one step away to find the answers to your questions.
_iyig · 2020-06-24
Brings to mind this classic from the Jargon File:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/koans.html
In the days when Sussman was a novice, Minsky once came to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6. “What are you doing?”, asked Minsky.
“I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-Tac-Toe” Sussman replied.
“Why is the net wired randomly?”, asked Minsky.
“I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play”, Sussman said. Minsky then shut his eyes. “Why do you close your eyes?”, Sussman asked his teacher.
“So that the room will be empty.”
At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.
fouric · 2020-05-15
> Please don't recommend Eric Raymond's work to people.
Why? Do you have some problem with his advice on how to ask questions[1]?
[1] http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
invsblduck · 2019-11-20
Not a history book, per se, but a great tour into the culture and philosophy of Unix: The Art of Unix Programming [1], by Eric Raymond. Chapter 2 is titled "History."
You also have resources like The Unix Heritage Society [2], who show a timeline of historic events on their wiki [3].
I bought Brian Kernighan's memoir [4], which so far is an incredibly detailed and personal account of his time at BTL.
[1] http://catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/
[2] https://www.tuhs.org/
[3] https://wiki.tuhs.org/doku.php?id=events:start
[4] https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-History-Memoir-Brian-Kernighan/dp/16959785…