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+#+title: hackers-excerpt
+
+#+date: <2018-06-15>
+
+#+begin_quote
+  But as more nontechnical people bought computers, the things that
+  impressed hackers were not as essential. While the programs themselves
+  had to maintain a certain standard of quality, it was quite possible
+  that the most exacting standards---those applied by a hacker who
+  wanted to add one more feature, or wouldn't let go of a project until
+  it was demonstrably faster than anything else around---were probably
+  counterproductive. What seemed more important was marketing. There
+  were plenty of brilliant programs which no one knew about. Sometimes
+  hackers would write programs and put them in the public domain, give
+  them away as easily as John Harris had lent his early copy of
+  Jawbreaker to the guys at the Fresno computer store. But rarely would
+  people ask for public domain programs by name: they wanted the ones
+  they saw advertised and discussed in magazines, demonstrated in
+  computer stores. It was not so important to have amazingly clever
+  algorithms. Users would put up with more commonplace ones.
+
+  The Hacker Ethic, of course, held that every program should be as good
+  as you could make it (or better), infinitely flexible, admired for its
+  brilliance of concept and execution, and designed to extend the user's
+  powers. Selling computer programs like toothpaste was heresy. But it
+  was happening. Consider the prescription for success offered by one of
+  a panel of high-tech venture capitalists, gathered at a 1982 software
+  show: "I can summarize what it takes in three words: marketing,
+  marketing, marketing." When computers are sold like toasters, programs
+  will be sold like toothpaste. The Hacker Ethic notwithstanding.
+#+end_quote
+
+[[http://www.stevenlevy.com/index.php/books/hackers][Hackers: Heroes of
+Computer Revolution]], by Steven Levy.