THE FIRST MANIFESTO ___________________ To do the Graphic Design philosophy right, you have to be loyal to excellence. You have to believe that graphic design is a craft worth all the intelligence, creativity, and passion you can muster. graphic design and implementation should be a joyous art, a kind of high-level play. If this attitude seems preposterous or vaguely embarrassing to you, stop and think; ask yourself what you've forgotten. Why do you design graphic instead of doing something else to make money or pass the time? You must have thought graphic design was worthy of your passion once... To do the graphic design philosophy right, you need to have (or recover) that attitude. You need to care. You need to play. You need to be willing to explore. ////////////////////////////////// The graphic designer Attitude _____________________________ graphic designers solve problems and build things, and they believe in freedom and voluntary mutual help. To be accepted as a graphic designer, you have to behave as though you have this kind of attitude yourself. And to behave as though you have the attitude, you have to really believe the attitude. But if you think of cultivating graphic designer attitudes as just a way to gain acceptance in the culture, you will miss the point. Becoming the kind of person who believes these things is important for you — for helping you learn and keeping you motivated. 1. THE WORLD IS FULL OF FASCINATING PROBLEMS WAITING TO BE SOLVED ______________________________________________________________ Being a graphic designer is lots of fun, but it's a kind of fun that takes lots of effort. The effort takes motivation. Successful athletes get their motivation from a kind of physical delight in making their bodies perform, in pushing themselves past their own physical limits. Similarly, to be a graphic designer you have to get a basic thrill from solving problems, sharpening your skills, and exercising your intelligence. If you aren't the kind of person that feels this way naturally, you'll need to become one in order to make it as a graphic designer. Otherwise, you'll find your energy is sapped by distractions like sex, money, and social approval. (You also have to develop a kind of faith in your own learning capacity — a belief that even though you may not know all of what you need to solve a problem, if you tackle just a piece of it and learn from that, you'll learn enough to solve the next piece — and so on, until you're done.) 2. NO PROBLEM SHOULD EVER HAVE TO BE SOLVED TWICE ______________________________________________ Creative brains are a valuable, limited resource. They shouldn't be wasted on re-inventing the wheel when there are so many fascinating new problems waiting out there. To behave like a graphic designer, you have to believe that the thinking time of other graphic designers is precious — so much so that it's almost a moral duty for you to share information, solve problems and then give the solutions away just so other graphic designers can solve new problems instead of having to perpetually re-address old ones. Note, however, that "No problem should ever have to be solved twice." does not imply that you have to consider all existing solutions sacred, or that there is only one right solution to any given problem. Often, we learn a lot about the problem that we didn't know before by studying the first cut at a solution. It's OK, and often necessary, to decide that we can do better. What is not OK is artificial technical, legal, or institutional barriers (like closed-source code) that prevent a good solution from being re-used and force people to re-invent wheels. (You don't have to believe that you're obligated to give all your creative product away, though the graphic designers that do are the ones that get most respect from other graphic designers. It's consistent with graphic designer values to sell enough of it to keep you in food and rent and computers. It's fine to use your graphic design skills to support a family or even get rich, as long as you don't forget your loyalty to your art and your fellow graphic designers while doing it.) 3. BOREDOM AND DRUDGERY ARE EVIL _____________________________ graphic designers (and creative people in general) should never be bored or have to drudge at stupid repetitive work, because when this happens it means they aren't doing what only they can do — solve new problems. This wastefulness hurts everybody. Therefore boredom and drudgery are not just unpleasant but actually evil. To behave like a graphic designer, you have to believe this enough to want to automate away the boring bits as much as possible, not just for yourself but for everybody else (especially other graphic designers). (There is one apparent exception to this. graphic designers will sometimes do things that may seem repetitive or boring to an observer as a mind-clearing exercise, or in order to acquire a skill or have some particular kind of experience you can't have otherwise. But this is by choice — nobody who can think should ever be forced into a situation that bores them.) 4. FREEDOM IS GOOD _______________ graphic designers 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 graphic designers. (This isn't the same as fighting all authority. Children need to be guided and criminals restrained. A graphic designer may agree to accept some kinds of authority in order to get something he wants more than the time he spends following orders. But that's a limited, conscious bargain; the kind of personal surrender authoritarians want is not on offer.) Authoritarians thrive on censorship and secrecy. And they distrust voluntary cooperation and information-sharing — they only like ‘cooperation’ that they control. So to behave like a graphic designer, you have to develop an instinctive hostility to censorship, secrecy, and the use of force or deception to compel responsible adults. And you have to be willing to act on that belief. 5. ATTITUDE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR COMPETENCE ________________________________________ To be a graphic designer, you have to develop some of these attitudes. But copping an attitude alone won't make you a graphic designer, any more than it will make you a champion athlete or a rock star. Becoming a graphic designer will take intelligence, practice, dedication, and hard work. Therefore, you have to learn to distrust attitude and respect competence of every kind. graphic designers won't let posers waste their time, but they worship competence — especially competence at hacking, but competence at anything is valued. Competence at demanding skills that few can master is especially good, and competence at demanding skills that involve mental acuteness, craft, and concentration is best. If you revere competence, you'll enjoy developing it in yourself — the hard work and dedication will become a kind of intense play rather than drudgery. That attitude is vital to becoming a graphic designer.

ORIGINAL TEXT _____________ To do the Unix philosophy right, you have to be loyal to excellence. You have to believe that software design is a craft worth all the intelligence, creativity, and passion you can muster. Software design and implementation should be a joyous art, a kind of high-level play. If this attitude seems preposterous or vaguely embarrassing to you, stop and think; ask yourself what you've forgotten. Why do you design software instead of doing something else to make money or pass the time? You must have thought software was worthy of your passion once... To do the Unix philosophy right, you need to have (or recover) that attitude. You need to care. You need to play. You need to be willing to explore. /////////////////////////////////////// The hacker attitude -------------------- Hackers solve problems and build things, and they believe in freedom and voluntary mutual help. To be accepted as a hacker, you have to behave as though you have this kind of attitude yourself. And to behave as though you have the attitude, you have to really believe the attitude. But if you think of cultivating graphic designer attitudes as just a way to gain acceptance in the culture, you will miss the point. Becoming the kind of person who believes these things is important for you — for helping you learn and keeping you motivated. As with all creative arts, the most effective way to become a master is to imitate the mind-set of masters — not just intellectually but emotionally as well. 1. The world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved Being a hacker is lots of fun, but it's a kind of fun that takes lots of effort. The effort takes motivation. Successful athletes get their motivation from a kind of physical delight in making their bodies perform, in pushing themselves past their own physical limits. Similarly, to be a hacker you have to get a basic thrill from solving problems, sharpening your skills, and exercising your intelligence. If you aren't the kind of person that feels this way naturally, you'll need to become one in order to make it as a graphic designer. Otherwise, you'll find your energy is sapped by distractions like sex, money, and social approval. (You also have to develop a kind of faith in your own learning capacity — a belief that even though you may not know all of what you need to solve a problem, if you tackle just a piece of it and learn from that, you'll learn enough to solve the next piece — and so on, until you're done.) 2. No problem should ever have to be solved twice Creative brains are a valuable, limited resource. They shouldn't be wasted on re-inventing the wheel when there are so many fascinating new problems waiting out there. To behave like a hacker, you have to believe that the thinking time of other hackers is precious — so much so that it's almost a moral duty for you to share information, solve problems and then give the solutions away just so other graphic designers can solve new problems instead of having to perpetually re-address old ones. Note, however, that "No problem should ever have to be solved twice." does not imply that you have to consider all existing solutions sacred or that there is only one right solution to any given problem. Often, we learn a lot about the problem that we didn't know before by studying the first cut at a solution. It's OK, and often necessary, to decide that we can do better. What is not OK is artificial technical, legal, or institutional barriers (like closed-source code) that prevent a good solution from being re-used and force people to re-invent wheels. (You don't have to believe that you're obligated to give all your creative product away, though the graphic designers that do are the ones that get most respect from other graphic designers. It's consistent with hacker values to sell enough of it to keep you in food and rent and computers. It's fine to use your graphic design skills to support a family or even get rich, as long as you don't forget your loyalty to your art and your fellow hackers while doing it.) 3. Boredom and drudgery are evil Hackers (and creative people in general) should never be bored or have to drudge at stupid repetitive work, because when this happens it means they aren't doing what only they can do — solve new problems. This wastefulness hurts everybody. Therefore, boredom and drudgery are not just unpleasant but actually evil. To behave like a graphic designer, you have to believe this enough to want to automate away the boring bits as much as possible, not just for yourself but for everybody else (especially other hackers). (There is one apparent exception to this. Hackers will sometimes do things that may seem repetitive or boring to an observer as a mind-clearing exercise, or in order to acquire a skill or have some particular kind of experience you can't have otherwise. But this is by choice — nobody who can think should ever be forced into a situation that bores them.) 4. Freedom is good 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. (This isn't the same as fighting all authority. Children need to be guided and criminals restrained. A graphic designer may agree to accept some kinds of authority in order to get something he wants more than the time he spends following orders. But that's a limited, conscious bargain; the kind of personal surrender authoritarians want is not on offer.) Authoritarians thrive on censorship and secrecy. And they distrust voluntary cooperation and information-sharing — they only like ‘cooperation’ that they control. So to behave like a graphic designer, you have to develop an instinctive hostility to censorship, secrecy, and the use of force or deception to compel responsible adults. And you have to be willing to act on that belief. 5. Attitude is no substitute for competence To be a hacker, you have to develop some of these attitudes. But copping an attitude alone won't make you a hacker, any more than it will make you a champion athlete or a rock star. Becoming a hacker will take intelligence, practice, dedication, and hard work. Therefore, you have to learn to distrust attitude and respect competence of every kind. Hackers won't let posers waste their time, but they worship competence — especially competence at hacking, but competence at anything is valued. Competence at demanding skills that few can master is especially good, and competence at demanding skills that involve mental acuteness, craft, and concentration is best. If you revere competence, you'll enjoy developing it in yourself — the hard work and dedication will become a kind of intense play rather than drudgery. That attitude is vital to becoming a hacker.