Makers
by Cory Doctorow · first published 2009
44% recommend50% neutral6% critical
Why HN recommends it
Near-future novel about hobbyist inventors and 3D printing that explores how personal manufacturing changes business and law. Praised for convincing tech characters and big ideas; free under a Creative Commons license.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
What happens to America when two geeks working from a garage invent easy 3D printing, a cure for obesity, and crowd-sourced theme parks? Lawsuits against Disney are only the beginning in this major novel of the booms, busts, and further booms in store for America in the age of open source and its hero/hacker culture.
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'The Deadline: A novel about project management' by Tom DeMarco Critical Chain by Eliyahu M. Goldratt The Unicorn Project by Gene Kim (sequel to the Phoenix Project) Makers by Cory Doctorow Daemon & Freedom™ by Daniel Suarez The Affinities by Robert Charles Wilson Zodiac by Neal Stephenson The Blue Ant trilogy (Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, Zero History) by William…
on “Ask HN: What's some great fiction for founders and entrepreneurs?” ↗I'd add the following: - Makers (Cory Doctorow) -- I recommend this to every entrepreneur and technologist I know, if only because it will inspire you to create something great. - Masters of Doom (David Kushner) -- History of id software…
on “Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read” ↗…the US government in that direction. The Game (Neil Strauss) -- See nopassrecover's response; he explained it well. Little Brother (Cory Doctorow) -- A fantastic novel about freedom and technology. Makers (Cory Doctorow) -- A great novel about people who create, whether technology or business models. Perhaps the best book I read this year. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (Cory Doctorow) -- The story…
on “Ask HN: Great books you read in 2009?” ↗…years from now. The original artists will be long gone, but no one will be able to build upon Mickey as Disney has built upon ancient tales. Read some Cory Doctorow for a better explanation of this. Makers is especially good.
on “Swedish pirate party to run the pirate bay from inside the Swedish parliament” ↗While reading this, I was reminded of the following excerpt of Makers by Cory Doctorow (which, btw, is absolutely one of the best books to read if you're into tech startups): > “What? I thought you’d be happy about this.” > “I am,” Perry said. “But you’re misunderstanding…
on “Is it OK to Want to Make Money?” ↗As long as anything you plan to render is the size of a breadbox or smaller. Diamond Age. Or Makers (Stephenson and Doctorow, respectively).
on “Facebook unfriended” ↗I fell in love with Doctorow's works through Pirate Cinema and Makers. Please grab one of his books when you have time; its worth the read.
on “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth (2007)” ↗"Makers" is fantastic, and has a lot of fun ideas in it. Doctorow nails the tech personalities in his works very well, arguably better than Stephenson.
on “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth (2007)” ↗That list makes me think that you just finished reading Cory Doctorow's Makers. If you haven't, you should. It's available online under a CC license.
on “Ask HN: Is anybody solving really cool problems anymore?” ↗…willing to believe hardware will be a big thing again soon: the transition of 3d printers and scanners from industry to hobbiest suggests there's room for even broader consumerization. Cory Doctorow's Makers is a compelling vision of that future.
on “The next, next big thing” ↗…will preface, that I do not read non-fiction, other than a handful (some Mark Twain, and the Daemon/Freedom Tm series by Daniel Suarez, both of which were awesome, and I really liked Little Brother and Makers by Corey Doctorow); I too, like to break up my technical manuals, with good non-fiction, in no particular order these are some that are in my collection you may like: Fatal System Error Founders at…
on “Ask HN: Reading Non-Fiction” ↗Don't forget "Makers" by Cory Doctorow, which discusses some of the legal implications of personal 3D printing as both an attraction and as a way of cheaply producing a variety of things. http://craphound.com/makers/download/
on “3-D Printing's Legal Morass” ↗For those who aren't well read (grin) a very good read looking at a dystopian future where 3d printers have displaced manufacturing is Cory Doctorow's "Makers". The Creative Commons licensed book can be downloaded from his website, craphound.com, or purchased elsewhere. I suspect it may be one of those near-prophetic works of science fiction that will amaze…
on “3-D Printing, robotics swing manufacturing might from China back to the U.S. ” ↗I found this to be an astute observation about Little Brother, but it's not something I'd apply to the genre as a whole, or even Doctorow. I was highly impressed by the characterization in Makers, which was only published a year later. Little Brother was written in haste[1] with an explicit focus on the ideological, at the expense of more human characters. I would urge anyone who felt the characterization…
on “Little Brother” ↗…was a transcendant joy. Don't be scared by the runtime - you won't want it to end. Other authors I happen to enjoy very much include David Mitchell (Thousand Autumns or Bone Clocks FTW), Cory Doctorow (Makers, Walkaway), Blake Crouch (Recursion), Daniel Suarez (Influx, Delta-V, Daemon), Robin Sloan (Sourdough, Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore). Just to wrap up and repeat what has no doubt been said elsewhere…
on “Ask HN: Are books worth it?” ↗