David Kadavy's "Design for Hackers" now on Amazon | Hacker News Reader

David Kadavy's "Design for Hackers" now on Amazon

amazon.com

174 pointstsycho62 comments

I'm the author of this book, and I am blown away that it currently ranks #36 on all of Amazon[1], right behind the very deserving Eric Ries, who is also launching today.

Thank you so much to the entire HN community for everything. I can't even list the number of ways you have helped me, and you certainly have come through today. Thank you.

UPDATE: It's now at #22[2]. Right by Tim Ferriss. OMFG. Thank you for buying the shit out of my book today, HN.

UPDATE 2: It's now at #18[3], which puts it on the first page of best-sellers (where more randoms will see it). This is huge!

[1] https://skitch.com/kadavy/f3bw8/reis-and-kadavy [2] https://skitch.com/kadavy/f3net/22-w-tim-ferriss [3] https://skitch.com/kadavy/f3nae/number-18

Great work David. Proud of ya'. :)

I was very fond of the idea that hackers cannot do design, because I am primarily a designer. It's good to feel special and look down on an otherwise very competent group of people. But if it were true it would mean I couldn't be both an awesome hacker AND an awesome designer, so after a while I rejected the idea entirely.

It doesn't hurt even for the amazing embedded system programmer to learn about design. If anyone tells you that those skills are mutually exclusive, turn 180 degrees and start running.

If you lack the eye for design, the strategy I would recommend to develop some sort of proficiency is to "harvest" materials and ideas (good fonts, well-proven rules about proportion, color palets etc). Treat it as a repo, throwing stuff out and putting new stuff in. Ask feedback from designers on your choices, and try art. Really, try art. The whole art vs design debate is for decadent old men, but just exercise your creativity in different ways.

I'm a designer at heart and studied design in school, although I love to build things.

There are kinds of design that require an "eye"... graphic design is the prime example. I'm not very good at these, because they don't interest me much.

I am much more interested in what might be called "future" design¹... making interventions that will shape the direction of a certain future. Certainly graphic design at its best does this while being beautiful. But from my perspective, graphic design is only one tool of many in the toolchest of the Future Designer.

Writing code, talking to people, putting on performances, building physical spaces, creating plans for neighborhoods, making sales, attending city council meetings.... all of these are indispensible tools for the Future Designer, and these activities all mesh well with the "hacker" mindset. In a real sense, this form of design is about hacking the trajectory of a neighborhood, or a person, or a city, or some other niche.

And yes, many great artists absolutely qualify as future designers. Banksy surely does. And many graphic designers: see James Victore². And many technologists too: Mark Zuckerberg surely does. The Kickstarter team surely does.

I'm embarrassed that this list doesn't contain any women or people of color. Maybe it's because I'm trying to find examples that would be convincing to the audience of hacker/designers on Hacker News. Certainly Joycelyn Elders has the stature of all of those men. As does Audre Lorde. As does Pat Summit. As do the Dixie Chicks. As do many more.

In some sense there are no specific technical skill requirements for you to be a great designer (as in: good eye, programming skills, etc). You do, however, need to know what your technical skills are. If you don't have a great eye, and the future you're designing requires a beautifully and powerfully presented image, then you need to find a graphic designer who does. Recognizing that makes you a great designer.

Because in the end great design isn't about the practice of any specific craft. It is about outcomes.

¹ with a nod to Eli Blevis: http://dspace.kaist.ac.kr/bitstream/10203/5536/1/DRS-WonderG...

² http://youtu.be/X3pXEdvI9xA

"Hacker" has the gone the way of "geek" and "begs the question." Diluted to the point of having no meaning whatsoever. I'm pretty sure that in fewer than 5 years "hacker" will mean what "geek" means today, which is anyone with a cell phone or who has ever played Mario Bros.

I read TechCrunch, I'm a hacker I'm a hacker!

-----

Edit: I'll consolidate my responses into one post to keep the attack surface small and reply from here.

@dsmithn: The word 'hacker' hasn't been redefined. There isn't a governing body of words that decided one day to change what hacker means. It just changed with some people using it differently because they thought it made them sound cooler. Then other people wanted to sound cooler. Now everyone is cooler. At this point auto mechanics are hackers.

@budu: Excellent work, you've proven my point quite nicely. Thank you. And I don't worry about the down-voting. I saved up enough imaginary points so that I don't have to worry about nerd rage. My comment is just off-topic.

From the description: "The term 'hacker' has been redefined to consist of anyone who has an insatiable curiosity as to how things work—and how they can try to make them better. This book is aimed at hackers of all skill levels..."

It's pretty clear what he means by "Hacker" and why he used it.

HACKER [originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe] n. 1. A person who enjoys learning the details of programming systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. 2. One who programs enthusiastically, or who enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming. 3. A person capable of appreciating hack value (q.v.). 4. A person who is good at programming quickly. Not everything a hacker produces is a hack. 5. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work using it or on it; example: "A SAIL hacker". (Definitions 1 to 5 are correlated, and people who fit them congregate.) 6. A malicious or inquisitive meddler who tries to discover information by poking around. Hence "password hacker", "network hacker". -- The Original Hacker's Dictionary

Edit: I didn't downvoted you, I think people were a bit unfair, but I wanted to point that the word hacker already had a variety of meanings even 30 years ago.

> I wanted to point that the word hacker already had a variety of meanings even 30 years ago.

I agree with this, but the snippet from the book suggests it's the other way around--that "hacker" used to mean criminal and has only now begun to mean positive things.

Big Question: will the Kindle version render decently? The preview, with no pictures, doesn't give me any hope.

I personally haven't seen it on the Kindle, and consuming it that way sounds painful (there are so many illustrations). But, some seem to think it looks good on Kindle Cloudreader http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2997007

(I am the author)

As you are the author, may I ask you how is it possible that the kindle edition costs MORE than the paperback one, without any printing, storage and distribution costs? That's something that has always baffled (and sometimes angered) me.

Because that's what people are willing to pay for it.

In this case though, the Kindle version is fairly expensive compared to most other Kindle books. Between the high cost and the fact that on the Kindle itself, you won't get it in color, and would have a small screen size, I think I'll pass, or get the paper edition. Sure, there's Kindle for PC or the web thing, but... the paper edition is likely going to be laid out in a 'beautiful' way.

I'm not the author, but I'll give you an answer that may justify this crazy pricing scheme.

Amazon takes a 70% commission on Kindle books priced above $9.99 or sold outside of selected countries (e.g., USA, UK, etc). They "only" take 35% for books sold in such countries AND priced below $9.99.

You may think that $22.79 is a magical number they pulled out of their asses. But multiply $22.79 * 30% and you get $6.84.

If they priced it $9.99, they'd get $9.99 * 65% which is $6.49. So less royalties for the publisher.

Now... at $9.99 the book would certainly sell more copies. However, if you consider all the copies sold outside of the selected territories will have 35% royalty regardless of how low the price is, and the fact that a $9.99 ebook cannibalize your $25-35 physical book sales, the option of pricing your Kindle $20+ no longer sounds crazy.

Some publishers outright opt out of this race (e.g., Pragmatic Programmers).

I love Amazon, but they are literally gouging authors and publishers. They should have a flat 30% rate, Apple-style, and let the market decide at what price they'll buy books. Alternatively, keep the flat rate and place a cap on the price of the e-books sold through the Kindle platform (e.g., $10 for fiction, $30 for non-fiction).

Thanks, I had no idea about this crazy scheme. Now at least I know that it is Amazon to blame, not the authors and not even their publishers (which were my first suspects).

Thanks for that explanation! Now I understand better why I don't get a larger cut for ebooks. I guess since Amazon commands the distribution, they can command a larger portion of the sale price.

(I am the author of Design for Hackers)

You think foreign sales are that strong that they'd jack the price up that much and be profitable at it?

Also, I thought that Amazon actually lost some battles with the publishers, in terms of being able to set the prices they wanted, rather than what the publishers wanted.

Your 35% and 70% rates are certainly those that apply to the KDP - but do they apply to publishers like Wiley as well? They presumably have more bargaining power than someone self-publishing.

Great explanation. The pricing for an upcoming Kindle version of a PDF ebook is something I'm struggling with. My current thinking:

Kindle version: ~$10

PDF ebook + Kindle version + supplements (sold from my site): ~$24

The Kindle version is great for portability, but doesn't have the clean formatting, etc. you get from the PDF. I'm considering offering a coupon to Kindle users to get a discount for the "deluxe" version (essentially, less the cost of the Kindle version).

All this because Amazon has forementioned crazy royalty scheme.

You were probably rounding up in your post but if not, shouldn't you price the kindle version at $9.99? It seems if you add the extra $0.01, you'd make $3 vs. charging $9.99 and making $6.99. Wouldn't want you getting screwed by Amazon's strange publishing terms.

Yep, I meant 9.99, thanks.

Really interesting explanation.

I bought 2 books today.

The Lean Startup - (Kindle edition) $12.99

Design for Hackers - (Dead tree edition) $25.32

1.) It's surprising to me that The Lean Startup is priced at 12.99 if they give amazon 70% of the royalties. Seems like they should have priced it at 9.99.

2.) Design for Hackers is a book where illustrations matter. Paying for the dead tree version is better. At only a few bucks off the dead tree version, the Kindle version doesn't seem fairly priced considering the degraded reading experience.

It is possible that Crown Business (Random House) has a better royalty arrangement in place with Amazon. For all we known, even Wiley could have one and it's just pricing the book as if they didn't.

Amazon have no control over ebook pricing, it's set purely by the publisher.

For physical books Amazon buys them from the publisher and resells them at whatever price they want (including at a loss), hence they often discount physical books from the cover price.

With ebooks Amazon uses the agency model where they just get a fixed percentage and can't change the book price. The Economist did a series of articles about ebooks last week where it discussed how publishers took this approach to stop what happened in the music industry where Apple essentially changed everyones expectation of how much they should expect to pay for music.

Here's Amazon's article about it: http://www.amazon.co.uk/forum/kindle/TxDO7PSRZ3YTZD

Looks like it's not available for kindle delivery until Oct 6

The fact that the Kindle version is embargoed for a month is one of the most retarded publisher moves I've seen. That and the ridiculous pricing. There are no excuses for this, and illustrates yet again why these dinosaur publishers are going to be extinct in a few decades.

I've been reading Design for Hackers today, so doesn't look like that. Though sometimes Amazon (or publishers) seem to delay kindle book availability in some regions. Really annoying when Amazon first recommends a book to you, and then tells you that it isn't available when you try to buy.

+1 to this. I've been doing all of my reading on the IPad so an electronic version with the book formatting intact would be awesome. The version shown in the kindle preview just doesn't seem as "nice"

Don't miss out on the hacker spirit of David getting this book published chronicled in his blog eg

http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/d4h-the-book/

All instructive reading in bending a system to work for you, getting things done, and building a business.

PS - Congrats David, I'll take the fact that Amazon went from "19 in stock" to "13 in stock" in the time it took me to order as a good sign :)

Thanks! But CRAP! Don't want them to run out.

Interesting - there are already 3 used books for sale. All slightly more expensive than the one from Amazon.

That's bots I think - there are companies who'll happily try and arbitrage Amazon vs You.

For those interested, David Kadavy is doing a GrubWithUs meal in NYC on the 23rd. Come join. It'd be fun to have a few HNers there.

http://www.grubwithus.com/restaurants/rubirosa-manhattan/mea...

Genius - book tours over meals? I'm there.

I'd rather buy a PDF version. The problem with paper is that it takes space and is an instance of "stuff" when I'm not reading it. Kindle version is likely poorly formatted, I just can't trust that. A PDF on an iPad would be just great.

Food for thought.

Has anyone given this book a try? As a developer with no design mind I could benefit from a designer book targeted primarily for developers/hackers.

On a sidenote, what is a good place to meet designers as cofounders for a startup? I have a circle of friends who are primarily developers so I don't know of places where I could go and chit chat with designers.

Have not tried the book (waiting on my copy) but if your city has a refresh meetup - you should start there. This is the local chapter in Chicago http://www.meetup.com/Refresh-Chicago/ - well attended and interesting speakers.

I'm in DC and there is a Refresh meetup in rockville. I might join.

You can try http://elegant.ly/ or design conferences

There's a ton on his blog that gives you a sense for it. David actually can code - he's self taught, with his formal training coming as a designer - so he's a magical unicorn who can write. (That is to say, right up your alley.)

Link for the UK store: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Design-Hackers-Reverse-Engineering-B...

I haven't gotten my hands on this book yet, but his talk was probably the best thing I saw at SXSW this year. I personally find design to be a hard nut to crack, but the way he thinks is appealing to my very logic-y brain.

Blog post: http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/design-for-hackers-the-book...

I've been waiting for this book since now we're closer to having hackers and designers speak a common language where each group can now truly appreciate each other's profession and discipline. Discussions will be more productive and a better user experience will happen. Also, it will further legitimize the designer/hacker and allow for leaner startups.

Hope this is just the beginning!

Does anyone have links to designs he's responsible for? Whether or not he's an amazing writer I'd still like to check out the products / portfolio it's based upon before I buy it.

http://www.kadavy.net/portfolio/ looks like it.

Thanks. I ended up on some other portfolio-ish page that listed things he's hosting on other platforms etc. that really didn't showcase his design work.

Sounds a lot like the much praised Non-Designer's Design Book http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321534042/

Stuff like this, I hope they can always have on dead-tree format. No way this can feel right on the Kindle.

Cover isn't well designed ...

Warning: negativity ahead.

If you want to learn design, why don't you read something from a real designer, not Kadavy. I mean, look at his personal website, it has the shittiest design. Even his book cover has a crappy design (WTF is this horrible grey gradient with meaningless letters on the background?).

If you want to quickly learn the design, read about composition, color and how it works with other colors, go browse something like

http://webcreme.com/

http://designawardsgallery.com/

If you really want to learn how to design, go take drawing and painting classes, anybody can learn how to draw in 3-4 months, if you do it every day. Go to your local bookstore and browse endless books of art (not "how to" books though) - painters, photographers, illustrators.

And here I thought I was the only one. Not to be demeaning to Kadavy--I think it's good that hackers can get design tips in a language that they speak--but every time I try to read one of his articles, I'm instantly put off by the design of his site. I hope that people can glean some good stuff from him, but from what I've seen, he's not exactly a design guru.

The notion that design can be "hacked" is unfathomable to me, really. I can't think of a less hack-oriented profession.

From what I gather the book isn't about

"how to apply 'hacking' to design"

but rather

"explaining design to people that have the 'hacker' mindset in such a way that it's easier for them to understand".

If I said I want to read this book because I am a coder with bad graphical taste and all, but I can't buy it because damn we don't even have proper creditcards in our country, would anyone consider leaking the pdf version for free? Secretely, just for those guys like us who are physically unable to purchase stuff online. :)

I guess nobody ever has downloaded a pirated song from thepiratebay after this massive downvoting.

It's easier to pirate music from a seemingly larger-than-life band than it is to pirate a book from a man who you (I, some of us?) watched grow the idea from a few blog posts a year ago. Perhaps I've got the narrative all wrong, but from my point of view, Mr. Kadavy made a couple really well-done blog posts covering "Design for Hackers", they became fairly popular on HN, he responded to comments on HN, got support for his book idea on HN, and made it happen.

Perhaps a better analogy is this: Yeah, I might pirate a Metallica song, but I'm not pirating the first album of that indie band I heard when I was passing through Louisville earlier this summer.

Thats kinda reminds me of robin hood. Stealing from Bill Gates or some poor guy still makes you a thief, so your statement doesn't make sense to me.

Yours is the logical truth. Humans aren't always so logical. When emotions enter in to the equation, what I stated tends to be the case.

Thanks! You do have the narrative correct – this has happened very organically, and today's success is a huge surprise!

I'm glad the community has my financial interests in mind. After all, the better this book does, the more I can dedicate myself to teaching design.

Still, I sympathize with OP, as he appears to be in Turkmenistan. Hopefully there is some legit way for him to get a copy. I'm looking into it.

(I am the author)

Thank you for your understanding! People think I am trying to free-ride over here, but they miss the fact that I can't even download pirated song of metallica because internet is damn expensive in here and buying the original CD probably will cost less. Anyways, I shouldn't have written that, I am sorry, for I didn't know how you came up with this!

You would have probably been really surprised at the response if you had explained your situation and asked if there was an alternate way to obtain a PDF of the book.

Agreed, he's in Turkmenistan! Checking with my publisher to see what his options are. (I'm the author)

Hi,

I'm from India. I can't get the book shipped here without incurring large delay and shipping costs.

I would be happy to pay full price for a PDF and instant delivery. I'm sure there are more like me

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