Paul Graham has written a book about hackers (in the Lisp sense — not the twisted and false sense that the press abuses) and their motivations and ideas. It's coming out soon. The whole thing started as an article in which he compares programming to painting — and now there's an entire book about it. Certainly interesting, since Paul Graham himself is one of the more interesting Lisp hackers. Reading the book could therefore also be worthwhile. And it won't make you any dumber either.