# The Computational Beauty of Nature by Gary William Flake

3 Hacker News commenters recommended The Computational Beauty of Nature by Gary William Flake and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as an inspiring book on generative art, and they especially like owning the physical copy. No recurring criticisms were raised.

## Why people recommend it

- Inspiring for generative art (1 comments): "It's a wonderful book to own as a physical copy, and the contents are very inspiring for generative art." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47716680))
- Good to own as a physical copy (1 comments): "It's a wonderful book to own as a physical copy, and the contents are very inspiring for generative art." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47716680))
- Called a favourite book (1 comments): "absolute favourite book is The Computational Beauty of Nature" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46268206))
- Includes the book's code (1 comments): "it's similar and it has the code of the book there" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49303669))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cuckoo-s-egg.md): 40 recommend
- [Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amusing-ourselves-to-death.md): 36 recommend
- [The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt](https://hackerapproved.com/p/anxious-generation.md): 24 recommend
- [Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bullshit-jobs.md): 20 recommend
- [Enshittification by Cory Doctorow](https://hackerapproved.com/p/enshittification.md): 19 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0262561271?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9780262561273) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "The Computational Beauty of Nature by Gary William Flake", https://hackerapproved.com/p/computational-beauty-of-nature/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).