Ask HN: Would you differentiate between hacker, artist, craftsman and engineer | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Would you differentiate between hacker, artist, craftsman and engineer

8 pointsismail4 comments

I am looking for various views on how you would define and differentiate between a hacker, artist, craftsman and engineer. I have some thoughts, but in order not to influence the discussion i will not post my own definitions until some time has passed.

The question again:

How would you differentiate between a hacker, artist, craftsman and engineer?

I have drafted some questions based on my own thinking. Feel free to use these to answer.

x = hacker or artist or craftsman or engineer

How does a (x) see the world?

What character traits does a (x) demonstrate?

Why does (x) do what they do?

How does (x) do what they do?

What does (x) actually do?

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Hacker: someone who solves problem quickly. Maybe it is or it is not the most elegant solution but it gets job done.

Artist: someone who creates something that stirs emotions. My friends and I used to debate if ads are truly art form or not, I lean towards that they are. But some of my friends argue that art product should be the product, not make you wish to buy another product.

Craftsman: I haven't thought about craftsman much. It seems recently there is a lot of romanticizing of craftsman in the Western hemisphere but back home there are tons of craftsmen who seems to struggle financially.

Engineer: someone who builds something using well established principles, with a lot of formal processes, communications, and most likely in a team. They may work on artistic projects such as video games or art installation but their part of project is not artistic.

WRT the artist: I think it depends on the ad. Some people will argue this, but I don't think making money from your art makes you a "sellout" or less of an artist. On the other hand, there are usually a lot of constraints to what you can put in an ad and most of them, although quirky or pretty, are kind of soulless if you think about it.

Hacker: someone who finds the shortest route. Root word hack, meaning to break into something with an axe.

Artist: someone who extracts meaning out of something. Some extract meaning from the meaningless, some extract it from something already existing, like a different form on music or a perspective on war.

Craftsman: someone who makes high quality things.

Engineer: someone who finds the optimum solution to a problem. The hacker religiously follows the shortest route, the engineer considers various trade offs.

I'd argue they value different things.

A hacker values novelty.

An artist's values aesthetics.

A craftsman values quality.

An engineer values discipline to ship.

These are all spitballed, but there are a high number dimensions to think about.

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