Comment by conz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by conz | Hacker News Reader

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  Tbf, I learned "hacking" as the word for illegal (cyber) activity long before I've seen it used for "hacking stuff together".

How long have you been privy to Internet or programmer culture? 'Hacker' as a positive term has been around a lot longer than 'hacker' as a pejorative one.

Back in the '80s, a hacker utilised technology to interesting ends. A cracker (akin to a safe-cracker) broke into things and did damage.

As but one datum point, Steven Levy's book Hackers came out in 1984:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Compute...

EDIT: Typo.

Language changes. It's the 2020s not 1980s.

Wait until you learn how people use the word "phone" now to describe a small general purpose computer.

  Language changes. It's the 2020s not 1980s.

Language may change, but language changes which cause 'damage' need to be resisted.

There's too much that's positively aligned with the word 'hacker' to let those who without clue ruin the word for everyone else.

I would say it's more worth your time to adapt to the change and use the new lingo.

For example I see the term "ethical hacker" used quite often, especially for security professionals, and it's held in high esteem.

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