I think it all stemmed from curiosity to learn and tinker. I wonder if gamifying it is enough but it’s a step.
I think it all stemmed from curiosity to learn and tinker. I wonder if gamifying it is enough but it’s a step.
Hardware hacking tools have gotten more accessible since then. The Flipper Zero makes this easier now; 256KB RAM, open firmware, $200. Compare that to needing a full PC setup in the 2000s. Lower barrier, same curiosity-driven learning.
Guided challenges vs pure exploration; both work. The structure gets more people started. The ones who stick around will break out of the sandbox anyway.
Growing up with fewer resources than others paradoxically leads to better outcomes sometimes, since you’re conscious of the barriers around you and that motivates you to overcome them.
If I had grown up with the latest iPhone I would never have cared about rooting and custom ROMs, for example.
Amazing what you learn when you have no other distraction xD
1. there was a disk notcher (the Nibbler?) that would DOUBLE the capacity of a 5 1/4 floppy!
2. you could just use a regular paper hole punch and a few select clips to do the same thing!
All my C64 floppies had faint parallel pencil lines across the top to line up the slots and what looked like mouse-nawed holes on one side.