What is a Hacker? (1985) | Hacker News Reader

What is a Hacker? (1985)

cs.berkeley.edu

96 pointsJach29 comments

I like Stallman's idea of it more.

> Thus, hacking means exploring the limits of what is possible, in a spirit of playful cleverness.

It seems to me more appropriate, More effective, better descriptive, less limiting.

Not that being a hacker means one also has to be good at writing what an hacker is, but Stallman is showing some true hacker spirit here I think.

How does the posted article contradict that in any way? The description you post is purely aesthetical (as defined in the article).

The ambiguity in blackhat hacker vs. traditional MIT hacker is up for discussion but there is a third kind of hacker that I cannot comprehend.

Why do we call people who develop user apps hackers. I mean if a person is developing a web software with JavaScript, Rails and MySQL then it is not really hacking. Those tools are designed for that purpose so they are not used in a particularly clever/unexpected way to achieve a result. I mean if you are emulating an old OS purely in JavaScript, then that's a neat hack because that's certainly not what the language is designed for but a "location based social network" does not really qualify, does it?

I think it again depends on what you mean by hacker. If a web developer is passionate about web development, learns everything he can about it, enjoys doing it, and approaches it like an aesthete, then according to the author he is a webdev hacker (or whatever you want to call it). There are many other definitions of "hacker" that wouldn't include the aforementioned web developer (I'm thinking of Eric Raymond's essay on the topic). In the end, there doesn't seem to be a broad agreement on the topic.

I find this quote from the article very relevant (and I agree with it):

Equally important, though, is the hacker's attitude. Computer programming must be a hobby, something done for fun, not out of a sense of duty or for the money. (It's okay to make money, but that can't be the reason for hacking.)

> Why do we call people who develop user apps hackers

Because a/ "hacker" was (is) a title that commanded respect, hackers were seen as something special, and b/ business got wind of it. Once a term like that enters business-speak, and then finds media attention, it's game over, the term becomes meaningless.

So here we are, if you know how to tweak Rails or Android examples found on-line and have above-room-temperature IQ, you're a "passionate rockstar web hacker".

i'm still waiting for the browser plugin that replaces "hacker" with "rockstar", but i dont think it will ever happen :(

Right there with that famous cloud-to-butt extension someone keeps mentioning on HN all the time. I could use both.

Is there a soup-to-nuts extension too?

This article isn't really about the word "hacker". It's about using ideas from moral philosophy to explain the reasoning and actions of people who tend to self-identify as hackers. It's about the people and their reasons, not about the dictionary.

Nice read but this turned me off:

> A tale of passionate love between 40-year-olds is more likely to be comic.

A bit ageist coming from someone who was 35 at the time. It seemed a bit like he was romanticizing Hackers as only being young people that somehow need to grow up later.

I don't think we can ever salvage the old meaning of the word. Hacker mostly means "computer criminal" now. That is literally what official dictionaries define it as: "a person who hacks into a computer system" [1].

But that's just the mainstream. We know what hackers really are, because we are hackers. It's like a password. If you know what hacker really means, you probably are one.

[1] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hacker

The "Computer Expert" definition is in fact one of the definitions listed on that page. It is rightly not at the top because it is not the most common usage.

3 : an expert at programming and solving problems with a computer

I know it is a bit silly but I feel compelled at times to respond to and correct news headlines like "Hackers Steal Bank Passwords". Conflating hacking with criminal activity is another example of the depressing Prohibitionism which is such a drain on the American psyche and which props up organized crime and the militarization of everyday life.

There was a PBS kids show my kids watched a few years back: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberchase

Stupid as hell and despite the fact that it received science education grants - had nothing to do with science. There was a character called the Hacker who was like a Gargamel-ish character.

My boys eventually asked me why I didn't like the show and I had a parenting moment where I explained to them what a hacker was - I used examples like Leonardo da Vinci who did things that were considered illegal to advance science (human disection, etc).

More recently we had the opportunity to go tot HOPE X in NYC. They learned lockpicking and soldering and checked out the exhibits and books. And we had the 'lockpicking is ok if the lock is yours' talk...

It is not that hard to make the distinction - I wish it were more prevalent.

The term 'Hacker' is a lot like the n-word. It's okay when we call each other hacker, but when someone outside our community does it, we get offended.

It's time to let the word go. The meaning changes depending on who you speak to. It's an exclusive word that needs to be marked obsolete.

Ironic how you're on Hacker News

It's not ironic at all. Nor is it hypocritical.

Going to a news site called Hacker news is not the same thing as defending a word that has been misconstrued and then absorbed by the general public to mean something entirely different. The more you defend the word, the more you separate yourself from general society.

The n-word is the modern legacy of a history of 400 years of racism and enslavement. Its modern usage originates from using the word to reinforce the same economic and social oppression. That context exists for the n-word beyond your 'baseline' racial epithet.

'Hacker' is different because it's a term that originated with a somewhat positive connotation within and by a community, and got misinterpreted negatively later by the outside.

Yes, the duality in assigning meaning to 'hacker' internally/externally does share some similarity with a group/race-based slur that has been 're-claimed', but obviously not entirely. The n-word seems like a particularly bad choice of example, though.

I was making a parallel between using a word within a community when that word has a different meaning from outside the community. The exclusion that comes from using the word is the only point I was trying to make. I was hoping that the history and origin of the word would not create some kind of epithet of racism.

The discussion of something related to race is not racism in and of itself just the same as the discussion of feminism is not misogynistic.

I like what is said until the paragraph on Steven Levy's work (the antepenultimate one). This paragraph draws a conclusion that I don't agree with, and more than that I'm not sure it can be drawn from what is said before.

I see the aesthetic aspect of the hacker culture. Without being as explicit, it is what RMS talks about in his similar essay (the one with the chopsticks story) in my opinion.

However, denying the ethical aspect entirely is wrong. I see it as an equally important part, and I fear that rejecting it entirely is a symptom of a rejection of anything political, which is a behavior I can't understand, and that I even find somewhat dangerous.

We need a Change.

Hacker should never mean a Cracker.

Cracking is illegal and brings a Negative Connotation. The Media still uses & refers Hackers for Crackers too. Why so?

Hacker word should bring a Positive Connotation. Hackers are the change makers: Working on Good & Great things.

There was a Change.org Petition: Asking media Companies NOT to use 'Hacker' when they mean 'Cracker' https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7838663

What can we do to bring a change? Please share you Ideas. Let's do something.

'Cracker' is an invented term.

Like most invented linguistics, it didn't catch on, and it never will.

By contrast 'phreaker' fits the bill in many aspects.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phreaker

Of course a lot of the time we're just referring to common criminals who know how to download software off of some 'warez' BBS and use it for bank and credit fraud.

I don't know what to call those people, but even 'cracker' gives them too much credit.

>I don't know what to call those people, but even 'cracker' gives them too much credit.

Script kiddie.

I hate the Star Wars analogy, but it's easiest to explain.

The Force = Hacking

Force User = Hacker

Sith = Cracker

Jedi = ???

At least black hat/white hat gave a term to both sides, even if it misses a lot of gray area.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgPIqOh9uTU

I am so so sick of this stupid hacker word. To me, hacker means immature loser who would rather piss around breaking some cheap commercial software to impress his naive peers than create something truly great with contemporary technology. Its a word to describe the feeble minded. Don't think so ? Go to a hacker convention. Fat kids in black tshirts smoking pot. Small minded people. The mcdonalds of innovation. Of course they try to rubber stamp every tech icon in the forehead with their tag. Fuck off, pretty please.

Is there something inherently wrong with fat people in black t-shirts that makes you think they're feeble minded?

A bit sad really, he would've had a pretty good point if he hadn't included that line.

At least they're smoking pot instead of drinking beer.

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