You Are Probably Not a Hacker
Hacking might be jumping the shark. Ever since becoming a part of the everyday lexicon with the 80’s pop culture hit movie War Games, hackers and hacking have garnered plenty of attention. It seems you cannot commence any conversation around technology without some variant of the term “hack” popping up.
From its humble beginnings at MIT as a word used by model railroad enthusiasts, we seem to be getting away from the original meaning of the word. Everyone wants to co-opt the word for their own purposes to lend an air of credibility and authenticity to their offering. Startups consistently talk about their desire to foster a “hacker culture”. And a whole lot of people in and around technology are calling themselves hackers with not a whiff of irony.
Most people however are not hackers. They are merely pretenders and wannabes hoping to plug into the cool factor that has becoming hacking. If it was just a few people doing this, it would not be much of an issue as every walk of life has its groupies (except maybe chartered accountants). Therefore, as a public service, I am going to help you, my loyal readers, identify who is and who is not a real hacker.
- You Can Program – While this may seem obvious, the term has migrated rather quickly beyond its sheltered techie existence. Anyone that comes up with clever ways to do things is now magically bestowed the title of hacker. I blame Danny O’Brien and the whole Lifehacking movement for this unfortunate turn of events. While there may be value in sharing productivity enhancing and money saving ways to bake potatoes in a microwave or turn oranges into oil lamps, that is not “hacking”. Real hackers code. They use programming languages to make machines do things. They occasionally do some tooling around on the hardware front, like the first hackers were doing. They may even be found using scripts and techniques to make common tasks easier for the purposes of programming. But they are not channeling their inner Martha Stewart.
- You Skirted Ethical and Legal Boundaries – This is not to say that you must be a scofflaw to be a hacker. People that want to swipe personal information, steal corporate secrets, spread computer viruses, and shut down websites are criminals and douchebags*. The more appropriate term for those folks would be “Crackers”. However, every true hacker has an inner rebellious streak and an impish personality. Thus it is only natural that a hacker would bust through a firewall or two, rummage through someone’s account, or perform some sort of non-malicious prank. This is how one builds up his or her cred in the community and builds up one’s skills. While this is not a requirement for hackerdom, those law and order types probably do not exhibit the attitude or coder chops that real hackers possess.
- You Build Your Own Stuff – There are some really awesome tools out there for programmers. From Q&A sites such as Stack Exchange to open source projects to code repositories like Github, even a novice can build a website or application in short order. However, real hackers avoid the off-the-shelf stuff. That is not to say that hackers are leveraging some of this code, and in many cases it makes a world of sense to use other people’s code for common tasks. There is nothing creative nor is there much pride in building a Frankenstein stack of code however. Hackers however take pride in their own work and have the creativity to mold their own unique (and better) solutions. They are not simply cobbling together parts and seeing what works with a few tweaks, they are painting on a new canvas.
- You Are Not a Loner – The image of the lone wolf hacker that sits in his or her bedroom tied to a computer 24/7 with no social life is a media fallacy. Hackers do spend a good portion of time in front of computers, but they have active social lives and healthy real life relationships. In fact, it is hard to be a good hacker if your only exposure to the outside world is a computer screen. It is one thing to “live in code” and quite another to only live in code. Great hackers know this and are part of a community where they are sharing, interacting, bragging, cajoling, and being connected with the human species.
- Coding Is Your Thing – Some folks are weekend code warriors. They come out to the Hackathons and techie startup events to test out their skills, build up their confidence, and build cute little microapps. Then they go back to the 9 to 5 doing something completely different. Then you have the guy or girl that is not technical, gets the tech startup bug, and starts to build something. The code is ugly and the site barely works, but it is an impressive feat nonetheless. Neither the weekend code warrior nor the non-technical founder however are hackers. The people that are hackers code for a living. They are immersed in code and thinking about code and have code on the brain as they sleep at night. Coding is life for true hackers. It is not merely a hobby or a means to an end, because you cannot become great at something if you are not doing it all the time. Whether it is a Michael Jordan, a Warren Buffet, or a Bill Gates, they got to where they did because they were doing their thing ALL THE TIME.
- You Are Building Cool Stuff – There are lots of things that can be built. In the tech startup world, it seems like the majority of sites and apps are merely derivatives of existing ideas. They are interesting and look good, but they are not exactly pushing new ground. In the corporate and enterprise tech world, a lot of programming is dedicated to BAU (business as usual) activities. Hackers avoid that crap altogether and gravitate towards things are a new and challenging. They are tackling the hard problems in computing, whether it is building better frameworks, eeking out better performance, hardening security, pushing mobile boundaries, or some other really hairy and complex problem.
- You Need No Credentials – There are plenty of fancy degrees one can get in computer science and engineering. There are all sorts of credential and certification programs to bolster your resume. One can attain big titles like VP of this or CTO of that. Real hackers will have none of that. This is not to say that hackers do not go to college and get degrees. Some level of formal schooling is helpful, but the mind of a hacker is one of natural curiosity. They will figure out the things and acquire the knowledge they need outside of any structured program. They are also not careerists, so the whole rising up the corporate structure thing is not their bag. You will not find most hackers in the upper echelons of the executive ranks. Why? They would rather be coding and building stuff than dealing with all the corporate political crap.
Maybe you are reading this and think I am a jerk. I am not writing this however to say you suck as a programmer. Nor is this meant to diminish what you are doing in your work or as a hobby. The fact that you code and are building something is awesome and should be valued. And for the record, I am certainly NOT a hacker, nor am I much of a programmer at this point in my life.
The word hacker should not be commoditized. It is important to recapture the term hacker and bring it back to what it truly means. The word has gotten bandied about in ways that serve to diminish what true hacking is all about and runs counter to the spirit of the hacker’s creed. Instead of calling yourself a hacker, prove it with what you build, share it with the world, challenge the status quo, and contribute positively to the community.
* Exception to this rule: If you are trapped in a country ruled by an evil, oppressive dictatorship, then by all means bring down their servers and steal their secrets.
25 Notes/ Hide
- kristoffzoghbi-blog reblogged this from marksbirch
- significantfigures liked this
- myperspectiveofdaworld liked this
- rosesxdaggers reblogged this from marksbirch
- f4usto reblogged this from marksbirch
- arthurtcorry liked this
- confirmedsinbin reblogged this from proletarianinstinct
- jipc liked this
- techerous liked this
- iamjustcara liked this
- proletarianinstinct reblogged this from anarchohacktivist
- anarchohacktivist reblogged this from marksbirch
- section9 liked this
- marksbirch posted this