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Miloslav Ciz 2024-02-20 16:24:28 +01:00
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@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ Let us now attempt to briefly summarize what it means to be a hacker:
- **Hacker values [fun](fun.md) and playfulness** -- despite his serious dedication to the art, he hates seriousness of the business guys and "suits", as well as the self-centered, egoistic attitude of "modern hackers" who might see or present themselves as kind of [superheroes](hero_culture.md). A hacker will give his programs funny names rather than names that would make for a good business product, a hacker will insert jokes in his source code (e.g. [hex](hexadecimal.md) values such as 0xBEEFFACE), documentation and speech ([Jargon File](jargon_file.md) has a whole section on how hackers construct and use words).
- **Hacker aims for ingenuity, cleverness, elegance, [minimalism](minimalism.md), thinking out of the box** etc. As such he loves [math](math.md), puzzles, intellectual challenges (such as [code golfing](code_golf.md)) and despises ugly commercial ways of mainstream technology, i.e. that which is [bloated](bloat.md), hastily made to impress by visuals or cheap "killer features" while hiding ugly internals etc.
- **Hacker loves hacking and tinkering in itself -- hacking is the goal, not the means. Hacking is [art](art.md) and carries deep intellectual and even spiritual value.** To a hacker it is a joy to program computers and he aims for nothing more than enjoy endless hours of programming, programming is NOT a tool to achieve low goals such as monetary profit or mainstream fame. Many hackers claim that hacking is better than [sex](sex.md) (though it is questionable whether many of them have experience with the latter).
- **Hacker is an elitist, attitude is not enough for being a hacker**, skill is of essential importance. Correct attitude and mindset are important and necessary but not sufficient (as ESR writes: "attitude is no substitute for competence") -- if you don't excel at hacking, you are not a hacker. This is in contrast e.g. with music genre fans where you can consider yourself to be "punk" or "metal" even if you can't play any musical instrument or with the [modern](modern.md) "inclusive" "[coder](coding.md)" culture in which you can easily be called a game developer even if you cannot [program](programming.md) etc. Part of hackerdom is also an aim for good reputation among others, to be called a hacker by OTHERS, HOWEVER this has to be achieved without asking or self promotion, merely through doing good hacking, you must not beg others to "please call you a hacker" or promote your programs with marketing to achieve cheap popularity -- no, reputation or the title of hacker is NOT the goal in itself, the goal is good hacking and reputation is an indication you achieved it.
- **Hacker is an elitist, attitude is not enough for being a hacker**, skill is of essential importance. Correct attitude and mindset are important and necessary but not sufficient (as ESR writes: "attitude is no substitute for competence") -- if you don't excel at hacking, you are not a hacker. This is in contrast e.g. with music genre fans where you can "identify yourself" as being "punk" or "metal" even if you can't play any musical instrument or with the [modern](modern.md) "inclusive" "[coder](coding.md)" culture in which you can easily be called a game developer even if you cannot [program](programming.md) etc. Part of hackerdom is also an aim for good reputation among others, to be called a hacker by OTHERS, HOWEVER this has to be achieved without asking or self promotion, merely through doing good hacking, you must not beg others to "please call you a hacker" or promote your programs with marketing to achieve cheap popularity -- no, reputation or the title of hacker is NOT the goal in itself, the goal is good hacking and reputation is an indication you achieved it.
- **Hacker has strong opinions about technology**, for example about what the best [text editor](text_editor.md) or best [programming language](programming_language.md) is. However hackers may also sometimes disagree which results in **[holy wars](holy_war.md)**.
Let's mention a few [people](people.md) who were at their time regarded by at least some as true hackers, however note that many of them betrayed some of the hacker ways either later in life or even in their young years -- people aren't perfect and no single individual is a perfect example of a whole culture. With that said, those regarded hackers included Melvin Kaye aka [Mel](mel.md), [Richard Stallman](rms.md), [Linus Torvalds](linus_torvalds.md), [Eric S. Raymond](esr.md), [Ken Thompson](ken_thompson.md), [Dennis Ritchie](dennis_ritchie.md), [Richard Greenblatt](greenblatt.md), [Bill Gosper](bill_gosper.md), [Steve Wozniak](wozniak.md) or [Larry Wall](larry_wall.md).