2024-03-17 12:10:25
2022-11-01 13:18:40
2022-11-01 13:08:31
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Content warning: My Views of Being a Hacker
I fell long and hard into the hacking world as a teenager, partially through the punk scene and partially through reading posts and grabbing shared text files through BBSes. I was 14.
I was hungry. I was curious. I wanted to learn, do, and mingle.
I saw Hackers in the theater when I was 16. I rented Sneakers on VHS. I was getting heavily drawn into cyberpunk. I was already using Linux and learning about both its internals, as well as the internals of Solaris (the only UNIX we had a copy of), and Windows NT.
I then discovered the Cult of the Dead Cow, 2600, Phrack, and the Church of the SubGenius. Pure bliss.
I don't know what happened, but I read The Cathedral and the Bazaar, found the Free Software Foundation, and suddenly in my 20s... I was fucking BORING. All the mindset and style suddenly got thrown in the trunk.
I hated it. I hated myself for doing this to myself. This wasn't the kind of hacker I wanted to be... turn into a grumpy, boring, insufferable asshole? No, I couldn't do that.
In my 30s, I cast that aside. I began to embrace my old self again. I started to feel whole again.
Now, in my 40s, I look back and I think about this... Eric Raymond was gatekeeping. Him and his ilk are not the masters. They're the assholes. Who the fuck are they to tell us what kinds of hackers we should be? They claim "don't conform", not knowing the irony in their words and actions.
Which is why I say, I will be the kind of hacker that pisses ESR off to no end. I will do it my way.
Hack the Planet. Piss off the gatekeepers.
#HackThePlanet
I was hungry. I was curious. I wanted to learn, do, and mingle.
I saw Hackers in the theater when I was 16. I rented Sneakers on VHS. I was getting heavily drawn into cyberpunk. I was already using Linux and learning about both its internals, as well as the internals of Solaris (the only UNIX we had a copy of), and Windows NT.
I then discovered the Cult of the Dead Cow, 2600, Phrack, and the Church of the SubGenius. Pure bliss.
I don't know what happened, but I read The Cathedral and the Bazaar, found the Free Software Foundation, and suddenly in my 20s... I was fucking BORING. All the mindset and style suddenly got thrown in the trunk.
I hated it. I hated myself for doing this to myself. This wasn't the kind of hacker I wanted to be... turn into a grumpy, boring, insufferable asshole? No, I couldn't do that.
In my 30s, I cast that aside. I began to embrace my old self again. I started to feel whole again.
Now, in my 40s, I look back and I think about this... Eric Raymond was gatekeeping. Him and his ilk are not the masters. They're the assholes. Who the fuck are they to tell us what kinds of hackers we should be? They claim "don't conform", not knowing the irony in their words and actions.
Which is why I say, I will be the kind of hacker that pisses ESR off to no end. I will do it my way.
Hack the Planet. Piss off the gatekeepers.
#HackThePlanet
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The 500 Hats of LambdaCalculus
•Content warning: re: My Views of Being a Hacker
The 500 Hats of LambdaCalculus
•Content warning: re: My Views of Being a Hacker
https://youtu.be/Vh_x--PJ7RQ
Gates of Steel (2009 Remaster)
YouTubePope Bob
•Content warning: My Views of Being a Hacker
Daniel Chateau (シャトー・ダニエル)
•Content warning: re: My Views of Being a Hacker
jwatt
•Content warning: re: My Views of Being a Hacker
FaZe Ganley
•Content warning: My Views of Being a Hacker
The 500 Hats of LambdaCalculus
•Content warning: My Views of Being a Hacker
The 500 Hats of LambdaCalculus
•Content warning: My Views of Being a Hacker
jonathankoren
•Profile of a J Random Hacker is such a thinly veiled self description.
I think the hacker/punk ethos is still around, it’s just queers instead of boring cis straight white libertarian autistic men leading the way.
Shouldn’t be surprising. The power dynamic changed in the past 30 years. The leading edge always comes from the margins.
The 500 Hats of LambdaCalculus
•Michael Potter
•Content warning: My Views of Being a Hacker
I'd be the "hapless techno-weenie" from Hackers. When I discovered Linux, I was a corporate drone grumbling about the severe failings of Windows NT 4 server.
I watched as the free software movement pushed juggernauts like Microsoft back into their corner and restored balance to the market. It was enlightened self-interest in action.
Now, our juggernauts are AWS, etc, and we really need viable free alternatives for both clouds and corporations.
silverwizard
Content warning: My Views of Being a Hacker
OliveBrunch
•Content warning: My Views of Being a Hacker
I had a similar progression (although I found ESR essays earlier in my journey).
It has been disappointing seeing how those ideals have been co-opted by tech companies to chase profit above all.
10 years ago I was so excited about Linux and open source "winning" that I was blind to the true nature of the companies pushing for it. Now I realize it was a deal with the devil.
Thankfully there are still people keeping the old hacker spirit alive.