24 ms·

Since When Is "Hacker" a Bad Word?

5 points by jolie 17y ago

derefr 17y ago
Okay, let me say this again in here, because it's more applicable: a hacker is an aesthete. No more, no less. That's where both the positive and the negative connotations of a "hack" come from--hackers judge things on their beauty/elegance/cleverness/Quality/whatever other term you want to use for an aesthetic scale, not on their moral or ethical worth/utility. Both the amateur crackers who break into systems for fun, and the FOSS writers, are "hackers" in the truest sense of the word, because they're both doing things that appeal to their aesthetic senses. Of course, artists are also, by and large, aesthetes. The differences between "hacker" and "artist" are sort of fuzzy, really: hackers don't necessarily create, while artists are usually expected to; artists usually specialize in a given form or medium, while hackers aren't expected to—in fact, a hacker is usually interested in as many forms of aesthetic expression as they can get their hands on (although, for some reason, they usually don't like the fine arts—this is probably more to do with the connotations of fine art and its relationship to intelligence in Western culture than anything else.) More precisely, though, a hacker is mostly interested in new forms of aesthetic expression, where the "classics" haven't yet solidified and there's no canon skills or methods required before one may dive in. da Vinci would be both a hacker and an artist in his own period, but brought forward to today he would merely be the latter. "Hacker" could be replaced in this day and age with "aesthete" and lose almost none of its meaning (or "neophile aesthete" and lose none at all.)
- jacquesm 17y ago
  That's all fine and good but the 'popular' use of the word hacker is uniformly negative. That is the whole problem here there are two disjoint sets of people that use the word in an almost opposite way. The popular use does not have room for a creative angle or a 'for fun' element, it associates hacking with criminal acts. That you and I would not use the word in that way is lost on the large majority of the English speaking world. On HN if someone would call a defacer a hacker I would likely point out that that is improper use of the word, but if it were a mainstream publication I would not because the word has changed its meaning too far to turn it back (or at least, I think it has).
- cema 17y ago
  Very perceptive. I have not thought of this angle! I think it is important, however, to note that a hacker, the way the word is usually understood, is necessarily part engineer, part craftsman, not just an artist (and, frankly, not necessarily that much of an artist at all). In his book Coders at work, in which Peter Seibel interviewed a number of prominent coders (really, hackers of software), and one of the question he asked all of them was if they thought of themselves as artists, scientists, engineers, craftsmen, etc. Answers varied, but in general they suggested a mix. Thanks again for an interesting approach.
SimonDorfman 17y ago
Here's my attempt to define hacker from a talk/preso I gave a couple months ago to an artist crowd: "Currently, "hacker" is used in two main ways, one pejorative and one complimentary. The pejorative, main-stream definition can be summed up as: a computer criminal. The complimentary definition is harder to define, but something like this: basically, a hacker is a curious person that repurposes stuff, often in a playful or clever or creative way; stretching some-thing’s capabilities in a new direction it wasn’t designed for." video: http://www.gumbolabs.org/2009/11/11/simon-dorfmans-pecha-kucha-presentation-about-gumbo-labs-video/ http://www.gumbolabs.org/2009/11/11/simon-dorfmans-pecha-kuc... slides: http://www.gumbolabs.org/2009/10/30/slides-from-my-gumbo-labs-presentation-at-pecha-kucha-last-night/ http://www.gumbolabs.org/2009/10/30/slides-from-my-gumbo-lab...
ThinkWriteMute 17y ago
Since Angelina Jolie was 19.

5 points by jolie 17y ago

Okay, let me say this again in here, because it's more applicable: a hacker is an aesthete. No more, no less. That's where both the positive and the negative connotations of a "hack" come from--hackers judge things on their beauty/elegance/cleverness/Quality/whatever other term you want to use for an aesthetic scale, not on their moral or ethical worth/utility. Both the amateur crackers who break into systems for fun, and the FOSS writers, are "hackers" in the truest sense of the word, because they're both doing things that appeal to their aesthetic senses. Of course, artists are also, by and large, aesthetes. The differences between "hacker" and "artist" are sort of fuzzy, really: hackers don't necessarily create, while artists are usually expected to; artists usually specialize in a given form or medium, while hackers aren't expected to—in fact, a hacker is usually interested in as many forms of aesthetic expression as they can get their hands on (although, for some reason, they usually don't like the fine arts—this is probably more to do with the connotations of fine art and its relationship to intelligence in Western culture than anything else.) More precisely, though, a hacker is mostly interested in new forms of aesthetic expression, where the "classics" haven't yet solidified and there's no canon skills or methods required before one may dive in. da Vinci would be both a hacker and an artist in his own period, but brought forward to today he would merely be the latter. "Hacker" could be replaced in this day and age with "aesthete" and lose almost none of its meaning (or "neophile aesthete" and lose none at all.)

jacquesm 17y ago
That's all fine and good but the 'popular' use of the word hacker is uniformly negative. That is the whole problem here there are two disjoint sets of people that use the word in an almost opposite way. The popular use does not have room for a creative angle or a 'for fun' element, it associates hacking with criminal acts. That you and I would not use the word in that way is lost on the large majority of the English speaking world. On HN if someone would call a defacer a hacker I would likely point out that that is improper use of the word, but if it were a mainstream publication I would not because the word has changed its meaning too far to turn it back (or at least, I think it has).
cema 17y ago
Very perceptive. I have not thought of this angle! I think it is important, however, to note that a hacker, the way the word is usually understood, is necessarily part engineer, part craftsman, not just an artist (and, frankly, not necessarily that much of an artist at all). In his book Coders at work, in which Peter Seibel interviewed a number of prominent coders (really, hackers of software), and one of the question he asked all of them was if they thought of themselves as artists, scientists, engineers, craftsmen, etc. Answers varied, but in general they suggested a mix. Thanks again for an interesting approach.

SimonDorfman 17y ago

Here's my attempt to define hacker from a talk/preso I gave a couple months ago to an artist crowd: "Currently, "hacker" is used in two main ways, one pejorative and one complimentary. The pejorative, main-stream definition can be summed up as: a computer criminal. The complimentary definition is harder to define, but something like this: basically, a hacker is a curious person that repurposes stuff, often in a playful or clever or creative way; stretching some-thing’s capabilities in a new direction it wasn’t designed for." video: http://www.gumbolabs.org/2009/11/11/simon-dorfmans-pecha-kucha-presentation-about-gumbo-labs-video/ http://www.gumbolabs.org/2009/11/11/simon-dorfmans-pecha-kuc... slides: http://www.gumbolabs.org/2009/10/30/slides-from-my-gumbo-labs-presentation-at-pecha-kucha-last-night/ http://www.gumbolabs.org/2009/10/30/slides-from-my-gumbo-lab...

ThinkWriteMute 17y ago

Since Angelina Jolie was 19.