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>Isn't Craig living the hacker's dream? A reasonably useful service that provides value to customer, that once built you don't have to put much effort into main

>Isn't Craig living the hacker's dream? A reasonably useful service that provides value to customer, that once built you don't have to put much effort into maintaining or improving - because it works. Then you spend the rest of your free time on the beach. I don't know about you, but real hackers get personal enjoyment from creating software, products, and innovating. They don't do it so they can "spend the rest of their free time on the beach." In fact, if you are trying to just make enough money to spend the rest of your free time on the beach etc, you're probably not a real hacker.

phil21 10y ago
The beach was a bad example, but I think we agree here. I used it to illustrate that a hacker (at least what I think of when I say the word) is not primarily motivated by money - he's motivated by creating useful things people use. The goal of automating your daily job out of existence so you can move on to more enjoyable activities. Just a side note: some of the best hacking I've done was on a beach building some really cool stuff. So in my world (I do consider myself a hacker, if a poor version of one) if I create something like Craigslist I don't try to squeeze every ounce of profit out of it at the expense of customers and employees. I spend as little time as possible on that solved problem which pays my bills, and I go hack on new problems that have yet to be solved. This may be in tech, but it may simply be learning an entirely different skill entirely. Work I leave as work, and of course hack on any interesting problems that come from that area of my life as needed. If I did my job right though building it, that should be relatively rare. > In fact, if you are trying to just make enough money to spend the rest of your free time on the beach etc, you're probably not a real hacker. I'd probably argue against this based on my above statement. I know very few folks I would describe as hackers who are motivated to make money beyond what they need to comfortably live and fund the projects/research they are personally interested in. Stacking millions in a bank account isn't something that motivates the folks I was describing - building things and living a free life is what I think motivates that archetype.

phil21 10y ago

The beach was a bad example, but I think we agree here. I used it to illustrate that a hacker (at least what I think of when I say the word) is not primarily motivated by money - he's motivated by creating useful things people use. The goal of automating your daily job out of existence so you can move on to more enjoyable activities. Just a side note: some of the best hacking I've done was on a beach building some really cool stuff. So in my world (I do consider myself a hacker, if a poor version of one) if I create something like Craigslist I don't try to squeeze every ounce of profit out of it at the expense of customers and employees. I spend as little time as possible on that solved problem which pays my bills, and I go hack on new problems that have yet to be solved. This may be in tech, but it may simply be learning an entirely different skill entirely. Work I leave as work, and of course hack on any interesting problems that come from that area of my life as needed. If I did my job right though building it, that should be relatively rare. > In fact, if you are trying to just make enough money to spend the rest of your free time on the beach etc, you're probably not a real hacker. I'd probably argue against this based on my above statement. I know very few folks I would describe as hackers who are motivated to make money beyond what they need to comfortably live and fund the projects/research they are personally interested in. Stacking millions in a bank account isn't something that motivates the folks I was describing - building things and living a free life is what I think motivates that archetype.