I think "beating" is fundamentally different than "hacking." I view hacking as more of an act of creativity, or at the very worst an act of defiance. "Beating"

I think "beating" is fundamentally different than "hacking." I view hacking as more of an act of creativity, or at the very worst an act of defiance. "Beating" implies that someone has been "beat"; there's a winner and a loser. "Hacking" a system can just as easily be a win-win. It just requires a certain amount of "ballsiness" in putting yourself out there to try to change something that already exists, and a certain amount of opportunism in recognizing when things can be done differently without violating rules/personal ethics/the law.