I define a hack as a use of something in a way it was not intended to be used to achieve a goal. This definition is missing from this essay, and the ones it doe

I define a hack as a use of something in a way it was not intended to be used to achieve a goal. This definition is missing from this essay, and the ones it does present are poor IMO. Under my definition, hacking falls entirely in domain of the Lisp programmer. Fortran engineers are the ones who get fired for hacking. There is nothing inherently wrong with the "Fortran" approach. Sometimes, it is necessary. But it's clear that the Lisp-style solution is always preferable unless proven inadequate for the problem at hand.