Ask HN: What does "Hacker" mean to you?

I'm interested in the use of the term hacker to describe tech entrepreneurs. I haven't seen this equivalency outside of YC, but then I don't live in Silicon Valley. Is it common? Here in the flyover states, I've always[1] used hacking to mean the act of modifying existing assets, usually from a third party, as opposed to original creation. Hacking is useful, especially in the age of open source, but in this sense, to call an innovator a hacker seems like calling a chef a chopper. Do we now use hacking to mean any software development, or to mean modifying the way people live? Or maybe it's simpler than that - an expansion on the old black-hat connotation: hackers are no longer mere bandits on the frontier, but a whole culture of badass cowboys rewriting the rules of gold country. Clearly this is not the Foremost Important Question of Our Time[2], but I'd genuinely like to know how the hackers of Hacker News think of themselves. [1] I'm kind of old. [2] Presumably, "how will Google be made irrelevant?"