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> somehow are here just to post and comment about non-programming topics. I comment way more on non-programming topics because that's where I think I can contr

by Mezzie 3y ago

> somehow are here just to post and comment about non-programming topics. I comment way more on non-programming topics because that's where I think I can contribute - most people on here are better programmers than I am but I have life experiences that are fairly unusual for this particular bubble. I do read the technical posts but I don't have much to say. As for the 'somehow', I was raised by hackers and I used to be one - I'm too much of a generalist to fully commit to it but I'm 'culturally' a hacker/hacker adjacent. I imagine our ranks are growing for various reasons, which might explain some of the shift.

JohnFen 3y ago
> I'm too much of a generalist But one of the primary traits of hackers is that they tend to be generalists.
- Mezzie 3y ago
  I care about other things and people as much as tech. I can't just tinker with computers/machines and to stay up to date you have to invest some time in both the work and the communities. I'm very, very much a generalist. My other hobbies that straddle the line between hobby and professional interest (in that I do them for play but have gotten money for them) include fiction writing, marketing psychology, humanities and qualitative research, and bra fitting. Currently I'm off on a spree about the physiological nature of emotions and I'm getting really into experiences that are primarily physical and learning about biology in my spare time, which means I don't spend it coding or tinkering. I can still code/tinker/approach tech problems with a hacker mindset, but I don't like to pretend I'm as good as people who really love it. I'm a dilettante to my core.
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    See my other comment about what being a "hacker" traditionally means. It's not specifically tech-related. Your explorations of the physiological nature of emotions is well within the scope of hacking. I honestly think that one of the things that has diminished the hacker community to a degree is that it has become synonymous in most people's minds with computers. But really, computer hackers are just one subset of the larger hacker community. There are legit hackers who have no interaction with computers beyond what most people do.
    - Mezzie 3y ago
      I like your point of view (and very much appreciate your comments by the way). By your definition, I would definitely count (as would, say, my cousin who is buying laptops for her kids to take apart and homeschooling them and taking a hacker's approach to parenting or the one who got really into theology for about ten years or my uncle who was obsessed with cameras or...), but I think the prevailing view sees hackerdom as tech (or at the very least mechanical) related and I also believe that hewing closely to a community's default understanding of a term is useful for communication, so I still wouldn't claim the title on HN. In an anthropological/historical/sociological exploration of hackerdom, I probably would. :)
      - JohnFen 3y ago
        That's a very good point. As a hacker, I have a stubbornness and a strong sense of the justice of technical correctness, so I can't help but try keep the larger sense of the word alive. Even if only as part of a background chorus of hackers saying "well, actually..." But I do try to remember that we're the weirdos here.

by Mezzie 3y ago

JohnFen 3y ago

> I'm too much of a generalist But one of the primary traits of hackers is that they tend to be generalists.

Mezzie 3y ago
I care about other things and people as much as tech. I can't just tinker with computers/machines and to stay up to date you have to invest some time in both the work and the communities. I'm very, very much a generalist. My other hobbies that straddle the line between hobby and professional interest (in that I do them for play but have gotten money for them) include fiction writing, marketing psychology, humanities and qualitative research, and bra fitting. Currently I'm off on a spree about the physiological nature of emotions and I'm getting really into experiences that are primarily physical and learning about biology in my spare time, which means I don't spend it coding or tinkering. I can still code/tinker/approach tech problems with a hacker mindset, but I don't like to pretend I'm as good as people who really love it. I'm a dilettante to my core.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  See my other comment about what being a "hacker" traditionally means. It's not specifically tech-related. Your explorations of the physiological nature of emotions is well within the scope of hacking. I honestly think that one of the things that has diminished the hacker community to a degree is that it has become synonymous in most people's minds with computers. But really, computer hackers are just one subset of the larger hacker community. There are legit hackers who have no interaction with computers beyond what most people do.
  - Mezzie 3y ago
    I like your point of view (and very much appreciate your comments by the way). By your definition, I would definitely count (as would, say, my cousin who is buying laptops for her kids to take apart and homeschooling them and taking a hacker's approach to parenting or the one who got really into theology for about ten years or my uncle who was obsessed with cameras or...), but I think the prevailing view sees hackerdom as tech (or at the very least mechanical) related and I also believe that hewing closely to a community's default understanding of a term is useful for communication, so I still wouldn't claim the title on HN. In an anthropological/historical/sociological exploration of hackerdom, I probably would. :)
    - JohnFen 3y ago
      That's a very good point. As a hacker, I have a stubbornness and a strong sense of the justice of technical correctness, so I can't help but try keep the larger sense of the word alive. Even if only as part of a background chorus of hackers saying "well, actually..." But I do try to remember that we're the weirdos here.