> Where have all the hackers gone? They are still around, I'm in a community with a few of them. They are just quietly working on small relatively unknown hobb

> Where have all the hackers gone? They are still around, I'm in a community with a few of them. They are just quietly working on small relatively unknown hobby projects in their spare time, while simply putting in their hours to get their paycheck. The big companies have so much capital that they can very easily capture a market and get mind share, which the small hacker types building actually good and useful software have zero chance at getting anywhere. Software companies are controlled by MBA types, and as such the hacker types get very little input into the development and direction of software. Having to build software for the sole purpose of making the shareholders more money is demoralizing. Hacker types want to make cool useful software that benefits users, which unfortunately isn't very profitable. Modern programming culture is cult-like in its fad chasing and full of "Best Practices" grifters. There is a ton of useless cruft and friction in software development, however if you're not chasing the latest fads and not building software according to the latest religious writings, you'll get excommunicated. They're still around, they've just been pushed out in the name of shareholder value and "Best Practices".