4 ms·

off-topic: I though it was called _Hacker_ News because it used to be a hacking oriented board. Apparently it has always been for entrepreneurs, so where does t

by Jyaif 14y ago

off-topic: I though it was called _Hacker_ News because it used to be a hacking oriented board. Apparently it has always been for entrepreneurs, so where does the name come from?

brudgers 14y ago
The original definition of "hacker" before it entered the media.
- hackinthebochs 14y ago
  But its the media's interpretation that made it popular and widespread, which is the only reason any of us care to "take it back". Seems rather ironic to me.
  - irishcoffee 14y ago
    Only people who have some hipster-like affinity for the term I think. "A rose by any other name..."
  - snogglethorpe 14y ago
    This is not true, I think. The self-identification with the term "hacker" (in the good sense) is pretty strong amongst a lot of people from "those days." The co-option by the media to mean something else was an annoyance, but really hasn't changed that a whole lot. In other words, it's a personal issue, and nothing to with popularity per-se. It's like you and a group of childhood friends called yourself "the bucket gang" or something, to the degree that this usage pervaded your personal communications. If suddenly the media started using that term to talk about terrorists or something, you and your friends would probably be annoyed, but it probably wouldn't affect your personal usage, because the connection is already simply too strong; you wouldn't suddenly start using this personal term more often because of the media co-option.
    - hackinthebochs 14y ago
      It seems to me that those trying to take it back now aren't the same ones that identified as (good) hackers 30 or so years ago (with a few exceptions I'm sure). The 20-somethings that are fighting for it now are too young to have known the original meaning. They are drawn to the word because of the power it has in our culture. But that power is tied to the negative meaning. It seems disingenuous to argue for its original meaning when the negative meaning is all you've ever known.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
koushikn 14y ago
Is there a compsci oriented discussion forum with comaparable quality as HN in terms of discussions without the entrepreneurship bias? I would love to know and start following if a such a thing exists.
- evolve2k 14y ago
  Is this the moment to reflect on Slashdot? I have a few nontrepeneurial geek friends who still swear by /.
  - akldfgj 14y ago
    I still read Slashdot our of habit, but the technical content of the conversation is gone. It's mostly predestriant gripes about technopolitics and copyright/patent/microsoft/apple/google rantng.
- stonemetal 14y ago
  reddit has a /compsci that is pretty good, and /programming gets pretty much all the same technical articles hn does without the entrepreneurship ones.
  - pkamb 14y ago
    Are there any good subreddits for "patio11-esque" content? Not hard CS, not vc startups, not /r/SEO, but kinda the marketing/small-online-business thing?
- recursive 14y ago
  Lambda the Ultimate is pretty good. If anything, I'd say the quality is higher than HN.
  - akldfgj 14y ago
    LtU is extremely academic -- they expect Ph.D-level discussion in the submissions and comments. Which is wonderful, but mostly inaccessible to non--progrmaming-language-PhDs
marklabedz 14y ago
From the news submission guidelines -- "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."
ilamont 14y ago
If you read Jessica Livingston's "Founders At Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days" published around the same Hacker News came into being, the connection will become clearer. The founders interviewed in the book were (mostly) hackers who created notable products and companies -- it's their stories of how they became entrepreneurs.
- sausagefeet 14y ago
  This usage of the term predates even that. http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#what_is http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#what_is
thedeuce 14y ago
good question; it should be renamed to Entrepreneurs news then
aquateen 14y ago
Originally it was called "Startup News". PG announced he was making a new site not focused on startups, since that got kind of dull. Instead he changed the name of this site and nothing really changed. My memory is kind of vague, but I believe that is more or less accurate.

by Jyaif 14y ago

off-topic: I though it was called _Hacker_ News because it used to be a hacking oriented board. Apparently it has always been for entrepreneurs, so where does the name come from?

brudgers 14y ago

The original definition of "hacker" before it entered the media.

hackinthebochs 14y ago
But its the media's interpretation that made it popular and widespread, which is the only reason any of us care to "take it back". Seems rather ironic to me.
- irishcoffee 14y ago
  Only people who have some hipster-like affinity for the term I think. "A rose by any other name..."
- snogglethorpe 14y ago
  This is not true, I think. The self-identification with the term "hacker" (in the good sense) is pretty strong amongst a lot of people from "those days." The co-option by the media to mean something else was an annoyance, but really hasn't changed that a whole lot. In other words, it's a personal issue, and nothing to with popularity per-se. It's like you and a group of childhood friends called yourself "the bucket gang" or something, to the degree that this usage pervaded your personal communications. If suddenly the media started using that term to talk about terrorists or something, you and your friends would probably be annoyed, but it probably wouldn't affect your personal usage, because the connection is already simply too strong; you wouldn't suddenly start using this personal term more often because of the media co-option.
  - hackinthebochs 14y ago
    It seems to me that those trying to take it back now aren't the same ones that identified as (good) hackers 30 or so years ago (with a few exceptions I'm sure). The 20-somethings that are fighting for it now are too young to have known the original meaning. They are drawn to the word because of the power it has in our culture. But that power is tied to the negative meaning. It seems disingenuous to argue for its original meaning when the negative meaning is all you've ever known.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

koushikn 14y ago

Is there a compsci oriented discussion forum with comaparable quality as HN in terms of discussions without the entrepreneurship bias? I would love to know and start following if a such a thing exists.

evolve2k 14y ago
Is this the moment to reflect on Slashdot? I have a few nontrepeneurial geek friends who still swear by /.
- akldfgj 14y ago
  I still read Slashdot our of habit, but the technical content of the conversation is gone. It's mostly predestriant gripes about technopolitics and copyright/patent/microsoft/apple/google rantng.
stonemetal 14y ago
reddit has a /compsci that is pretty good, and /programming gets pretty much all the same technical articles hn does without the entrepreneurship ones.
- pkamb 14y ago
  Are there any good subreddits for "patio11-esque" content? Not hard CS, not vc startups, not /r/SEO, but kinda the marketing/small-online-business thing?
recursive 14y ago
Lambda the Ultimate is pretty good. If anything, I'd say the quality is higher than HN.
- akldfgj 14y ago
  LtU is extremely academic -- they expect Ph.D-level discussion in the submissions and comments. Which is wonderful, but mostly inaccessible to non--progrmaming-language-PhDs

marklabedz 14y ago

From the news submission guidelines -- "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."

ilamont 14y ago

If you read Jessica Livingston's "Founders At Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days" published around the same Hacker News came into being, the connection will become clearer. The founders interviewed in the book were (mostly) hackers who created notable products and companies -- it's their stories of how they became entrepreneurs.

sausagefeet 14y ago
This usage of the term predates even that. http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#what_is http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#what_is

thedeuce 14y ago

good question; it should be renamed to Entrepreneurs news then

aquateen 14y ago

Originally it was called "Startup News". PG announced he was making a new site not focused on startups, since that got kind of dull. Instead he changed the name of this site and nothing really changed. My memory is kind of vague, but I believe that is more or less accurate.