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I think our definition fits pretty well with ESR's and the definition of "hacker" from the Jargon file[1]: 1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of prog
by nicholasjbs 14y ago
I think our definition fits pretty well with ESR's and the definition of "hacker" from the Jargon file[1]:
1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary.
2. One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming. (Though as we point out, we don't think being obsessive is necessary.)
Also, in ESR's "How to be a hacker"[2] he includes both learning to write and communicate well and sharing what you learn and build with others as requirements for being a hacker.
[1] http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/H/hacker.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/H/hacker.html
[2] http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#skills4 http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#skills4
EDIT: To anyone reading the parent comment without clicking through to the blog post it's excerpting, please note the parent comment ignores the first two criteria we list:
Someone who is intellectually curious. Hackers enjoy tinkering and understanding how things work. They revel in going deeper into things, and love asking questions: How can I make my code easier to debug? What is making my program slow? How does this work?
Someone who enjoys programming. We spend most of our time at Hacker School programming, there aren't grades or tests to make you study, and you don't get a degree or certificate for doing Hacker School, so it's important that you like coding.
- alecco 14y agoNo. You are a marketer/promoter/pusher. Junior programmers coding on fad frameworks at borderline user level are far from hackers in every possible definition of the word.
- vitno 14y agoLook at the githubs of the people in the batches. There is very little "fad frameworking" going on.
- alecco 14y agoLinks?
- nicholasjbs 14y agohttps://github.com/jamii https://github.com/jamii https://github.com/darius https://github.com/darius
- alecco 14y agoNot framework coders, but still far from hackers. For example: https://github.com/darius/parson/blob/master/parson.py https://github.com/darius/parson/blob/master/parson.py
- abecedarius 14y agoAs the author, I'd welcome tips to make it better. (Though efficient implementation is not a priority since the API hasn't settled.) Both Jamie's and my work have been high-ranked on HN's front page, for what it's worth; and I'd call the Hacker School facilitators hackers by any reasonable standard.
- alecco 14y agoI'm sorry for all this. I'm an ass.
- plinkplonk 14y agosee http://wry.me/~darius/ http://wry.me/~darius/. The "Darius Bacon isn't a hacker" idea has no legs to stand on (and you should be ashamed for saying so).
- gruseom 14y agoI hope everyone who bothered to read this far realizes what an ass you just made of yourself by saying that Darius Bacon is "far from a hacker". He is a consummate hacker. When I noticed that he was spending time at Hacker School I was impressed (and a little envious). You should make the apology you owe him (and HN, for mucking this thread up with utterly inappropriate personal attacks) and then go study his work.
- alecco 14y agoThe blogs of the founders, enough for my point: http://unschooled.org/ http://unschooled.org/ http://dave.is/ http://dave.is/
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]