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I like the phrase 'catch and release.' We always worked from the philosophy of 'do no harm.' I can certainly see the top poster's side of things -- there are a

by loydb 14y ago

I like the phrase 'catch and release.' We always worked from the philosophy of 'do no harm.' I can certainly see the top poster's side of things -- there are a lot of issues that I feel much differently about as a near-50-year-old than I did as a teenager. For what it's worth, I was never trying to provide moral authority for hacking in the perjorative sense when I wrote it, I was just venting... But you're right, the rebellion was the delicious topping on the technical exploration sundae. By the time I outgrew the illegal portion of things, the technical 'hacking' imperative was firmly established in me, and has continued to this day.

api 14y ago
Oh sure. I'm sure what I did was incredibly annoying to someone, if not downright dangerous. I don't know what the solution is though. We've denuded our society of independent ways of knowing accessible to the young: hacking, cracking, dangerous chemistry sets, and so on. On one hand there are "good" reasons for this. On the other hand: where will the next generation of engineers come from if they can't combine learning with individuation? I really have to underscore this: as a teenager, I had zero to negative interest in anything sanctioned by school or by the adults I was surrounded with. It was by definition lame, constraining, and uninteresting.
deleted 14y ago
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