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I tend to think that 'hacker' is like 'philosopher': something other people call one, not something one calls oneself. This implies that these terms are honorif

by ionfish 17y ago

I tend to think that 'hacker' is like 'philosopher': something other people call one, not something one calls oneself. This implies that these terms are honorifics, not mere descriptions. That being said, there are clearly plenty of people who disagree. For some philosophers (or perhaps merely academics who do philosophy!) see this discussion: http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2009/05/who-is-a-philosopher-j-stanley.html http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2009/05/who-is-a-philo... And of course there's the Jargon File entry for the term 'hacker', which states that It is better to be described as a hacker by others than to describe oneself that way. Hackers consider themselves something of an elite (a meritocracy based on ability), though one to which new members are gladly welcome. There is thus a certain ego satisfaction to be had in identifying yourself as a hacker (but if you claim to be one and are not, you'll quickly be labeled bogus). http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/H/hacker.html http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/H/hacker.html

profquail 17y ago
I agree. There's plenty of people that would call me a "hacker" (my non-technical friends joke with me about it), but I wouldn't describe myself as one. Besides, I don't even know Clojure! o_O
- Davertron 17y ago
  I think this often results from people not understanding what you do at all, so when they see you do something unfamiliar at a computer, you seem like a hacker to them. This seems to happen a lot when I pop open a shell and start working at the command line: it just seems like voodoo to certain people (like my parents or girlfriend). If you can get the same affect by showing something off to the folks who read hacker news though, you're probably a hacker in the sense it's used around here. Oh, and I don't know Clojure either, and I'm not losing any sleep over it :)
raganwald 17y ago
On the whole "Don't call yourself a hacker thing," I say Bah! It stinks of false modesty, something like those hideously insincere statements politicians make when jockeying for position before an election: I am not running for office, but if asked to serve.... Sure I'm a hacker. I sincerely don't think I'm a good hacker and I have the lack of accomplishments to prove it. But sure I'm a hacker.

by ionfish 17y ago

profquail 17y ago

I agree. There's plenty of people that would call me a "hacker" (my non-technical friends joke with me about it), but I wouldn't describe myself as one. Besides, I don't even know Clojure! o_O

Davertron 17y ago
I think this often results from people not understanding what you do at all, so when they see you do something unfamiliar at a computer, you seem like a hacker to them. This seems to happen a lot when I pop open a shell and start working at the command line: it just seems like voodoo to certain people (like my parents or girlfriend). If you can get the same affect by showing something off to the folks who read hacker news though, you're probably a hacker in the sense it's used around here. Oh, and I don't know Clojure either, and I'm not losing any sleep over it :)

raganwald 17y ago

On the whole "Don't call yourself a hacker thing," I say Bah! It stinks of false modesty, something like those hideously insincere statements politicians make when jockeying for position before an election: I am not running for office, but if asked to serve.... Sure I'm a hacker. I sincerely don't think I'm a good hacker and I have the lack of accomplishments to prove it. But sure I'm a hacker.