Hmm, I think it depends on who is using it out West. There are plenty of MIT-style hackers in CA who describe themselves as such, including many on HN. But yo

Hmm, I think it depends on who is using it out West. There are plenty of MIT-style hackers in CA who describe themselves as such, including many on HN. But you may be partly right, I think that the way it's used among SV entrepreneurs differs a little from the MIT connotation. But all that is pretty immaterial to the question at hand. Both hacker subcultures are probably intended as the target of intimidation.