The Hacker's Manifesto (1986)
phrack.org
phrack.org
This really spoke to me when I was a kid. Young me was really attached to the notion of creating your own destiny and taking responsibility for your own successes and failures. Back then, felt like a lot of people were just big fat whiners.
Loyd Blankenship would go on to focus pretty heavily on his woodworking activities.
Make of that what you will. :)
I actually come to hacker news for a reason close to this. This is a space where no one judges me, belittles me, or criticizes me for things I couldn't possibly choose. I know that I end up wasting a lot of time here, but somehow it is a release that keeps me sane and makes everything else possible. Maybe someday I'll end up being a "hacker". Maybe not, but the lessons I've learnt on these pages will last me an entire lifetime.
It sounds like you already are.
Even if I do reach that level someday. I doubt it that I would proclaim myself a hacker, or anything to that effect. I don't want to spend my life running around claiming credit for things. If someone finds my ideas or code beautiful then they can point it out and I will cherish that moment with them.
Yeah, I am crazy like that.
My Grandfather was a hacker; he built everything himself and I doubt there was anything in his house that he hadn't taken apart and put back together. He worked in construction, and most of the heavy equipment he used was things he built himself (as in: a bulldozer, a backhoe; earth moving equipment).
In early 2000 he started getting into computers (he died shortly thereafter), he is every bit as much a hacker (if not more so) than anybody I've ever met.
"Yeah, it's a serious hack and it pretty much crashes all the time".
s/hack/kludge/