Hacker News Reader

Comment by naradaellis | Hacker News Reader

It has become a pretty diluted term.

I kind of feel like "hacker" used to be a title that you had to earn from other hackers, and could apply to people of any skillset; and now it's mostly synonymous with "programmer".

With the size of the internet these days, it was probably inevitable that the word would get diluted, but... I feel like we no longer have a suitable word to describe people who build things like "self-balancing unicycle" or "linux hosted on an x86 emulator in javascript" or "homemade airplane" or "UNIX". And that makes me a little sad.

When I came across Hacker News (recently) I was a bit confused why it appeared to be about startups and not about actual (security) hacking. Then I discovered "hacker" had in essence become a general term for "coder" in the startup community. This usage still doesn't sit well with me, for the reason you point out: it's not about doing something really cool and unexpected any more. When I see people advertising for "Ruby hackers", etc. I just feel like it's almost a parody (except it's not, people are calling themselves that mostly in seriousness). Oh well, I guess language left me behind.

Wait till you learn about the term "Growth Hacker" ...

Isn't that a fancy name for a gardener?

It made me sad once until I thought about it. It doesn't matter that "hacker" has been hijacked so long as there are still hackers around. If you keep your own definition consistent, and you don't stray too far from "the classical versions"[1], you see who are the hackers you might want to care about and who aren't. So when the media makes it synonymous with "cracker", whatever, you know better. When a rockstar ninja who only knows one language for one general task calls themselves a "hacker", you know better. When a hacker you already know about mentions some other people or their work, you might want to go check them out to see what you're missing and if they're another hacker. If you want to claim the term's former social signaling status, well, better get back to making neat hacks and sharing them with people whose respect and admiration you want.

[1] The main three authors of essays that I typically think of as classical sources on the term "hacker" are esr: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html

rms: http://stallman.org/articles/on-hacking.html

and, of course, pg: http://www.paulgraham.com/gba.html

Why do we need a label to describe someone who builds a self-balancing unicycle?

Labels like 'hacker' do nothing to further anything, and generally aren't impressive to anyone who doesn't assign the label to themselves. Build cool shit and that's impressive.

I used to want to be a hacker. What I want to be hasn't changed much, but now there's no word for it. It's demotivating. I don't know how demotivating. Maybe I would never have become a hacker₁₉₉₀ even if the word hadn't changed, maybe I still will.

It's not just me: I want other people to strive for a thing that no longer has a name.

I don't feel like I'm adequately articulating myself here. Perhaps it shouldn't matter that we're missing a word. But I feel like it does anyway.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it sounds like you want sort of a universal standard for technical excellence. Similar to (topical!) Olympic athletes; participating in the Olympics is pretty much an affirmation that you're one of the best athletes alive, no matter the sport.

Well, not just technical excellence. I want to celebrate and encourage "the hacker spirit", which embodies playfulness as well. It takes a certain mind to look at Brainfuck and ask "do we really need all those instructions?" [1], even if it's not particularly hard, once you've asked the question, to see that you don't. (Mind you, I never looked for ways to minimise them myself, so it might be a harder problem than I'm giving credit for.)

I don't feel like the Olympics demonstrate the hacker spirit, although it's likely that some of the athletes have it.

[1] http://esolangs.org/wiki/BF_instruction_minimalization

I think there has been an effective shift in what that word means to anyone born after a certain point say 1970-1975?

I nearly said "that's a good hack" about something the other day, but edited my speech in mid thought - I am sure the audience would have taken "hack" to mean "wtfpwn", which wasn't at all what I meant...

We still have "inventor" and "tinkerer"

And "programmer who likes his job".

Indeed!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com