Hackers in the Bazaar "blog" posts đ
At last taking the time to read what was due to read, I grew to understand the tenets of the hacker ethic, and to certain people, what constitutes a true hacker. Steven Levy takes his time to tell the stories of multiple MIT hackers whoâplaying with computers such as the TX-0, then PDP-1, followed by the PDP-6âwere able to almost uniformly conform to these unspoken tenets as if these ex-students were some kind of bots.
Trudging through Levyâs storytelling of the hacker ethic, I couldnât help but think about how much I wasnât a hacker. I was definitely, by hacker terms, a loser. I wouldnât define myself a loser as far as those ignoramus graduate students who pretended to know things they didnât, but I definitely fell into the more subtle category as one. Apparently, the sole critereon was hacking ability. I was called out directly by the book when Levy had written: âyou could be bright, sensitive, and willing to learn, and still be considered a loser.â Thinking back to how much I relied on the TAs in a course like Systems Programming, and how I still use grades and high salary as one of my core motivators, I must shamelessly confess that Iâm a loser! Thereâs something I find important to note, however, and thatâs how the term of being a winner or loser isnât something stagnant. Despite the lack of inspiration and passion I have to dive into something I donât yet understand and explore, I have a hope that itâs just my emo (scratch that, lazy) phase and that I could redeem myself whenever⌠I feel like it.
You see, this kind of characteristic of mine is something I am fully conscious of and yet donât do anything to fix it. Why? Well, because thatâs the nature of the characterstic. I have a habit of pondering on things rather than actually doing it. You may think, âoh! Thatâs because youâre likely planning things out to ensure maximal success once you finally embark on your exploration! Right?â True to some extent, if you consider âplanning thingsâ to be a terse (yet verbal) ponder and then remove the âensure maximal successâ and âembarkâ parts of your phrase. Whatâs left is something along the lines of: âHey everyone! I think I wanna do something cool this winter break. I want to start making this video game. Iâve thought of a basic idea and I canât wait to start learning how to implement it.â Fast forward to weeks ahead, literally nothing has happened.
Thankfully, this behavior isnât something that appears totally looked down upon by hackers. The character I resonated most from this read was Slug Russell. Though probably more capable and more a geek than I am, Levy wrote of Slug the same way I thought of my own behavior: âAfter he made the mistake of opening up his big mouth about this program he was going to write, the PDP-1 hackers, always eager to see another hack added to the growing pile of paper tapes in the drawer, urged him to do it.â Thatâs me. I have a big-ass mouth and canât help myself from mentioning something I want to do, yet never get to. Thereâs always a hurdle in my way, and I always treat that hurdle as something completely impassable when I know damn well that it is. I need to adopt more to the Hands-On Imperative and just do it instead of talking about doing it.
Evaluating a few other hacker ethic tenets, I canât disagree with creating art and beauty or judging people solely on their hacking, nor can I disagree that all information should be free or that decentralization is the way to go. However, Iâm not sure if the latter two are worth pursuing, because I question whether theyâre actually obtainable. As concepts and problems grow increasingly complex, so do the mental gymnastics our minds have to go through to understand and solve those problems and concepts. At one point or another, due to the level of energy weâve devoted to creating or discovering something, we should involuntarily feel that our work deserves something material as payment. Itâs too perfect of a scenario where every hacker would be able to spend months or years on something incredible, all for them to hand it out for free. Second of all, regarding decentralization, it sounds impossible. Thereâs always a higher status that will be in control. In my eyes, an example of this is when the AI lab at MIT ran out of funding due to the Manfield Act. The hackers at the AI lab were never really in control because all they did was made possible by ARPA funds.
Finally appears the statement of whether computers can change your life for the better. Given the word can, I can wholeheartedly agree with this. I do believe that the hackers at MIT were way too extreme for my taste. Going 30 hours in a 24-hour day is way to much, and sacrificing hygiene and overall health just to hack is too much for me to understand. Seeing these hackerâs habits had me questioning why they couldnât tone it down. What was the rush? Have you no self control? Sure, while I may not have much self-control myself (cough video games cough), these people took it to an entire new level of insanity. In response, the life of SAIL hackers were able to answer me. They were able to adopt to the hacker ethic just as well without taking anything to an extreme. Though not covered as extensively as the hackers who developed at MIT, their kind of lifestyle was one that I can see myself striving for. Theyâd struck passion and hacked at a blissful pace. Is that passion is attainable myself? Not sure. But I sure can hope it is. The only next step would be to shut up already and do it.