Reading01: Hacker Culture

Borah Chong
Aug 27, 2017 · 2 min read

Many students in computer science and software development consider themselves part of the “hacker culture” or “hacker ethic”. These hackers are usually curious people who find excitement and creativity in the great freedom programming brings to them. They strive to create new and better technologies using a computer as their canvas and programming as their media. Steven Levy, a US journalist, described hackers as people that “believe that essential lessons can be learned about the systems — about the world — from taking things apart, seeing how they work, and using this knowledge to create new and even more interesting things”.

I identify with some of these hacker attributes as well. The broadness of programming always excites me, and the technology is ever changing, so you usually don’t do the same thing more than once. There is always something new to learn and something exciting to try out. The hacker community is also always welcoming and open to learning, which makes it a friendly environment to be in. In some ways, I would consider myself a hacker, but there are times when it seems a little to extreme for me. Many hackers devote their lives to coding, whereas although I really enjoy programming, I still want to explore other fields and enjoy myself in other ways whether they are related to computers or not. Also, there are so many amazing and intelligent people in the hacker community that it is sometimes a little intimidating. What if I’m not good enough or I don’t know as much as most of these people?

Being characterized as a hacker makes me feel like I have the ability to have a greater impact on the world. The characterization of a hacker is generally positive, and portrays someone as intelligent, creative, and capable of creating new technologies to help the world. Although this title can be a slight burden, it is one I would like to try and live up to to improve myself as a programmer — or as a hacker.

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