Reading 02: Shall We Play A Game?

In the first section of Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, hackers did their hacking mostly just because it was their passion. They invested huge amounts of their time into it simply due to their love of hacking. Hacker Ethic was leading the way in how these hackers lived.

Then in the second section, computers slowly started to become more mainstream and available to more people. On one hand, the ideals of the Hacker Ethic were better exhibited since computer use was more decentralized with the rise of the personal computer. On the other hand, however, some people eroded at the ideals of the Hacker Ethic as they decided that information should not be completely free.

In the third section, commercialization gets a firmer grip on the Hacker Ethic and computing culture. In this section money really begins to matter more than the ideals of free information, distrusting authority, etc.

As one example, this trend can be seen in the passage of the novel discussing copy protection. It’s a direct example of an increased importance being placed on sales figures over the Hacker Ethic. Information is made less free but companies can sell more copies since it’s more difficult for people to acquire without paying. Mark Duchaineau was a hacker himself but worked to develop the copy protection scheme Spiradisk that limited access to information. So in this instance, he certainly prioritized financial gain over keeping with the Hacker Ethic of those that came before him.

This trend is also illustrated with some of the developments of On-Line during the chapter. The fiasco of John Harris having his disks stolen as he tried to develop Frogger for the Atari 800 led to changes that focused on business. The book discusses how this event led Ken Williams to believe that essentially hacker culture was bad for business. Instead, his company would need to become more professional and corporate in order to thrive and perform as well as it could. As a result, Ken decides he has to choose a non-hacker, Dick Sunderland, for the role of president of On-Line because a non-hacker will focus on strictly business instead of anything to do with the Hacker Ethic.

While I don’t believe they are fully mutually exclusive, the developments of these three sections of the novel do make me think that hacker culture and commercialization are two completely opposing forces. Between hacker culture and business, only one can thrive while the other survives. A complete emphasis on one or the other will cause the other to struggle.

In today’s society, there’s a strong emphasis on commercialism instead of Hacker Ethic. Access to computers is relatively “unlimited and total” and for the most part so is “anything which might teach you something about the way the world works”. However, information is certainly not free. Entire multibillion dollar corporations rely on the societal idea that information is not free. There are likely still people that live by the Hacker Ethic today, but they are pretty few and far between.

The most important part of hacker culture to embody, even in today’s world, is the passion that was exhibited by those early hackers at MIT. Most people that spend time programming, including myself, probably aren’t trying to eat, sleep, and breathe hacking, which is perfectly okay. However, it is important to have a passion for what you do. If you’re passionate, you’ll be much less likely to get burned out and will happily go above and beyond.

You don’t have to be a “True Hacker”, but you should love what you do.