HN Explorer

Poll: Do you self-identify as a “Hacker”?

2 points by mindcrime ↗ HN
Regardless of the exact details of how you define "hacker", the question is if you self-identify as a hacker (even in an aspirational sense) in something loosely like the way associated with the Hacker Ethic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_ethic

4 comments

[ 1.4 ms ] story [ 24.3 ms ] thread
Porthos9K
I might try to live up to the Hacker Ethic, but I would not presume to call myself a hacker. That's a title that should be earned, not claimed.
mindcrime
Fair enough. I edited the question to include having that as an aspiration. Maybe it would have been better to just say "do you adhere to something approximately like the Hacker Ethic", which is more or less what the spirit of the question is.
simonblack
It's pointless self-identifying as a "Hacker" because the term "Hacker" has been usurped so much so that it now means "somebody who breaks into computers" and it is no longer a true label associated with the archaic "Hacker Ethic".

We need to come up with a new term to replace the way we used to use the word "Hacker".

Language is fluid. In a similar fashion to the change in the meaning of "Hacker", a more widely recognised change in meaning is of course the word "gay" which no longer means "happy and joyful" but now means "homosexual" and using the word "gay" in its original sense today leads to unnecessary misunderstanding.