Remind HN: What Hacking Means

This post is not a question, it’s just a reminder that hacking is about exploiting weaknesses. Everyone here _should_ know this, yet there are always people in the comments who are surprised/angry that people hack their social media follower counts. That Amazon reviews are manipulated. That people on Internet forums are pumping the prices of stocks and currencies. That online dating profiles are fake. That “dark patterns” are used to make users click on things. That PR firms and other growth hackers can “nudge” whole populations towards new kinds of goods and services. That, generally speaking, advertising is full of bs, designed to make us feel bad without whatever is advertised. etc.

Instead of being disappointed or pissed off, we should learn from these hackers. Why? So we can win. Or at least so we aren’t just another gullible sucker to whom the real hackers on this website, and on the Internet in general, are simply selling stuff to. They are even recruiting us as unpaid evangelists by hacking our psychology. So instead, why not become a sales person, too? Let’s not complain about the world being like this, let’s go out and find some weaknesses we can exploit. This is about business after all. And (imho) it can be a lot of fun.

Or, if someone is not willing to be like that, at least let’s be aware that the game, like all games, is about incentives. For instance, if a hedge fund can make hundreds of millions of dollars by infiltrating or organising Internet stock picker groups, someone will do it. Anyway, let’s just keep in mind that this happens.

One final tip: We should ignore the news, at least the kind that interprets and explains events. There is little to no useful information in it. In most cases it’s actually misleading. In a way, we live in a golden age for hustlers. I believe never before in human history has the signal to noise ratio (in media) been worse and the level of wisdom and street smarts lower.