The Hacker Attitude

    Hackers solve problems and build things, and they believe in freedom and voluntary mutual help. To be accepted as a hacker, you have to behave as though you have this kind o f attitude yourself. And to behave as though you have the attitude, you have to really believe the attitude.

    But if you think of cultivating hacker attitudes as just a way to gain acceptance in the culture, you'll miss the point. Becoming the kind of person who believes these things is important for you; for helping you learn and keeping you motivated. As with all creative arts, the most effective way to become master is to imitate the mind-set of masters not just intellectually but emotionally as well.

    So, if you want to be a hacker, repeat the following things until you believe them:

1. The world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved.

Being a hacker is lots of fun, but it's kind of fun that takes lots of effort. The effort takes motivation. successful athletes get their motivation from a kind of physical delight in making their bodies perform, in pushing themselves past their own physical limits. Similarly, to be a hacker you have to get a basic thrill from solving problems, sharpening your skills, and exercising your intelligence.

    If you aren't the kind of person that feels this way naturally, you'll need to become one in order to make it as a hacker. Otherwise you'll find your hacking energy is money, and social approval. (You also have to develop a kind of faith in your own learning capacity; a believe that even though you may not know all of what you need to solve a problem, if you tackle just a piece of it and learn from that, you'll learn enough to solve the next piece and so on, until you're done.

2. Nobody should ever have to solve a problem twice.

Creative brains are a valuable, limited resource. They shouldn't be wasted on re-inventing the wheel when there are so many fascinating new problems waiting out there.

    To behave like a hacker, you have to believe that the thinking time of other hackers is precious. So much so that it's almost a moral duty for you to share information, solve problems and then give the solutions away just so other hackers can solve new problems instead of having to perpetually re-address old ones. (You don't have to believe that you're obligated to give all your creative product away, though the hackers that do are the ones that get most respect from other hackers. It's consistent to use your hacking skills to support a family or even get rich, as long as you don't forget you're a hacker while you're doing it.)

3. Boredom n' drudgery are evil.

Hackers (and creative people in general) should never be bored or have to drudge at stupid repetitive work because when this happens it means they aren't doing what only they can do; solve new problems. This wastefulness hurts everybody . Therefore be just unpleasant but actually evil.

    To behave like hacker, you have to believe this enough to want to automate away the boring bits as much as possible, not just for yourself but for everybody else (especially other hackers). (There is one apparent exception to this. Hackers will sometimes do things that may seem repetitive or boring to an observer as a mind-clearing exercise, or in order to acquire a skill or have some particular kind of experience you can't have otherwise. But this is by choice; nobody who can think should ever be forced into boredom.)

4. Freedom is good.

Hackers are naturally anti-authoritarian. Anyone who can give you orders can stop you from solving whatever problem you're being fascinated by and given the way authoritarian minds work, will generally find some appallingly stupid reason to do so. So the authoritarian attitude has to be fought wherever you find it, less it smother you and other hackers.

(This isn't the same as fighting all authority. Children need to be guided and criminals restrained. A hacker may agree to accept some kinds of authority in order to get something he wants more than the he spends following orders. But that's a limited, conscious bargain; the kind of personal surrender authoritarian want is not on offer.)

    Authoritarian thrive on censorship and secrecy. And they distrust voluntary cooperation and information-sharing; they only like 'cooperation' that they control. So to behave like a hacker, you have to develop an instinctive hostility to censorship, secrecy and the use of force or deception to compel responsible adults. And you have to be willing to act on that belief.

5. Attitude is no substitute for competence.

To be a hacker, you have to develop some of these attitudes. But copping an attitude alone won't make you a hacker, any more than it will make you a champion athlete or a porn star. Becoming a hacker will take intelligence, practice, dedication and hard work.

    Therefore, you have to learn to distrust attitude and respect competence of every kind. Hackers won't let posers waste their time, but they worship competence especially competence at hacking, but competence at anything is good. Competence at demanding skills that few can master is especially good and competence at demanding skills that involve mental acuteness, craft, and concentration is best. If you revere competence, you'll enjoy developing it in yourself. The hard work and dedication will become a kind of intense play rather than drudgery. And that's vital to becoming a hacker.