Craig Burton

Tonight I was talking to a friend's brother online, who considers himself to be somewhat of a hacker. For your reading pleasure - or not? - here are some of his thoughts. I thought it might be interesting to show the other side.



Me: consider yourself a hacker?

Him: Yes, I consider myself a hacker of algorithms, art, design,..I also do the traditional system-breaking stuff, but it's not always much fun.

Me: why do you do it? just to see that you can? or for profit of some sort?

Him: I do it because I feel like I need to.

Me: why do you feel the need to 'hack'?

Him: Why did Da Vinci need to invent? I don't think he got anything for his glider design or for exploring the bodies of dead people.

Me: I just don't see a correlation between the two. hacking and inventing. How are they the same? For knowledge then?

Him: Often enough. Hacking and inventing feel the same for me, that's why I tie them together. I've always been fond of problem solving. Maybe that's why the feeling is so alike with the two.

Me: which hat do you wear - white hat or black hat?

Him: Hats don't exist. Hats don't exist in any meaningful way. The people who try to use that classification usually don't even realize that they're pushing an argument for morality. Any serious hacker knows that morality is completely irrelevant to the hack. Why juxtapose morality and hacking? Because you want to sell hackers to a media machine that doesn't really care or a public that will never truly get it? I have trouble taking these people seriously.

Some insights the thinking of a Hacker. "I have trouble taking these people seriously." Sheez. Mind boggling.

// posted by Craig @ 8:49 PM