Hacker’s Attitude

There is a community, a shared culture, of expert programmers and networking wizards that traces its history back through decades to the first time-sharing minicomputers and the earliest Arpanet experiments. The members of this culture originated the term `hacker'. Hackers built the Internet. Hackers made the UNIX operating system what it is today. Hackers run Usenet. Hackers make the World Wide Web work. If you are part of this culture and contributed to it, you're a hacker

There is another group of people who loudly call themselves hackers, but aren't. These are people who get a kick out of breaking into computers and phreaking the phone system. Real hackers call these people `crackers' and want nothing to do with them. Real hackers mostly think crackers are lazy, irresponsible, and not very bright, and object that being able to break security doesn't make you a hacker. Unfortunately, many journalists and writers have been fooled into using the word `hacker' to describe crackers; this irritates real hackers.

The basic difference is this: hackers build things, crackers break them.

Hacker’s 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 of attitude yourself

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.

To be a hacker you have to get a basic thrill from solving problems, sharpening your skills, and exercising your intelligence.

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.

3. Boredom and 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.

To behave like a 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.

4. If you don't have functional English, learn it.

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, becoming a hacker will take intelligence, practice, dedication, and hard work. Competence at demanding skills that involve mental acuteness, craft, and concentration is best.

Hackers need to be able to both reasons logically and step outside the apparent logic of a problem at a moment's notice.

To be a hacker you need motivation and initiative and the ability to educate yourself. So Start now...

FAQs:

Will you teach me how to hack?

Hacking is an attitude and skill you basically have to teach yourself. You'll find that while real hackers want to help you, they won't respect you if you beg to be spoon-fed everything they know.

Learn a few things first. Show that you're trying, that you're capable of learning on your own. Then go to the hackers you meet with questions.

What language should I learn first, if I have to?

It depends….

Perl, Python, C and C++ are some of the popular programming languages used by the hackers.