

Ask HN: What does the term Hacker mean to you? - markcrazyhorse

My manager seems to think that a Hacker is someone who solely gains unauthorised access into a system and tries not to leave a trace. Causing some malice or ill effect. I think it&#x27;s evolved much more to include developers and entrepreneurs. What are your views? Discus...
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Hacker in Silicon Valley type circles in recent years come to mean someone who
moves fast, break stuff, and makes it work in some cases. In others, someone
who is inventive and figures out how to get things to work. I'm sure there are
a few others.

Some will proudly wear the badge and call themselves hackers because of the
above. Facebook is huge on the term itself, even getting themselves the vanity
address 1 Hacker Way.

Unfortunately, a huge chunk of the world does in fact view the word hacker
very negatively like your manager and even in some reports I've come across,
the authorities you don't want messing with you. For these reasons, I try to
stay away from ever calling myself a hacker of any kind. It's a term. It can
mean whatever you claim it to but it won't matter if others don't see it that
way, it causes confusion, or at the end of the day means nothing to anyone
else but you. After all, the only person that cares is the person claiming the
title.

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dudeson
Hacker for me is someone who knows what he is doing. Hacker is someone that
from his solid knowledge at something (not necessarily "software engineering")
can achieve his goal. His goal might be gaining an unauthorised access into a
system or creating a piece of hardware that will make his life easier, or even
having free drinks/snacks from a vending machine.

Having deep knowledge at something and being able to do what you want with it,
makes you a hacker.

Note that sometimes there is a confusion with hackers and script kiddies.
Script kiddies in short are those with little or no real knowledge use
instructions and tools causing damage only.

Hope this helped.

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mkal_tsr
To me it's about knowing how a system (of any kind) works and exploring how
that system can be used based on what you know.

The important thing is the effect/intent is completely independent of the
definition. People inject their intentions into the definition, but on it's
own, hacking is all about curiosity.

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markcrazyhorse
Interesting reply. Thanks.

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ankurdhama
[https://medium.com/p/825de76cc7e9](https://medium.com/p/825de76cc7e9)

