
Ask HN: What are the books to learn the hacker culture? - inp
What are the books to learn the hacker culture? What is the best for you?<p>I know there is &quot;Hacking: The Art of Exploitation&quot; by Jon Erickson but the last edition was in 2008.
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bruncun
Although its not a book, Eric Raymond's essay "How To Become a Hacker" is my
favorite read on the subject: [http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-
howto.html](http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html)

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inp
Thank you for this reference.

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hulkisdumb
The hacker culture itself is just a movement that embodies the principles one
would naturally grow once one fully immerses oneself in an intellectual
pursuit such as computer programming, model train hacking, math, lock-picking
etc. Hence you don't 'have' to learn the culture from some damn book

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veddox
Cultures are complex things; encompassing, amongst others, habits of thought,
a common vocabulary, shared values, a sense of group history, and so on. The
hacker culture is indeed quite heavily defined by its ways of thinking and
shared values, which don't need to be learned from "some damn book". However,
all the other aspects that together constitute a culture do need to be picked
up from other members of said culture - and with a culture as distributed as
hackerdom, that would indeed be best done by reading books.

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veddox
To understand the hacker culture, you must understand its background and
history. Here are some good books:

"The Jargon File", Eric S. Raymond (ed.)
[http://www.catb.org/jargon/](http://www.catb.org/jargon/)

"The Cuckoo's Egg", Cliff Stoll

"Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution", Steven Levy

"Where Wizards Stay up Late", Katie Hafner

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decasteve
I'd also suggest "the innovators", Walter Isaacson, on top of those.

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antoineMoPa
Not a book, but view «Project Code Rush»

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q7FTjhvZ7Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q7FTjhvZ7Y)

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alltakendamned
I'd say the culture classic is the Hacker's Manifesto by The Mentor, published
in Phrack 7.

[http://phrack.org/issues/7/3.html#article](http://phrack.org/issues/7/3.html#article)

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csnewb
That was a cringy, painful read.

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muzani
Kevin Mitnick's "The Art of Deception" comes to mind. While it's more the
black hat type, it's a good look at social engineering from the perspective of
an expert. I'm always intrigued at how a lot of hackers start with an interest
in magic tricks.

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matt_the_bass
I’d suggest listening to the Sex Pistols and Operation Ivy.

Yes that’s punk music. I think the cusltures are similar and have similar
ideological roots.

Maybe you’re asking about hacker skills. Of course punk music won’t teach you
hacking skills.

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inp
Yes, it's not hacker skills but thank you for the hacker culture.

