

Ask HN: What does "Hacker" mean to you? - ThereRNoDumbQs

I'm interested in the use of the term <i>hacker</i> to describe tech entrepreneurs.  I haven't seen this equivalency outside of YC, but then I don't live in Silicon Valley.  Is it common?<p>Here in the flyover states, I've always[1] used hacking to mean the act of modifying existing assets, usually from a third party, as opposed to original creation. Hacking is useful, especially in the age of open source, but in this sense, to call an innovator a hacker seems like calling a chef a chopper.<p>Do we now use hacking to mean any software development, or to mean modifying the way people live?<p>Or maybe it's simpler than that - an expansion on the old black-hat connotation: hackers are no longer mere bandits on the frontier, but a whole culture of badass cowboys rewriting the rules of gold country.<p>Clearly this is not the Foremost Important Question of Our Time[2], but I'd genuinely like to know how the hackers of Hacker News think of themselves.<p>[1] I'm kind of old.
[2] Presumably, "how will Google be made irrelevant?"
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marshray
To me a _hacker_ is someone who pushes a system beyond its original design
intent.

Automotive hot-rodders: hackers

Garage inventors: hackers

People who code in assembly for fun: hackers

People who make laser televisions out of TTL logic: hackers

People who find security holes: hackers

And yes, people who break into systems using security bugs: hackers

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subhobroto
People genuinely and "deeply interested" in solving problems with tools one
has (easy/open) access to. More importantly, they don't back down if such
tools do not exist already.

