

How To Become A Hacker - dskhatri
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html

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systemtrigger
"Concealing your identity behind a handle is a juvenile and silly behavior
characteristic of crackers, warez d00dz, and other lower life forms. Hackers
don't do this; they're proud of what they do and want it associated with their
real names. So if you have a handle, drop it. In the hacker culture it will
only mark you as a loser."

With that lesson, I drop this handle.

~~~
panic
I think this is inaccurate. _why conceals his identity behind a handle, and
few people think of him as a loser. It's not about whether you use a handle or
your real name -- it's about what you do with it.

~~~
ptn
Concealing your identity makes you a loser if you do it so nobody can make you
responsible for your acts. That was not _why's case, he did it because of
privacy reasons.

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igorgue
I read this 6 years ago, and got me into Python, all I have to say is: thank
you Eric S Raymond

~~~
ericlavigne
I read the hacker-howto around the same time, and the list of languages was
the best thing I got out of it, too. I already knew C and C++, so started
working with Python. Python was a joy, but while using it for a couple small
projects I researched the other languages I would be learning later. I
couldn't resist skipping straight to Lisp, and it is still my favorite
programming language. Thank you, esr.

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jrockway
Step 42: write a "sex tips for geeks" article.

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olalonde
"There is perhaps a more general point here. If a language does too much for
you, it may be simultaneously a good tool for production and a bad one for
learning. It's not only languages that have this problem; web application
frameworks like RubyOnRails, CakePHP, Django may make it too easy to reach a
superficial sort of understanding that will leave you without resources when
you have to tackle a hard problem, or even just debug the solution to an easy
one."

Love this quote.

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juliangamble
"LISP is worth learning for a different reason — the profound enlightenment
experience you will have when you finally get it. That experience will make
you a better programmer for the rest of your days, even if you never actually
use LISP itself a lot."

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scotty79
I've read this few years ago. I felt like this guy crept into my head, teared
out my personal exact believes and published them on his website.

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peterwwillis
The more you try to become a Hacker, the less you are one.

~~~
peterwwillis
Haha, I _love_ that this got downvoted so much. It shows the mentality of some
of the people here. Apparently thirst for knowledge and clever ingenuity can
be "learned".

~~~
ascuttlefish
I believe thirst for knowledge can be learned. Ask any child (or adult!) who
gets their mind blown what they see through a magnifying glass or a telescope.
Maybe that's not learning thirst for knowledge so much as kick-starting it,
but I think it's close enough.

I'm not sure about clever ingenuity, but it's not a stretch to say that that's
a faculty that can be exercised and cultivated, no matter how paltry or weak
it is initially. A lot of things can be learned, states of mind included. Ask
any Buddhist monk.

edit: formatting

~~~
peterwwillis
in your example thirst for knowledge was not learned, it came naturally. if a
person looked throught the telescope and wasn't filled with wonder and
curiosity, would you say that was a failure in teaching? no, because some
people do not care. they are not naturally curious. also there is a
distinction between someone who is curious and someone who is compelled to
tinker and learn more due to their curiosity. any normal boy may be curious
how his RC car works. a hacker takes it apart and tries to obtain the secret
to this mysterious device and what makes it tick. i do not believe you can be
shown how to have this trait. you can emulate it, but you gave to really
obtain a curiosity about all things unknown. is it possible to develop this
trait over time? yes. but i think it has to come naturally, and not by a book
or FAQ.

~~~
ascuttlefish
You make a good point. But I think most people, given the right external
stimulus, will become aware of a thirst for knowledge. I think it's an open
question as to whether anamnesis is real or not, and whether only people with
a predisposition toward knowledge can be wakenened to it. Personally, I
believe that given an appropriately interesting, tailored goad, anyone can be
stimulated to wonder and curiosity, and the concomitant desire to de- and
reconstruct. I think a book or an FAQ can be that goad.

------
olalonde
If you follow a tutorial on becoming a hacker than you are most likely not
(and won't be) a hacker. Being a hacker is a state of mind.

------
henning
"Trying to learn to hack on a Microsoft Windows machine or under any other
closed-source system is like trying to learn to dance while wearing a body
cast."

Total fucking bullshit.

~~~
snprbob86
I've developed against Microsoft platforms for many years. I now, in fact,
work at Microsoft. I do a lot of deep integration work with Visual Studio and
I can tell you that it would be completely impossible without source code
access. After working for a few months with source access to all of developer
division, xbox, etc., that I never, ever, ever want to develop against a
closed platform ever again. Most of our big partners who write VS add-ins do
have source code access as well. You basically need it.

~~~
henning
That is a completely separate task from learning to develop software.

You need platform source code access if you're doing low-level integration
work, which is precisely what you don't do as a beginner.

Windows isn't the best platform for writing software but it's just fine.
Python and Emacs work on it just fine, as do MySQL and other important
software. Categorically asserting you can't learn how to structure code
without having access to terabytes of C code is total fucking bullshit which
is why I stand by the original statement.

~~~
snprbob86
I agree that is an invalid categorical assertion. To make it explicit: I
learned to program (quite well, I hope) on top of closed platforms. However, I
suspect that I would have learned faster, better, and more completely by
working with open source platforms. My perspective on code has changed
dramatically since I've embraced reading other people's code.

As an aside: although my integration work is "low-level", I do not get the
opportunity to make changes or additions to the shipping VS bits. I can only
file bugs and plead my case. I can't call secret APIs, nor do I gain any
special powers other than the weight an @microsoft.com email address carries.
I'm developing against the closed platform as all our partners, and non-
partner customers.

