
The Hacker's Manifesto (1986) - cjg
https://www.usc.edu/~douglast/202/lecture23/manifesto.html
======
objectiveariel
To me, this manifesto has little more than historical value. It's more an
expression of generic adolescent angst rather than of hacker culture.

It's a poor "manifesto" too. What exactly are the aims of The Hacker?
"Exploring", "Outsmarting you", and "judging people by what they say and
think, not what they look like". Platitudes, really, if you set aside the
emotional outbursts surrounding them.

The Jargon File offers a more balanced and intricate exploration of The
Hacker. It's always worth a read.

[http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/index.html](http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/index.html)

~~~
loydb
To be fair, I was pretty damn angsty at the time :)

Always exciting to see this pop up someplace new. It's being translated into
Polish for a textbook this year as well.

~~~
icc97
Where else can you get a reply from the Hacker that wrote the Hackers
Manifesto.

~~~
uola
It's slightly anticlimactic when the comment being responded to is a casual
dismissal completely missing the context of the text. I've seen plenty of
stories on HN where there's some random flamewar on top and the authors
insightful comments are at the bottom. For the backstory by the author you're
better off with the talk given at HOPE in 2002.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tEnnvZbYek](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tEnnvZbYek)

~~~
loydb
I was about to jump on an airplane, and didn't really have time for a nuanced
response. The OP comment is, likely, from someone who has no idea what hacker
culture was like in the 1970s and early 1980s, so I can see how he doesn't
find it very relevant to his life today.

And he's absolutely right that it was angsty venting (I was 19, so I'll even
allow adolescent). That doesn't mean that it didn't resonate with multiple
generations of hackers in the 30 years since.

~~~
uola
Since the term hacker has become so widespread I think it's hard for people to
appreciate the difference between scenes calling themselves hackers, but also
to recognize other forms of computer subculture.

I also think the previous commenter makes a mistake in not recognizing the
influence of teenage angst on hacker culture, like many other subcultures.

Young, mostly male, persons form groups, use nicknames, makes their own
publications, rejects the (some) rules of society and try to decide who is the
best is almost every subculture at the end of the last century. From
punkrockers and ravers, to graffiti writers and street gangs.

I think there's value in knowing how things were and what makes a culture.

------
qwertyuiop924
Always a fun read. The Hacker Manifesto reminds us that computing culture
stands at a crossroads: between hobbyists and academia, between bedroom
programmers and industry, between hackers, and, well, _hackers_ , although
both appear on either side of the fence.

While sinister and angsty in tone, this is ultimately a tale of someone
discovering the wonders of computing, much as I, and many others did -
although I never broke into anything, save my iPod.

From the FSF to MS to the demoscene, we're all computing, and many of us have
a spark of feelings this piece evokes - a natural curiosity, a desire to push
the boundaries, to see what's possible, and a bit of rebeliousness. It's what
separates the hackers (both kinds) and the hobbyists and the wannabes, from
those who don't have that feeling, the people for whom this is a 9-5 job, who
grind out StrategyObjectFactoryFactorySingletonFactories, and when they get
home want to think about anything but programming.

In short, that spark is what separates those who really care about computing
from those who just want to get their job done and forget about it.

As usual with any broad, sweeping statements I make, I may be wrong.

~~~
CodeMage
Maybe I'm bitter for my age, but I feel that the culture has already gone
through the crossroads. I do get what you're trying to say, though, but I
believe that it's the industry that finds it self at the crossroads, not the
culture. The culture itself has largely been co-opted by business concerns.

~~~
qwertyuiop924
I'm unconvinced. All the wacky projects that usually pop up on show HN are
pretty strong signs of a culture that encourages things that don't necessarily
make business sense.

~~~
rorykoehler
The number of times I show or talk about a side project with business people
and they start talking about it as something I built to generate income rather
than just for my own curiousity is quite amusing. I think for certain groups
of people the idea of creating for purely intellectual purposes is completely
alien. It is part of the reason many companies can't hold onto real technical
talent. At a cerain point intellectual richness becomes the main priority in a
hackers life and the only thing that will keep them around is challenging new
problems to solve.

~~~
qwertyuiop924
You know, Bryan Cantrill kind of did a talk on this...

[https://youtube.com/watch?v=bGkVM1B5NuI](https://youtube.com/watch?v=bGkVM1B5NuI)

Why do Bryan's talks keep being relevant to my discussions on HN? This is the
second time I've linked one in two days.

------
hashberry
For the full cultural effect, read it while listening to angsty MIDI music.
Nirvana's Heart-Shaped Box is a perfect soundtrack:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUscmM8e9lc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUscmM8e9lc)

------
ktRolster
It's also worth reading _The Hacker Crackdown_ , which has an analysis of
various hacker manifestos in part 2, and in general is an excellent read.

------
nxzero
30 years old (aka 1986)

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_Manifesto](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_Manifesto)

Primary Source:
[http://phrack.org/issues/7/3.html](http://phrack.org/issues/7/3.html)

------
transitorykris
Better formatting and at least one less typo
[http://phrack.org/issues/7/3.html](http://phrack.org/issues/7/3.html)

~~~
heartbreak
> How to Make TNT

Dammit now I'm on a list somewhere. Phrack was the real deal.

------
noonespecial
Not really a "manifesto" but I always liked it.

Read more like Maya Angelou's 'Caged Bird'. It's poetry.

------
tempodox
> we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak

Still has a familiar ring.

~~~
goldenkey
Unfortunately as I study higher level mathematics on my own, I hunger to be in
a graduate program where the eagerness to learn and sharing of profundity and
boundless energy to crack the truths of pure logic buzz around departments and
campuses. It sucks to be in solace with knowledge.

I wish I realized earlier that higher education was far more matched to skills
needed for research. I would have majored in math instead of biomedical
sciences. Too late now. 3.8GPA, waste of a major and the chance I had to be
part of the "scene."

Undergraduate math is much more logical than other majors in actually being
useful. Aye. :-(

~~~
throwanem
> a graduate program where the eagerness to learn and sharing of profundity
> and boundless energy to crack the truths of pure logic buzz

Do such things exist? I chose not to continue my studies beyond high school
graduation, but from my experience around academics and academia, the sort of
program you describe seems at the very least well away from the norm.

~~~
goldenkey
High school academia is nothing like undergraduate academia which is nothing
like graduate academia. Graduate academia is awesome unless you get stuck
under a professor who tries to use you as a grunt worker. It happens but it's
not the norm.

~~~
throwanem
> High school academia is nothing like undergraduate academia which is nothing
> like graduate academia.

I never claimed otherwise. My point is that, while I lack firsthand experience
in the area, I've worked with a wide variety of grad students under a number
of PIs, and found them universally to present an impression of being stooped
under a heavy load of debt, shit work, and misery. Perhaps that's
unrepresentative, though, or inaccurately perceived.

------
YngwieMalware
Cool? You think it's cool? It's not cool. It's commie bullshit.

~~~
YngwieMalware
I'm taking the first down vote with pride because someone didn't get the
reference. Rookie mistake

~~~
fredoliveira
Upvotes are like spandex. A privilege, not a right.

------
2close4comfort
It is always good to remember your roots.

~~~
goldenkey
Don't forget to Vieta jump!

------
jonheller
Every time I read this I hear it read in the voice of the villain from the
movie Hackers. Which I have to admit was totally a guilty pleasure of my
teenage years.

~~~
throwanem
Why only your teenage years? It can still be a guilty pleasure today!

------
boie0025
Thanks for posting that! I just had a flashback to my BBS/FidoNet days of
childhood.

------
biot
This is found at the very end of the Vice article, still on the front page of
HN: [https://motherboard.vice.com/read/72-hours-of-pwnage-a-
paran...](https://motherboard.vice.com/read/72-hours-of-pwnage-a-
paranoid-n00b-goes-to-def-con)

------
Kalium
It's interesting to contrast what YCombinator/Facebook mean by "hacker" and
what it means at DEFCON. Or when this document was written. The former
definitely has strong commercial overtones and the latter strong subversive
overtones. They really are two very different meanings.

~~~
RRRA
And to a lot of people here thinking this mentality is dead are, I think,
confused by the fact that the growth and general appeal of computers have only
diluted the hackers, but they are still growing in absolute numbers.

Same goes at DEFCON in a way, where so many people want to see what a hacker
is that the whole conference looses its "direction" in a way, as a whole at
least...

~~~
Kalium
Very true. When you define "hacker" to mean "A person who writes code quickly
and is willing to take business risk", you're not likely to run in the same
circles as the people who crack open complex software systems for fun. You
might wind up believing those people no longer really exist, having gone the
way of the dial-up modem.

------
znpy
I find quite annoying that many people go "oh geez, what is this crap, nah,
it's not like this" when this is a huge part of what brought us all that the
hackerdom is today (whatever it is anyway).

------
saneshark
I thought it was "a board is found" not "a bored is found" what is bored? A
board would be a bulletin board system, one of many precursors to the modern
web.

~~~
loydb
It is "board". If someone changed it to "bored", they were wrong.

------
drannex
Posted this last week on here, was an excellent read - was looking for it for
the last ~5 years.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12241214](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12241214)

------
pepijndevos
Still waiting for the closing parenthesis. Yes, I'm - amongst other things - a
lisper.

------
dustinls
Feels wrong to have a thread about the Hacker's Manifesto without including
this -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNtcWpY4YLY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNtcWpY4YLY)

------
amingilani
Gets me everytime

------
mongo0se
I found a comupter.

------
meatsock
here is a more recent and in depth exploration of the hacker, with a similar
title but a solid footing in philosophy and history --
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hacker_Manifesto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hacker_Manifesto)

------
benkarst
Missed a paren in the title.

~~~
MrMid
Won't compile.

~~~
loydb
Story of my life.

~~~
JBiserkov
The entirety of programming experience in two phrases:

"That didn't work as expected."

"That didn't work, as expected."

Another facet of programming experience - one character (that can be hard to
notice) can change the behavior of a program in major ways, yet it can remain
undiscovered for quite some time (by both compiler and humans).

------
33a
This made me cringe a little.

