>>>"This is it... this is where I belong..."
I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to
them, may never hear from them again... I know you all...<<<
I actually come to hacker news for a reason close to this. This is a space where no one judges me, belittles me, or criticizes me for things I couldn't possibly choose. I know that I end up wasting a lot of time here, but somehow it is a release that keeps me sane and makes everything else possible. Maybe someday I'll end up being a "hacker". Maybe not, but the lessons I've learnt on these pages will last me an entire lifetime.
That's quite flattering, but no I am not even close to that. I don't even know how to code that well, let alone the myriad of tiny concepts that make up CS.
Even if I do reach that level someday. I doubt it that I would proclaim myself a hacker, or anything to that effect. I don't want to spend my life running around claiming credit for things. If someone finds my ideas or code beautiful then they can point it out and I will cherish that moment with them.
Being a hacker doesn't have anything to do with coding, or computers.
My Grandfather was a hacker; he built everything himself and I doubt there was anything in his house that he hadn't taken apart and put back together. He worked in construction, and most of the heavy equipment he used was things he built himself (as in: a bulldozer, a backhoe; earth moving equipment).
In early 2000 he started getting into computers (he died shortly thereafter), he is every bit as much a hacker (if not more so) than anybody I've ever met.
Hacking isn't even about building things. It's about making things better. And it's about making those things do new things that they were never intended to do.
I actually come to hacker news for a reason close to this. This is a space where no one judges me, belittles me, or criticizes me for things I couldn't possibly choose. I know that I end up wasting a lot of time here, but somehow it is a release that keeps me sane and makes everything else possible. Maybe someday I'll end up being a "hacker". Maybe not, but the lessons I've learnt on these pages will last me an entire lifetime.