Is there a canonical definition of hacker as described in this post and (at it's best) this community? I always feel strong gravitation to this term, but also feel nervous about embracing it because of it's criminal connotations in common parlance.
The earliest documented use of 'hack' is from "AN ABRIDGED DICTIONARY of the TMRC LANGUAGE", written in 1959 by Peter Samson. (TMRC was the Tech Model Railroad Club of MIT.) The definition was itself a playful example of what it was defining:
HACK: 1) something done without constructive end; 2) a project undertaken on bad self-advice; 3) an entropy booster; 4) to produce, or attempt to produce, a hack.
HACKER: one who hacks, or makes them.
Samson (2005): "I saw this as a term for an unconventional or unorthodox application of technology, typically deprecated for engineering reasons. There was no specific suggestion of malicious intent (or of benevolence, either). Indeed, the era of this dictionary saw some 'good hacks': using a room-sized computer to play music, for instance; or, some would say, writing the dictionary itself."
Paul Graham himself wrote an essay about the word and it's meaning. [0]
Another text that might describe the HN communities understanding of the word is "How to become a hacker" by Eric S. Raymond. [1]
You can go back more in time towards the origins of the term, the MIT labs of the 50s and 60s, see the hacker ethic. [2]
But it's not like the folks in the valley would care that much for those values nowadays.
The wiki page for the term hacker also is quite helpful, hn crowd is talking about the first kind of hacker. [3]
Be a little careful with things like Raymond's guide, which is one of those documents that says "the way to be X is to be more like the author". Raymond's stewardship of the old "jargon file" is pretty infamous for the same reason.
Is there a canonical definition of hacker as described in this post and (at it's best) this community? I always feel strong gravitation to this term, but also feel nervous about embracing it because of it's criminal connotations in common parlance.
Worry not! Your gravitation is well-founded.
The earliest documented use of 'hack' is from "AN ABRIDGED DICTIONARY of the TMRC LANGUAGE", written in 1959 by Peter Samson. (TMRC was the Tech Model Railroad Club of MIT.) The definition was itself a playful example of what it was defining:
Samson (2005): "I saw this as a term for an unconventional or unorthodox application of technology, typically deprecated for engineering reasons. There was no specific suggestion of malicious intent (or of benevolence, either). Indeed, the era of this dictionary saw some 'good hacks': using a room-sized computer to play music, for instance; or, some would say, writing the dictionary itself."
https://imranontech.com/2008/04/01/the-origin-of-hacker/
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Paul Graham himself wrote an essay about the word and it's meaning. [0]
Another text that might describe the HN communities understanding of the word is "How to become a hacker" by Eric S. Raymond. [1]
You can go back more in time towards the origins of the term, the MIT labs of the 50s and 60s, see the hacker ethic. [2] But it's not like the folks in the valley would care that much for those values nowadays.
The wiki page for the term hacker also is quite helpful, hn crowd is talking about the first kind of hacker. [3]
[0] https://paulgraham.com/gba.html
[1] http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_ethic
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker#Definitions
Be a little careful with things like Raymond's guide, which is one of those documents that says "the way to be X is to be more like the author". Raymond's stewardship of the old "jargon file" is pretty infamous for the same reason.
Look in the hacker jargon file
Link: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/H/hacker.html