It's hard for me to pinpoint exactly when I was introduced to the idea of a 'hacker' because it has always been something I've wanted to be a part of. My older brothers are pretty tech-savvy so I grew up surrounded by a seemingly endless knowledge base of sweet tech stuff, with role models who had a hunger for knowledge. However, this also affected me in a bad way because I wasn't able to develop my own passion for computers because my one brother had such a love and it was incredibly annoying, as well as occasionally demeaning. I took my first coding course when I was in high school, not by choice but because I had taken all the drafting and descriptive geometry courses at the local community college and didn't want to default to one of the floral design or cooking classes offered at my high school. I did not like the course, because it was the most critical-thinking intensive classes I had ever taken, but also because I had to deal with the scrutiny of my brother. After this class, I didn't give much thought to hacking or hackers until I was in college, adding a second major of Computer Science (which later became my single major). Since I am a compulsive planner, before I made the decision to add another major, I absolutely had to decide a future career. Since I knew little about most of the subfields of computer science, I decided on what would be the most fun, what would let me learn the most, which was security consulting. I thought security consulting would let me learn the most about a wide array of different systems, as well as many different coding techniques. And if I chose consulting, it would also introduce me to many different ways of thinking and many different ways of solving problems. This seemed like heaven to me, embracing the Hacker Ethic.
Moral of the story, the Hacker Ethic has been engrained in me, before reading our book, "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution". However, the book did set some things in stone. Levy concretely defines a True Hacker as having the following characteristics, making up the Hacker Ethic:
True hackers embody this ethic, and have a grand desire to simply learn. The terms originated at MIT in the 50s, the approximate decade that the first part of our book depicts, and the original 'true hackers' were the students who valued first-hand learning more than most of the other things in their lives, including sleep and ridiculous things like an MIT diploma. All they wanted to do was get their hands on a computer and make the most of the experience.
These students somewhat resemble what I had imagined 'true hackers' to be like. The 30-hour days did not surprise me, the chinese food did not surprise me, but the skipping class did somewhat surprise me. It didn't surprise me why they valued the hands-on experience more than classwork or even more than a diploma, but I think that classes also have a lot to offer. I think they missed opportunities to be learning about other subjects, taught by some of the best researchers and professors in the world, and they completely blew it off. I understand the love for computers, I understand the love for learning, and that makes me curious and shocked why people, 'true hackers' who are supposed to love the gift of learning, blew off a chance to learn. I know, don't give in to the man, and get hands-on learning, but I think the classroom does have a bit to offer, more than Levy gives it credit for.
I do think a love for learning is inspirational. However, I do not think all of the hackers in our book were inspirational. Some had severely bad habits, some are just unwelcoming and promote demoralizing ideals. As a minority in Computer Science, I always strive to me looked upon as just one of the guys, wishing that it was an idealistic world where merit is judged as well as your background and opportunity (which is just that, idealistic and not realistic). I do not think these MIT hackers should be the end-all be-all, but I do recognize their contribution to the field I am a part of. There is some inspiration in their story, but I just wish it doesn't give my peers the wrong idea, to promote some exclusive club of only the privileged.