Finding an identity 69
Asuit, according to theJargon File, is ‘ugly and uncomfortable
“business clothing” often worn by non-hackers’; and theWired
Styledefinition is explicit:^11
Not a techie. Someone in management or bizdev (business
development) or marcom (marketing/communications).
Someone who thinks in profits rather than programs and cares
more about the bottom line than lines of code.Hackers are plainly very aware of their identity as members of an
Internet culture (more precisely, a collection of subcultures), dat-
ing from the earliest days, proud of their common background and
values, and conscious of their expertise. Most of the style manuals
include a characterization of the hacker mindset and skills. The
‘hacker ethic’ has two main principles, according to theJargonFile:
‘the belief that information-sharing is a powerful positive good,
and that it is an ethical duty of hackers to share their expertise
by writing open-source and facilitating access to information and
to computing resources wherever possible’, and (more controver-
sially) ‘the belief that system-cracking for fun and exploration is
ethically OK as long as the cracker commits no theft, vandalism, or
breach of confidentiality’. Hackers have to have certain skills – such
as a knowledge of programming and an ability to write HTML
(p. 205). But the hacker mindset is just as important. There are five
characteristics of the ‘hacker attitude’ noted by theJargon File:
The world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved.
Nobody should ever have to solve a problem twice.
Boredom and drudgery are evil.
Freedom is good.
Attitude is no substitute for competence.And a further five recommendations for aspiring hackers:
Learn to write your native language well.
Read science fiction.
Study Zen, and/or take up martial arts.(^11) Hale and Scanlon (1999: 157).