from Hacker News

Why do we hack?

by tgvaughan on 12/7/22, 9:45 AM with 49 comments

  • by dist1ll on 12/7/22, 10:13 AM

    I think the "brutal pragmatism" and corpo SWEs have always been an opposing force to the hacking spirit. Catch phrases include, but not limited to:

    - don't reinvent the wheel

    - right tool for the job

    - use a library

    - time to market

    - customers don't care about X

    - premature optimization

    I hack because it's the expression of the exact freedom that made me interested in computers in the first place. Discouraging developing engineers from exploration & research and forming them into a product-oriented mold is something I really, really don't like.

  • by 082349872349872 on 12/7/22, 10:48 AM

        Tiger got to hunt
    bird got to fly;
    Man got to sit and
    wonder 'why, why, why?'

    Tiger got to sleep,
    bird got to land;
    Man got to tell him-
    self he understand.
    Best way to confirm understanding is via play: if I do this, that should happen...

  • by osullivj on 12/7/22, 3:15 PM

    Because we can't not hack. I've always been interested in writing, and read a bunch of "how to become a writer" stuff. I read a piece with some great writer answering the Q "how do you know you're a writer?" Answer: because you can't not write. I'm perfectly OK with not writing. But not coding? That's another thing...

  • by froggit on 12/7/22, 11:36 AM

    Not for money, not for recognition, not to please anyone, because I don't know how to not hack at anything that seems interesting (including things outside the domain of computing).

  • by neilv on 12/7/22, 12:02 PM

  • by the-printer on 12/7/22, 4:55 PM

    Has anyone devised any sort of “eras” or “generations” in the history of hacking? What stage are we in now?

  • by buggythebug on 12/7/22, 2:10 PM

    Because we don't have a girlfriend.

  • by aap_ on 12/7/22, 10:48 AM

    "George M. Jones"? Sure that isn't meant to be Stephen?, aka smj from SDF and LCM fame.