The Jargon File, Eric S. Raymond [speld decodable readers txt] 📗

work or other activities in terms of the challenges offered and the

toys they get to play with.

In terms of Myers-Briggs and equivalent psychometric systems,

hackerdom appears to concentrate the relatively rare INTJ and INTP

types; that is, introverted, intuitive, and thinker types (as opposed

to the extroverted-sensate personalities that predominate in the

mainstream culture). ENT[JP] types are also concentrated among hackers

but are in a minority.

Node:Weaknesses of the Hacker Personality, Next:[15292]Miscellaneous,

Previous:[15293]Personality Characteristics, Up:[15294]Appendix B

Weaknesses of the Hacker Personality

Hackers have relatively little ability to identify emotionally with

other people. This may be because hackers generally aren't much like

`other people'. Unsurprisingly, hackers also tend towards

self-absorption, intellectual arrogance, and impatience with people

and tasks perceived to be wasting their time.

As cynical as hackers sometimes wax about the amount of idiocy in the

world, they tend by reflex to assume that everyone is as rational,

`cool', and imaginative as they consider themselves. This bias often

contributes to weakness in communication skills. Hackers tend to be

especially poor at confrontation and negotiation.

Because of their passionate embrace of (what they consider to be) the

[15295]Right Thing, hackers can be unfortunately intolerant and

bigoted on technical issues, in marked contrast to their general

spirit of camaraderie and tolerance of alternative viewpoints

otherwise. Old-time [15296]ITS partisans look down on the ever-growing

hordes of [15297]Unix hackers; Unix aficionados despise [15298]VMS and

[15299]MS-DOS; and hackers who are used to conventional command-line

user interfaces loudly loathe mouse-and-menu based systems such as the

Macintosh. Hackers who don't indulge in [15300]Usenet consider it a

huge waste of time and [15301]bandwidth; fans of old adventure games

such as [15302]ADVENT and [15303]Zork consider [15304]MUDs to be

glorified chat systems devoid of atmosphere or interesting puzzles;

hackers who are willing to devote endless hours to Usenet or MUDs

consider [15305]IRC to be a real waste of time; IRCies think MUDs

might be okay if there weren't all those silly puzzles in the way.

And, of course, there are the perennial [15306]holy wars --

[15307]EMACS vs. [15308]vi, [15309]big-endian vs.

[15310]little-endian, RISC vs. CISC, etc., etc., etc. As in society at

large, the intensity and duration of these debates is usually

inversely proportional to the number of objective, factual arguments

available to buttress any position.

As a result of all the above traits, many hackers have difficulty

maintaining stable relationships. At worst, they can produce the

classic [15311]computer geek: withdrawn, relationally incompetent,

sexually frustrated, and desperately unhappy when not submerged in his

or her craft. Fortunately, this extreme is far less common than

mainstream folklore paints it -- but almost all hackers will recognize

something of themselves in the unflattering paragraphs above.

Hackers are often monumentally disorganized and sloppy about dealing

with the physical world. Bills don't get paid on time, clutter piles

up to incredible heights in homes and offices, and minor maintenance

tasks get deferred indefinitely.

1994-95's fad behavioral disease was a syndrome called Attention

Deficit Disorder (ADD), supposedly characterized by (among other

things) a combination of short attention span with an ability to

`hyperfocus' imaginatively on interesting tasks. In 1998-1999 another

syndrome that is said to overlap with many hacker traits entered

popular awareness: Asperger's syndrome (AS). This disorder is also

sometimes called `high-function autism', though researchers are

divided on whether AS is in fact a mild form of autism or a distinct

syndrome with a different etiology. AS patients exhibit mild to severe

deficits in interpreting facial and body-language cues and in modeling

or empathizing with others' emotions. Though some AS patients exhibit

mild retardation, others compensate for their deficits with high

intelligence and analytical ability, and frequently seek out technical

fields where problem-solving abilities are at a premium and people

skills are relatively unimportant. Both syndromes are thought to

relate to abnormalities in neurotransmitter chemistry, especially the

brain's processing of serotonin.

Many hackers have noticed that mainstream culture has shown a tendency

to pathologize and medicalize normal variations in personality,

especially those variations that make life more complicated for

authority figures and conformists. Thus, hackers aware of the issue

tend to be among those questioning whether ADD and AS actually exist;

and if so whether they are really `diseases' rather than extremes of a

normal genetic variation like having freckles or being able to taste

DPT. In either case, they have a sneaking tendency to wonder if these

syndromes are over-diagnosed and over-treated. After all, people in

authority will always be inconvenienced by schoolchildren or workers

or citizens who are prickly, intelligent individualists - thus, any

social system that depends on authority relationships will tend to

helpfully ostracize and therapize and drug such `abnormal' people

until they are properly docile and stupid and `well-socialized'.

So hackers tend to believe they have good reason for skepticism about

clinical explanations of the hacker personality. That being said, most

would also concede that some hacker traits coincide with indicators

for ADD and AS - the status of caffeeine as a hacker beverage of

choice may be connected to the fact that it bonds to the same neural

receptors as Ritalin, the drug most commonly prescribed for ADD. It is

probably true that boosters of both would find a rather higher rate of

clinical ADD among hackers than the supposedly mainstream-normal 3-5%

(AS is rarer and there are not yet good estimates of incidence as of

2000).

Node:Miscellaneous, Previous:[15312]Weaknesses of the Hacker

Personality, Up:[15313]Appendix B

Miscellaneous

Hackers are more likely to have cats than dogs (in fact, it is widely

grokked that cats have the hacker nature). Many drive incredibly

decrepit heaps and forget to wash them; richer ones drive spiffy

Porsches and RX-7s and then forget to have them washed. Almost all

hackers have terribly bad handwriting, and often fall into the habit

of block-printing everything like junior draftsmen.

Node:Appendix C, Next:[15314]Bibliography, Previous:[15315]Appendix B,

Up:[15316]Top

Helping Hacker Culture Grow

If you enjoyed the Jargon File, please help the culture that created

it grow and flourish. Here are several ways you can help:

o If you are a writer or journalist, don't say or write [15317]hacker

when you mean [15318]cracker. If you work with writers or journalists,

educate them on this issue and push them to do the right thing. If you

catch a newspaper or magazine abusing the work `hacker', write them

and straighten them out (this appendix includes a model letter).

o If you're a techie or computer hobbyist, get involved with one of

the free Unixes. Toss out that lame Microsoft OS, or confine it to one

disk partition and put Linux or FreeBSD or NetBSD on the other one.

And the next time your friend or boss is thinking about some

proprietary software `solution' that costs more than it's worth, be

ready to blow the competition away with open-source software running

over a Unix.

o Contribute to organizations like the Free Software Foundation that

promote the production of high-quality free and open-source software.

You can reach the Free Software Foundation at gnu@gnu.org, by phone at

+1-617-542-5942, or by snail-mail at 59 Temple Place, Suite 330,

Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA.

o Support the League for Programming Freedom, which opposes over-broad

software patents that constantly threaten to blow up in hackers'

faces, preventing them from developing innovative software for

tomorrow's needs. You can reach the League for Programming Freedom at

lpf@uunet.uu.net. by phone at +1 617 621 7084, or by snail-mail at 1

Kendall Square #143, P.O.Box 9171, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 USA.

o Join the continuing fight against Internet censorship, visit the

Center for Democracy and Technology Home Page at

[15319]http://www.cdt.org.

o If you do nothing else, please help fight government attempts to

seize political control of Internet content and restrict strong

cryptography. The so-called `Communications Decency Act' was declared

unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, but U.S. cryptography policy

still infringes our First Amendment rights. Surf to the Center for

Democracy and technology's home page at [15320]http://www.cdt.org to

see what you can do to help fight censorship of the net.

Here's the text of a letter RMS wrote to the Wall Street Journal to

complain about their policy of using "hacker" only in a pejorative

sense. We hear that most major newspapers have the same policy. If

you'd like to help change this situation, send your favorite newspaper

the same letter - or, better yet, write your own letter.

Dear Editor:

This letter is not meant for publication, although you can publish

it if you wish. It is meant specifically for you, the editor, not

the public.

I am a hacker. That is to say, I enjoy playing with computers --

working with, learning about, and writing clever computer programs.

I am not a cracker; I don't make a practice of breaking computer

security.

There's nothing shameful about the hacking I do. But when I tell

people I am a hacker, people think I'm admitting something naughty

-- because newspapers such as yours misuse the word "hacker",

giving the impression that it means "security breaker" and nothing

else. You are giving hackers a bad name.

The saddest thing is that this problem is perpetuated deliberately.

Your reporters know the difference between "hacker" and "security

breaker". They know how to make the distinction, but you don't let

them! You insist on using "hacker" pejoratively. When reporters try

to use another word, you change it. When reporters try to explain

the other meanings, you cut it.

Of course, you have a reason. You say that readers have become used

to your insulting usage of "hacker", so that you cannot change it

now. Well, you can't undo past mistakes today; but that is no

excuse to repeat them tomorrow.

If I were what you call a "hacker", at this point I would threaten

to crack your computer and crash it. But I am a hacker, not a

cracker. I don't do that kind of thing! I have enough computers to

play with at home and at work; I don't need yours. Besides, it's

not my way to respond to insults with violence. My response is this

letter.

You owe hackers an apology; but more than that, you owe us ordinary

respect.

Sincerely, etc.

Node:Bibliography, Previous:[15321]Appendix C, Up:[15322]Top

Bibliography

Here are some other books you can read to help you understand the

hacker mindset.

Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden BraidG�del, Escher, Bach: An Eternal

Golden Braid

Douglas Hofstadter

Basic Books, 1979

ISBN 0-394-74502-7

This book reads like an intellectual Grand Tour of hacker

preoccupations. Music, mathematical logic, programming, speculations

on the nature of intelligence, biology, and Zen are woven into a

brilliant tapestry themed on the concept of encoded self-reference.

The perfect left-brain companion to "Illuminatus".

Illuminatus!

I. "The Eye in the Pyramid"

II. "The Golden Apple"

III. "Leviathan".

Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson

Dell, 1988

ISBN 0-440-53981-1

This work of alleged fiction is an incredible berserko-surrealist

rollercoaster of world-girdling conspiracies, intelligent dolphins,

the fall of Atlantis, who really killed JFK, sex, drugs, rock'n'roll,

and the Cosmic Giggle Factor. First published in three volumes, but

there is now a one-volume trade paperback, carried by most chain

bookstores under SF. The perfect right-brain companion to Hofstadter's

"G�del, Escher, Bach". See [15323]Eris, [15324]Discordianism,

[15325]random numbers, [15326]Church of the SubGenius.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adams

Pocket Books, 1981

ISBN 0-671-46149-4

This `Monty Python in Space' spoof of SF genre traditions has been

popular among hackers ever since the original British radio show. Read

it if only to learn about Vogons (see [15327]bogon) and the

significance of the number 42 (see [15328]random numbers) -- and why

the winningest chess program of 1990 was called `Deep Thought'.

The Tao of Programming

James Geoffrey

Infobooks, 1987

ISBN 0-931137-07-1

This gentle, funny spoof of the "Tao Te Ching" contains much that is

illuminating