Thoughts on "How to become a hacker"

After reading an article "How to become a hacker" [1], I had some thinking and want to share some thoughts about it and bring up some points I totally or partly agree and disagree (please note that hacker here is not the same as security hacker). Generally I really liked an article to widen an understanding of software development culture. On the other hand I would not advice to look at this article as some sort of dogma or laws, which have to followed by every software developer.

Here are some points I found interesting to discuss after reading an article:

In "Learn how to program" it was a surprise for me that discussion about specific programming languages was so huge. Eventually this discussion led to a good conclusion, that a hacker should have a variety of programming languages in his disposal, which I totally agree. On the other hand I do not think this has to be some predefined set of languages - this could be specific for everyone. Also although the article is updated from time to time, it does not cover some modern technologies like mobile and modern web development technologies, which I think should at least be mentioned.

I understand, that hackers community is very keen on Unix-based system and I totally agree that every software developer should know how to use it. I can also agree that "true" hackers may only be using Unix of some sort. BUT I did not like the overall attitude of the article and QA section about Windows system. The article itself left me with a feeling that if a person uses Windows, everyone will point at them and make fun...

On the other hand, as I said I actually liked an article - I looked at it as an alternative view on software development culture - in my opinion the world needs such hackers.


It is all about the software wizards [2]


1. http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#why_this

2. https://i.redd.it/mc6d9iwszy831.jpg

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