+***BECOME A HACKER***+
The Jargon File contains a bunch of
definitions of the term `hacker', most having to do with technical adeptness and a delight
in solving problems and overcoming limits. If you want to know how to become a
hacker, though, only two are really relevant.
There is a community, a shared culture, of expert programmers and networking wizards
that traces its history back through decades to the first time-sharing minicomputers and
the earliest ARPAnet experiments. The members of this culture originated the term
`hacker'. Hackers built the Internet. Hackers made the Unix
operating system what it is today. Hackers run Usenet. Hackers make the World Wide Web
work. If you are part of this culture, if you have contributed to it and other people in
it know who you are and call you a hacker, you're a hacker.
The hacker mind-set is not confined to this software-hacker culture. There are people
who apply the hacker attitude to other things, like electronics or music -- actually, you
can find it at the highest levels of any science or art. Software hackers recognize these
kindred spirits elsewhere and may call them "hackers" too -- and some claim that
the hacker nature is really independent of the particular medium the hacker works in. But
in the rest of this document we will focus on the skills and attitudes of software
hackers, and the traditions of the shared culture that originated the term `hacker'.
There is another group of people who loudly call themselves hackers, but aren't. These
are people (mainly adolescent males) who get a kick out of breaking into computers and
phreaking the phone system. Real hackers call these people `crackers' and want nothing to
do with them. Real hackers mostly think crackers are lazy, irresponsible, and not very
bright, and object that being able to break security doesn't make you a hacker any more
than being able to hotwire cars makes you an automotive engineer. Unfortunately, many
journalists and writers have been fooled into using the word `hacker' to describe
crackers; this irritates real hackers no end.
The basic difference is this: hackers build things, crackers break them.
If you want to be a hacker, keep reading. If you want to be a cracker, go read the
after finding out you aren't as smart as you think you are. And that's all I'm going to
say about crackers.
Hackers solve problems and build things, and they believe in freedom and voluntary
mutual help. To be accepted as a hacker, you have to behave as though you have this kind
of attitude yourself. And to behave as though you have the attitude, you have to really
believe the attitude.
But if you think of cultivating hacker attitudes as just a way to gain acceptance in
the culture, you'll miss the point. Becoming the kind of person who believes these things
is important for you -- for helping you learn and keeping you motivated. As with
all creative arts, the most effective way to become a master is to imitate the mind-set of
masters -- not just intellectually but emotionally as well.
So, if you want to be a hacker, repeat the following things until you believe them:
Being a hacker is lots of fun, but it's a kind of fun that takes lots of effort. The
effort takes motivation. Successful athletes get their motivation from a kind of physical
delight in making their bodies perform, in pushing themselves past their own physical
limits. Similarly, to be a hacker you have to get a basic thrill from solving problems,
sharpening your skills, and exercising your intelligence.
If you aren't the kind of person that feels this way naturally, you'll need to become
one in order to make it as a hacker. Otherwise you'll find your hacking energy is sapped
by distractions like sex, money, and social approval.
(You also have to develop a kind of faith in your own learning capacity -- a belief
that even though you may not know all of what you need to solve a problem, if you tackle
just a piece of it and learn from that, you'll learn enough to solve the next piece -- and
so on, until you're done.)
Creative brains are a valuable, limited resource. They shouldn't be wasted on
re-inventing the wheel when there are so many fascinating new problems waiting out there.
To behave like a hacker, you have to believe that the thinking time of other hackers is
precious -- so much so that it's almost a moral duty for you to share information, solve
problems and then give the solutions away just so other hackers can solve new
problems instead of having to perpetually re-address old ones.
(You don't have to believe that you're obligated to give all your creative
product away, though the hackers that do are the ones that get most respect from other
hackers. It's consistent with hacker values to sell enough of it to keep you in food and
rent and computers. It's consistent to use your hacking skills to support a family or even
get rich, as long as you don't forget you're a hacker while you're doing it.)
Hackers (and creative people in general) should never be bored or have to drudge at
stupid repetitive work, because when this happens it means they aren't doing what only
they can do -- solve new problems. This wastefulness hurts everybody. Therefore boredom
and drudgery are not just unpleasant but actually evil.
To behave like a hacker, you have to believe this enough to want to automate away the
boring bits as much as possible, not just for yourself but for everybody else (especially
other hackers).
(There is one apparent exception to this. Hackers will sometimes do things that may
seem repetitive or boring to an observer as a mind-clearing exercise, or in order to
acquire a skill or have some particular kind of experience you can't have otherwise. But
this is by choice -- nobody who can think should ever be forced into boredom.)
Hackers are naturally anti-authoritarian. Anyone who can give you orders can stop you
from solving whatever problem you're being fascinated by -- and, given the way
authoritarian minds work, will generally find some appallingly stupid reason to do so. So
the authoritarian attitude has to be fought wherever you find it, lest it smother you and
other hackers.
(This isn't the same as fighting all authority. Children need to be guided and
criminals restrained. A hacker may agree to accept some kinds of authority in order to get
something he wants more than the time he spends following orders. But that's a limited,
conscious bargain; the kind of personal surrender authoritarians want is not on offer.)
Authoritarians thrive on censorship and secrecy. And they distrust voluntary
cooperation and information-sharing -- they only like `cooperation' that they control. So
to behave like a hacker, you have to develop an instinctive hostility to censorship,
secrecy, and the use of force or deception to compel responsible adults. And you have to
be willing to act on that belief.
To be a hacker, you have to develop some of these attitudes. But copping an attitude
alone won't make you a hacker, any more than it will make you a champion athlete or a rock
star. Becoming a hacker will take intelligence, practice, dedication, and hard work.
Therefore, you have to learn to distrust attitude and respect competence of every kind.
Hackers won't let posers waste their time, but they worship competence -- especially
competence at hacking, but competence at anything is good. Competence at demanding skills
that few can master is especially good, and competence at demanding skills that involve
mental acuteness, craft, and concentration is best.
If you revere competence, you'll enjoy developing it in yourself -- the hard work and
dedication will become a kind of intense play rather than drudgery. And that's vital to
becoming a hacker.
The hacker attitude is vital, but skills are even more vital. Attitude is no substitute
for competence, and there's a certain basic toolkit of skills which you have to have
before any hacker will dream of calling you one.
This toolkit changes slowly over time as technology creates new skills and makes old
ones obsolete. For example, it used to include programming in machine language, and didn't
until recently involve HTML. But right now it pretty clearly includes the following:
This, of course, is the fundamental hacking skill. If you don't know any computer
languages, I recommend starting with Python. It is
cleanly designed, well documented, and relatively kind to beginners. Despite being a good
first language, it is not just a toy; it is very powerful and flexible and well suited for
large projects.
But be aware that you won't reach the skill level of a hacker or even merely a
programmer if you only know one language -- you need to learn how to think about
programming problems in a general way, independent of any one language. To be a real
hacker, you need to have gotten to the point where you can learn a new language in days by
relating what's in the manual to what you already know. This means you should learn
several very different languages.
If you get into serious programming, you will have to learn C, the core language of
Unix (though it's not the one to try learning first thing). Other languages of particular
importance to hackers include Perl and LISP. Perl is
worth learning for practical reasons; it's very widely used for active web pages and
system administration, so that even if you never write Perl you should learn to read it.
LISP is worth learning for the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you
finally get it; that expereience will make you a better programmer for the rest of your
days, even if you never actually use LISP itself a lot.
It's best, actually, to learn all four of these (Python, C, Perl, and LISP). Besides
being the most important hacking languages, they represent very different approaches to
programming, and each will educate you in valuable ways.
I can't give complete instructions on how to learn to program here -- it's a complex
skill. But I can tell you that books and courses won't do it (many, maybe most of
the best hackers are self-taught). What will do it is (a) reading code and (b) writing
code.
Learning to program is like learning to write good natural language. The best way to do
it is to read some stuff written by masters of the form, write some things yourself, read
a lot more, write a little more, read a lot more, write some more ... and repeat until
your writing begins to develop the kind of strength and economy you see in your models.
Finding good code to read used to be hard, because there were few large programs
available in source for fledgeling hackers to read and tinker with. This has changed
dramatically; open-source software, programming tools, and operating systems (all built by
hackers) are now widely available. Which brings me neatly to our next topic...
I'm assuming you have a personal computer or can get access to one (these kids today
have it so easy :-)). The single most important step any newbie can take towards acquiring
hacker skills is to get a copy of Linux or one of the BSD-Unixes, install it on a personal
machine, and run it.
Yes, there are other operating systems in the world besides Unix. But they're
distributed in binary -- you can't read the code, and you can't modify it. Trying to learn
to hack on a DOS or Windows machine or under MacOS is like trying to learn to dance while
wearing a body cast.
Besides, Unix is the operating system of the Internet. While you can learn to use the
Internet without knowing Unix, you can't be an Internet hacker without understanding it.
For this reason, the hacker culture today is pretty strongly Unix-centered. (This wasn't
always true, and some old-time hackers aren't happy about it, but the symbiosis between
Unix and the Internet has become strong enough that even Microsoft's muscle doesn't seem
able to seriously dent it.)
So, bring up a Unix -- I like Linux myself but there are other ways (and yes, you can
run both Linux and DOS/Windows on the same machine). Learn it. Run it. Tinker with it.
Talk to the Internet with it. Read the code. Modify the code. You'll get better
programming tools (including C, Lisp, Python, and Perl) than any Microsoft operating
system can dream of, you'll have fun, and you'll soak up more knowledge than you realize
you're learning until you look back on it as a master hacker.
For more about learning Unix, see
To get your hands on a Linux, see the Where can I get
Linux.
Most of the things the hacker culture has built do their work out of sight, helping run
factories and offices and universities without any obvious impact on how non-hackers live.
The Web is the one big exception, the huge shiny hacker toy that even politicians
admit is changing the world. For this reason alone (and a lot of other good ones as well)
you need to learn how to work the Web.
This doesn't just mean learning how to drive a browser (anyone can do that), but
learning how to write HTML, the Web's markup language. If you don't know how to program,
writing HTML will teach you some mental habits that will help you learn. So build a home
page.
But just having a home page isn't anywhere near good enough to make you a hacker. The
Web is full of home pages. Most of them are poi
br />
(This isn't the same as fighting all authority. Children need to be guided and
criminals restrained. A hacker may agree to accept some kinds of authority in order to get
something he wants more than the time he spends following orders. But that's a limited,
conscious bargain; the kind of personal surrender authoritarians want is not on offer.)
Authoritarians thrive on censorship and secrecy. And they distrust voluntary
cooperation and information-sharing -- they only like `cooperation' that they control. So
to behave like a hacker, you have to develop an instinctive hostility to censorship,
secrecy, and the use of force or deception to compel responsible adults. And you have to
be willing to act on that belief.
To be a hacker, you have to develop some of these attitudes. But copping an attitude
alone won't make you a hacker, any more than it will make you a champion athlete or a rock
star. Becoming a hacker will take intelligence, practice, dedication, and hard work.
Therefore, you have to learn to distrust attitude and respect competence of every kind.
Hackers won't let posers waste their time, but they worship competence -- especially
competence at hacking, but competence at anything is good. Competence at demanding skills
that few can master is especially good, and competence at demanding skills that involve
mental acuteness, craft, and concentration is best.
If you revere competence, you'll enjoy developing it in yourself -- the hard work and
dedication will become a kind of intense play rather than drudgery. And that's vital to
becoming a hacker.
The hacker attitude is vital, but skills are even more vital. Attitude is no substitute
for competence, and there's a certain basic toolkit of skills which you have to have
before any hacker will dream of calling you one.
This toolkit changes slowly over time as technology creates new skills and makes old
ones obsolete. For example, it used to include programming in machine language, and didn't
until recently involve HTML. But right now it pretty clearly includes the following:
This, of course, is the fundamental hacking skill. If you don't know any computer
languages, I recommend starting with Python. It is
cleanly designed, well documented, and relatively kind to beginners. Despite being a good
first language, it is not just a toy; it is very powerful and flexible and well suited for
large projects.
But be aware that you won't reach the skill level of a hacker or even merely a
programmer if you only know one language -- you need to learn how to think about
programming problems in a general way, independent of any one language. To be a real
hacker, you need to have gotten to the point where you can learn a new language in days by
relating what's in the manual to what you already know. This means you should learn
several very different languages.
If you get into serious programming, you will have to learn C, the core language of
Unix (though it's not the one to try learning first thing). Other languages of particular
importance to hackers include Perl and LISP. Perl is
worth learning for practical reasons; it's very widely used for active web pages and
system administration, so that even if you never write Perl you should learn to read it.
LISP is worth learning for the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you
finally get it; that expereience will make you a better programmer for the rest of your
days, even if you never actually use LISP itself a lot.
It's best, actually, to learn all four of these (Python, C, Perl, and LISP). Besides
being the most important hacking languages, they represent very different approaches to
programming, and each will educate you in valuable ways.
I can't give complete instructions on how to learn to program here -- it's a complex
skill. But I can tell you that books and courses won't do it (many, maybe most of
the best hackers are self-taught). What will do it is (a) reading code and (b) writing
code.
Learning to program is like learning to write good natural language. The best way to do
it is to read some stuff written by masters of the form, write some things yourself, read
a lot more, write a little more, read a lot more, write some more ... and repeat until
your writing begins to develop the kind of strength and economy you see in your models.
Finding good code to read used to be hard, because there were few large programs
available in source for fledgeling hackers to read and tinker with. This has changed
dramatically; open-source software, programming tools, and operating systems (all built by
hackers) are now widely available. Which brings me neatly to our next topic...
I'm assuming you have a personal computer or can get access to one (these kids today
have it so easy :-)). The single most important step any newbie can take towards acquiring
hacker skills is to get a copy of Linux or one of the BSD-Unixes, install it on a personal
machine, and run it.
Yes, there are other operating systems in the world besides Unix. But they're
distributed in binary -- you can't read the code, and you can't modify it. Trying to learn
to hack on a DOS or Windows machine or under MacOS is like trying to learn to dance while
wearing a body cast.
Besides, Unix is the operating system of the Internet. While you can learn to use the
Internet without knowing Unix, you can't be an Internet hacker without understanding it.
For this reason, the hacker culture today is pretty strongly Unix-centered. (This wasn't
always true, and some old-time hackers aren't happy about it, but the symbiosis between
Unix and the Internet has become strong enough that even Microsoft's muscle doesn't seem
able to seriously dent it.)
So, bring up a Unix -- I like Linux myself but there are other ways (and yes, you can
run both Linux and DOS/Windows on the same machine). Learn it. Run it. Tinker with it.
Talk to the Internet with it. Read the code. Modify the code. You'll get better
programming tools (including C, Lisp, Python, and Perl) than any Microsoft operating
system can dream of, you'll have fun, and you'll soak up more knowledge than you realize
you're learning until you look back on it as a master hacker.
For more about learning Unix, see
To get your hands on a Linux, see the Where can I get
Linux.
Most of the things the hacker culture has built do their work out of sight, helping run
factories and offices and universities without any obvious impact on how non-hackers live.
The Web is the one big exception, the huge shiny hacker toy that even politicians
admit is changing the world. For this reason alone (and a lot of other good ones as well)
you need to learn how to work the Web.
This doesn't just mean learning how to drive a browser (anyone can do that), but
learning how to write HTML, the Web's markup language. If you don't know how to program,
writing HTML will teach you some mental habits that will help you learn. So build a home
page.
But just having a home page isn't anywhere near good enough to make you a hacker. The
Web is full of home pages. Most of them are poi