What does it mean to be a “true hacker”? Do you aspire to be one? Why or why not?

In part one of the book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, Steven Levy writes about the true hackers of the MIT artificial intelligence lab in the fifties and sixties. In the epilogue, Levy reveals the name of a man who considered himself to be the last true hacker left on Earth. His name was Richard Stallman.

I’m the last survivor of a dead culture. And I don’t really belong in the world anymore. And in some ways I feel I ought to be dead.

— Richard Stallman

For Stallman, a true hacker was someone who believed and lived by the hacker ethic. In 1983, Stallman believed that the people he once considered to be true hackers were no longer true hackers. In an interview with Mondo 2000 in 2018, Stallman said,

The term ‘hackers’ was invented by Steven Levy. According to him, the true hackers were the ones at universities in the mid-60s and into the early 70s—they were working on large computers. Then the hardware hackers who designed the personal computers in the 70’s—they’re second generation. The third generation is the game hackers of the late 70s and 80s. So when he calls me “last of the true hackers,” he means the last of that generation; the last person carrying on the attitudes and spirit of that generation.

While Stallman may be the last true hacker of his generation, the essence of what it means to be a true hacker is not about an arbitrary time period in which one grew up; it’s about the culture and spirit of those who truly embrace the hacker ethic.

  1. Access to computers—and anything which might teach you something about the way the world works—should be unlimited and total. Always yield to the Hands-On Imperative!
  2. All information should be free.
  3. Mistrust authority—promote decentralization.
  4. Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, sex, or position.
  5. You can create art and beauty on a computer.
  6. Computers can change your life for the better.

There’s so much more to what it means to be a true hacker than just what is listed in the previous six lines. True hackers don’t hack to steal or destroy; they work relentlessly to create The Right Thing—”the unique, correct, elegant solution… the thing that satisfied all the constraints at the same time, which everyone seemed to believe existed for most problems.” And when they figure it out, they share it with everyone so that no one else has to perform redundant work. After all, that would be a huge waste of clock cycles.

There are some not-so-great things that are part of the identity of true hackers. True hackers were obsessive. Many of them would go tens of hours without sleep, working with a laser focus, before crashing for half a day. True hackers often forewent their personal health and hygiene, making necessary sacrifices for what they believed was the most important pursuit of all: hacking.

The world would be very different without the initial efforts of true hackers writing optimal software and distributing it for free. Open source is what makes the field of computer science special for me. For most fields of study, there are natural barriers preventing learning and hands-on experimentation. Chemistry, biology, and physics all require expensive lab equipment and materials. It’s not possible for everyone to have their own fume hood installed in their home for their own experiments, along with emergency shower systems and the hundreds of vials and beakers needed for experiments.

Computers have their own costs, mainly the large upfront cost to obtain one, the costs to maintain it, and the electricity to power it. But beyond that, the only things an aspiring hacker needs are the desire and ability to learn. Open source allows everyone access to more information than they could ever hope to learn in their lifetime—and often information of the highest quality—all for free. No other field is quite like this, and honestly, I feel like I am completely spoiled. I don’t appreciate open source enough; I haven’t taken advantage of all that has been given freely to me by others. If I truly understood the value of open source, I would not waste time playing games on my phone but instead use every pocket of time I have to contribute to open source.

In some sense, I do feel like that at times. The pressures of this world tell me that I need a job. My heart pulls me towards projects that intrigue and excite me, but my brain tells me they’re not going to get me hired. Despite this, I still often go against my brain out of curiosity. I can’t help but want to figure out how to create this really cool thing, whether it’s to obliterate my friends in Battleship or Mancala, or to learn how to create a videogame entirely in C++. There are times when I relate to true hackers’ desire to work 30 hours without sleep. With that said, I cannot say I aspire to be a true hacker like the ones from MIT because I think it’s unhealthy and too extreme. I lack trust in society’s ability to not delete my files, and I think computer security is a fascinating field worth true hackers’ pursuit; OpenBSD is a beautiful example. It feels good to know that the security and integrity of computer systems around the world are in the hands of the most obsessive hackers, all striving for The Right Thing. While I couldn’t be one of them myself, I admire their commitment and passion towards making computers that have changed my life for the better.