Reading 01: I Hack, Therefore I Am

 I used to believe that a "true hacker" was someone who would go out of the bounds of the law in order to provide a tool or service that was being limited. My main knowledge of this came from stories and documentaries about DRM bypass hackers for pirated video games or other things. The images in my head would surround the classic movie-style hackers with dingy basements, hoodies, and Dorito dust fingers. The first section of the book really did help me lean away from this concept. Hackers are nerds who are passionate about computing, technology, and the like. Samson and the other members of the TMRC fell in love with these large computers, and had a passion for being some of the first non-professional programmers. I would like to be like these hackers, with an unquenchable thirst for computing knowledge. In a way, I kind of already am. I do love computers, I love what they can do and what they offer from business, technology, and gaming perspectives. Do I think I would have been like them at MIT, and been enveloped by the quest for computing time? I would like to think I would be, but in all reality, I probably would not have been as driven as they were. I probably would be like the other group members, getting annoyed that some of the members had formed their own sub-group within the group. It is hard to say, but the kind of passion that these students exhibited is aspirational. I find the concept of a "true hacker" inspirational, as they go above and beyond the bounds for their passion, and have a general distaste for those who wish to limit their accessibility to what they love. It makes complete sense as to why these multi-million dollar computers had to have accessibility issues, as they were being used by a research institution, and the fact that they were worth multi millions of dollars. But the drive, the motivation that these students had to actually compute stuff was very interesting. The fact that they would show up to 3:00AM appointments other people had JUST IN CASE they didn't show up is boggling to me. It definitely feels very stereotypically MIT, very nerdy and very passionate about being nerdy. I am a nerd myself, and I could talk for hours about some specific interests of mine. But I don't think being a nerd IS my passion, it just comes with the territory. I think that is part of what the author thinks makes a hacker "true", along with the historical precedent that these early hackers made with their devotion. The students know they are nerdy, and don't care. They lean into it, and never let it get in the way of their time with the computer. I don't think at many other universities something like this could happen. I could see it happening at some Ivy League schools, maybe. This is to say that MIT, especially now, harbors a community of people that lean into the nerdiness, and allows people like Samson to thrive. I think Notre Dame does this well additionally, except instead of for uber-nerds, it is for people like me. Passionate about nerdy things, but still likes football. Am I a "true hacker"? I don't think I am at this moment. I think I have been in the past, but as of now, I think I am lacking the absolute drive that Samson and the other group members demonstrated.