You wear a suit to blend in. You hack and stick out. It's as simple as that. Hackers are just the people who don't care much for blending in but they are not stupid enough to be bums.
Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers
101–110 of 163 posts
Re: Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers
#102Very light article, with a half-assed counterpoint... shame. Could have been more. I'd love for there to be a strong correlation between technical skills and opposition to authoritarianism... that would certainly help us in the battle against technologically-driven dystopias.
NSA hires the best nerds. DoD hires all the scientists. The ones who don't get hired, go to pharmaceuticals (which have an excellent track record of morally dubious acts). Nerds that I have have met or seen in mailing lists, have a strong co-relation with totalitarianism aka evil sysadmins. I would like to call a distinction b/w Aron who is first and foremost a philosophy-geek, something that all idealists have in co…
>> NSA hires the best nerds.
I'm skeptical of this. In a hypothetical programming/engineering competition, I'd bet Apple and/or Google could clean the clocks of any government agency or defense contractor, sans building planes and weapons.
>> Nerds that I have have met or seen in mailing lists, have a strong co-relation with totalitarianism aka evil sysadmins.
Sad. That's what assimilation and institutionalization does to you. Hope that never happens to me.
Re: Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a great example of why a good hacker should work in public service. Why bother working for an environmental non-profit when you can make many orders of magnitude more difference by founding Tesla Motors or Nanosolar Because an environmental non-profit might make immediate changes that save people's lives. A non-profit might put enough pressure on a company to stop polluting groundwater or destroying fragile e…
With Tesla you'll help rich people use less gas. With Tesla, you slowly eliminate gas and help the environment. Imagine in 20 years a world where Tesla cars are the norm, all electric, travelling forever, no payment for gas, free charging. That is an incredible world change and shift. It is so much more than helping people use less gas.
no payment for gas, free charging
Wait, what? When did Tesla's vision become "free electricity for everyone"?
Re: Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
NSA hires the best nerds. DoD hires all the scientists. The ones who don't get hired, go to pharmaceuticals (which have an excellent track record of morally dubious acts). Nerds that I have have met or seen in mailing lists, have a strong co-relation with totalitarianism aka evil sysadmins. I would like to call a distinction b/w Aron who is first and foremost a philosophy-geek, something that all idealists have in co…
>> NSA hires the best nerds. I'm skeptical of this. In a hypothetical programming/engineering competition, I'd bet Apple and/or Google could clean the clocks of any government agency or defense contractor, sans building planes and weapons. >> Nerds that I have have met or seen in mailing lists, have a strong co-relation with totalitarianism aka evil sysadmins. Sad. That's what assimilation and institutionalization do…
From what I have seen of the NSA's campus recruiting, I am skeptical of that as well. It is possible that they get most of their talent elsewhere, but at the very least they are missing a large source of it.
It is probably more accurate to say that they hire the best math guys that only have a single degree. They certainly aren't getting those who go on to be quants.
Re: Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers
#105Both suits and hackers leak information, the difference is suits leak it to private parties that they can benefit from and hackers do it publicly.
Re: Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers
#106Hackers tend to be passive, arm-chair, activists. Twittering on the internet and feeding outrage to each other, but never actually getting engaged to solve real issues. How many hackers do you know that have dedicated their entire careers to causes in the public service? In comparison, I look around at my friends who majored in liberal arts. I know a double-digit number of people who turned down six figure jobs to go…
It's obvious you've been little involved in "activism", and thus know little about it. Many things bely this, including usage of the word activism - most serious "activists" I know call themselves organizers, not activists. Activist is a word used by detractors and the media - it gives an image of a solitary person, maybe on some ego trip, while organizer implies a group effort. An example being Obama who, rightly or wrongly, caleld himself a community organizer, not a community activist.
The most common view I come across in people working in organizing is that abandoning your job and going to work in organizing full time is almost always a bad idea. It's considered a bad idea on so many different levels, I wouldn't know where to start.
It's not egalitarian - you create a division between "activists" and regular working people who are not, in the OP's opinion, the real deal since they don't work on activism 100% of the time.
It's more constricted - when your paycheck depends on some government agency, or some NGO, or some union or the like, you're more constrained. You have to obey the hierarchy and your behavior affects your paycheck. This changes your behavior to where you're thinking less of the work and more on your paycheck and the desires of the hierarchy giving you your paycheck. If the EPA gets massive budget cuts someone working there is out of luck - but not someone with a solid job who does environmental work in their spare time.
It's more sustainable - during upsurges of social change, positions open up to work for causes. As the zeitgeist changes, most of these positions dry up. Someone with a decent job can be in things for the long haul.
It's a way of turning off activism - it's the armchair people who aren't even armchair activists who say you have to be 100% devoted 24/7 or it doesn't count. It's a way to discourage organizing efforts, and a way to allay the fact that they themselves are part of the problem. It's the oldest circular reasoning of the lazy person - they want to do absolutely nothing, so they invent the bogus idea that they have to do it 24/7 or it doesn't count, and since this is unreasonable they do nothing. This isn't reality, it's a lazy person's circular reasoning, and this is fairly obvious to all.
You're talking about something you seem to know little about. Is Noam Chomsky not a real activist since he studies computer and human language at MIT? Was Edward Said not an activist since he was a professor of English literature at Columbia? Virtually everything you said is obviously bogus to anyone who has actually been involved in activism.
Re: Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers
#107Hackers tend to be passive, arm-chair, activists. Twittering on the internet and feeding outrage to each other, but never actually getting engaged to solve real issues. How many hackers do you know that have dedicated their entire careers to causes in the public service? In comparison, I look around at my friends who majored in liberal arts. I know a double-digit number of people who turned down six figure jobs to go…
Explain me, how contributing to free software is not a public service? Programmers serve public in their own way, not everybody must directly help people in order to make a difference. Besides, if liberal arts students would have a passion for problem solving I can guarantee there would be much less public servants.
Re: Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
With Tesla you'll help rich people use less gas. With Tesla, you slowly eliminate gas and help the environment. Imagine in 20 years a world where Tesla cars are the norm, all electric, travelling forever, no payment for gas, free charging. That is an incredible world change and shift. It is so much more than helping people use less gas.
no payment for gas, free charging Wait, what? When did Tesla's vision become "free electricity for everyone"?
I know we're discussing the company, not the man. But I got a good chuckle out of this comment.
Re: Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
A good hacker is wasted in public service. Why bother working for an environmental non-profit when you can make many orders of magnitude more difference by founding Tesla Motors or Nanosolar? Who has more impact on education, a good elementary teacher or Sal Khan? Why campaign for privacy when you can write PGP or Tor, why work as a fundraiser when you could build Kiva or Watsi? The hacker skillset is a lever big eno…
This is a great example of why a good hacker should work in public service. Why bother working for an environmental non-profit when you can make many orders of magnitude more difference by founding Tesla Motors or Nanosolar Because an environmental non-profit might make immediate changes that save people's lives. A non-profit might put enough pressure on a company to stop polluting groundwater or destroying fragile e…
>Sometimes being the one guy who does want to do public service makes the difference, because all the other 'good hackers' are more concerned with one solution that will solve all the world's problems (which never happens) and making a quick buck.
Speaking of things that never happen.
Re: Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
With Tesla you'll help rich people use less gas. With Tesla, you slowly eliminate gas and help the environment. Imagine in 20 years a world where Tesla cars are the norm, all electric, travelling forever, no payment for gas, free charging. That is an incredible world change and shift. It is so much more than helping people use less gas.
no payment for gas, free charging Wait, what? When did Tesla's vision become "free electricity for everyone"?
Elon Musk wants to cover the country with charging stations that are free to use so that you can travel forever, for free. No more gas refills. Nine stations now provide free electricity for Model S owners, and the company has said it wants 100 along U.S. and Canadian highways by 2015.