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Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers

#81

Post by rfnslyr »

peterwwillis wrote: post #65
jdietrich wrote: post #57

Earlier 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…

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.

Re: Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers

#82

Post by ebiester »

jdietrich wrote: post #57
rayiner wrote: post #27

Hackers 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…

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…

Not to mention that ten of us (at mid-level) could basically fund an activist if we really believed in it enough. A hundred of us, together, could fund lobbyist. (I'm talking including expenses, of course.)

And frankly, if ten thousand of us were willing to pledge 25 dollars a month, we'd have enough money to have a place at the table.

Re: Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers

#83

Post by tankbot »

rfnslyr wrote: post #81
peterwwillis wrote: post #65

Earlier 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.

Exactly this. It may start with "rich" people, but eventually can become the norm. There are so many examples to support this, I think it should be enough to just mention the personal computer.

Re: Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers

#84

Post by yason »

jdietrich wrote: post #57
rayiner wrote: post #27

Hackers 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…

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…

Note that it's also hacker mentality to always seek for greater leverage and spend some extra time so that you can squash a million flies at once. It's not a bad mentality but it's not the only one.

To change the world it's necessary to do small work, too. It's like where one brick layer sees himself building a brick wall and his working pal sees himself building a cathedral.

The thing is that we only need so many people to build Nanosolar or Tesla Motors. But there are a lot more people than that and everything is interdependent in the most unforeseen ways, so you can't rule out anyone. That great elementary school teacher might be needed to connect with and set the right course for a hacker kid today who goes build the proverbial cold fusion in 2050.

Re: Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers

#85

Post by [deleted] »

rayiner wrote: post #27

Hackers 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…

[deleted]

Re: Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers

#86

Post by danmaz74 »

rayiner wrote: post #27

Hackers 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…

Perhaps the real difference is that good hackers that aren't "libertarian" (in the way the article intends the word) are more difficult to find than, say, administrative assistants with the same characteristics, and so even NSA contractors end up hiring them?

Re: Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers

#87

Post by peterwwillis »

tankbot wrote: post #83
rfnslyr wrote: post #81

Earlier 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.

Exactly this. It may start with "rich" people, but eventually can become the norm. There are so many examples to support this, I think it should be enough to just mention the personal computer.

Yes, i'm sorry for being dismissive. The industry push toward hybrid and electric cars will definitely be benefited by Tesla's sole engineering prowess, and we will all benefit in at least 20 years. But you bring up another great example! The personal computer.

From more efficient personal entertainment to not having to retain information, the personal computer has enriched our lives in countless ways. We would all be much worse off without the novel inventions that made it such a success. (Please excuse my snark, I know the PC has had positive impacts, though I believe many are overblown)

Unfortunately, the pollution caused by the production and disposal of personal computers has not only become an ecological disaster, it's destroying the health and habitat of human beings around the globe. The biggest challenge today is not in creating a new gadget, it is how to clean up the damage done by the industry and prevent it from continuing.

I'm not saying you should stop focusing on your start-up and flipping it for cash in the Silicon Valley Gold Rush. I'm saying, if no good hackers focus on solving the problems that affect the general public, the cash you make will be invested in purchasing a habitable plastic bubble to live in.

Re: Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers

#88

Post by Avshalom »

rfnslyr wrote: post #81
peterwwillis wrote: post #65

Earlier 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.

Tesla exists because environmental groups managed to get subsidies, tax credits, green-grants and (as terrible a feather in cap as they are) trade-able carbon credits.

Also in 20 years electric cars might be the norm for new cars, but people are still driving >50 year old cars today, unless some one manages to pass a bill where the government buys everybody's ICE cars for some ludicrous multiple of their value most cars on the road will still be running on petrochemicals.

Re: Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers

#89

Post by tankbot »

peterwwillis wrote: post #87
tankbot wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly this. It may start with "rich" people, but eventually can become the norm. There are so many examples to support this, I think it should be enough to just mention the personal computer.

Yes, i'm sorry for being dismissive. The industry push toward hybrid and electric cars will definitely be benefited by Tesla's sole engineering prowess, and we will all benefit in at least 20 years. But you bring up another great example! The personal computer. From more efficient personal entertainment to not having to retain information, the personal computer has enriched our lives in countless ways. We would all b…

All too true. Hopefully these tools we've been able to build and refine over the years will help lead to further advancements in 'green' computing.

Re: Hackers vs. suits: Why nerds become leakers

#90

Post by thomasf1 »

peterwwillis wrote: post #65
jdietrich wrote: post #57

Earlier 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…

There is one big difference:

In Government / from within, hackers generally don´t have the skills to be able to change the system - Government is run by politicians - the effect of a good hacker is about as small as in your typical old-world corporate run by finance guys…

Compare that to companies where hackers are the CEOs…

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