Why do we hack?
curious.galthub.com
Why do we hack?
1–10 of 52 posts
Re: Why do we hack?
#2I think the "brutal pragmatism" and corpo SWEs have always been an opposing force to the hacking spirit. Catch phrases include, but not limited to:
- don't reinvent the wheel
- right tool for the job
- use a library
- time to market
- customers don't care about X
- premature optimization
I hack because it's the expression of the exact freedom that made me interested in computers in the first place. Discouraging developing engineers from exploration & research and forming them into a product-oriented mold is something I really, really don't like.
Re: Why do we hack?
#3I think the "brutal pragmatism" and corpo SWEs have always been an opposing force to the hacking spirit. Catch phrases include, but not limited to: - don't reinvent the wheel - right tool for the job - use a library - time to market - customers don't care about X - premature optimization I hack because it's the expression of the exact freedom that made me interested in computers in the first place. Discouraging devel…
"don't reinvent the wheel"
The single worst piece of advice that I consistently see repeated.
If you're product is a bunch of APIs, you're a user not a maker.
Re: Why do we hack?
#4"George M. Jones"? Sure that isn't meant to be Stephen?, aka smj from SDF and LCM fame.
Re: Why do we hack?
#5 Tiger got to hunt
bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and
wonder 'why, why, why?'
Tiger got to sleep,
bird got to land;
Man got to tell him-
self he understand.
Re: Why do we hack?
#6I think the "brutal pragmatism" and corpo SWEs have always been an opposing force to the hacking spirit. Catch phrases include, but not limited to: - don't reinvent the wheel - right tool for the job - use a library - time to market - customers don't care about X - premature optimization I hack because it's the expression of the exact freedom that made me interested in computers in the first place. Discouraging devel…
"don't reinvent the wheel" The single worst piece of advice that I consistently see repeated. If you're product is a bunch of APIs, you're a user not a maker.
Then, where does being a "maker" even start? One will always end up using something someone else created, or discovered, whether it is a library, a language, an OS, hardware... Even if you build your own computer from scratch using materials you gathered, you still did not "create" the raw components, did you?
All of this is only but a paraphrase of this famous quote from Carl Sagan: "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe"
Re: Why do we hack?
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
"don't reinvent the wheel" The single worst piece of advice that I consistently see repeated. If you're product is a bunch of APIs, you're a user not a maker.
Then, where does being a "maker" even start? One will always end up using something someone else created, or discovered, whether it is a library, a language, an OS, hardware... Even if you build your own computer from scratch using materials you gathered, you still did not "create" the raw components, did you? All of this is only but a paraphrase of this famous quote from Carl Sagan: "If you wish to make an apple pie…
Ironically it takes some pragmatism to accept that this is an instinctual thing. If you saw that a baker was just reselling baked goods from a supermarket you would not call them a baker, but you would be happy with them purchasing flour.
Re: Why do we hack?
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
"don't reinvent the wheel" The single worst piece of advice that I consistently see repeated. If you're product is a bunch of APIs, you're a user not a maker.
Then, where does being a "maker" even start? One will always end up using something someone else created, or discovered, whether it is a library, a language, an OS, hardware... Even if you build your own computer from scratch using materials you gathered, you still did not "create" the raw components, did you? All of this is only but a paraphrase of this famous quote from Carl Sagan: "If you wish to make an apple pie…
Proposal: Being a "maker" starts when one's addition —the stone one brings to the soup— is both novel and useful.
(the systems integrator may be doing something useful —certainly something lucrative!— while hardly novel; the shade-tree github'er probably has a directory full of explorations that are novel but not —at least not yet?— useful...)
Re: Why do we hack?
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
"don't reinvent the wheel" The single worst piece of advice that I consistently see repeated. If you're product is a bunch of APIs, you're a user not a maker.
Then, where does being a "maker" even start? One will always end up using something someone else created, or discovered, whether it is a library, a language, an OS, hardware... Even if you build your own computer from scratch using materials you gathered, you still did not "create" the raw components, did you? All of this is only but a paraphrase of this famous quote from Carl Sagan: "If you wish to make an apple pie…
Is Frankenstein human? Configuration is not creation.
Re: Why do we hack?
#10[flagged]