81 lines
4.5 KiB
Markdown
81 lines
4.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "The Hacker Mindset"
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date: 2024-02-24T16:43:00+01:00
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---
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Image credit: [AT&T Tech Channel - Cliff Stoll: Good
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Science](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHEIOgONq6A)
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First, there comes excruciating pain. Suddenly, an eye blinding flash travels
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across his eyes. Look at him. He finally gazed outside the womb. He is now a
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small fraction of this world and all of its complications. Where will this
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child go? Just how will reality shape him? Will he break and succumb to
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despair, or regrow into an even more resilient, mature human? As the mother
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cries in joy, his little neurons start to fire little sparks of data that
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resonate all across his brain from hemisphere to hemisphere. And they do so
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very quickly. With a sheer speed of 100 meters per second. His brain has
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millions if not billions of connections! That is not a super computer. That is
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a human.
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Before his parents know it, he is already learning his first ABCs and doing
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basic mathematics. A few years pass, and he starts developing new emotions.
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More years pass and he is capable of deep abstract thought. Curiosity and
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questions are like fuel and oxygen. Waiting for the little spark to complete
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the job and burst into a violent reaction of fire. For knowledge. A new
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experiment proves to be as exciting as a new question. Forcing the child to
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push the limits of his brain and make connections based on his experience, or
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lack thereof.
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This is how I like to describe hackers. We lack hackers. Passionate people.
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People that will pass knowledge down the generations with real excitement. And
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you cannot imagine THE BEST of such people until you see them in action. If you
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scout through the internet carefully, you might notice them. Here are some that
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I cannot help myself but to share. For they have deeply impacted my thinking:
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- [John D. Boswell](https://www.youtube.com/@melodysheep)
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- [Richard Feynman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1ww1IXRfTA)
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- [Cliff Stoll](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt0844ViQDI)
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- [Tom Scott](https://www.youtube.com/@TomScottGo)
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- [Richard Stallman](https://www.gnu.org/)
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- [Khan Academy](https://www.khanacademy.org/)
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“Hackers”. I am not referring to cyber security specialists, consultants, or
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attackers, although they do constitute a big portion of individuals with such
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a mentality. I am referring to people that wonder and explore. What hackers
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used to be defined as before media acted out with its usual "drama, drama,
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drama.. drama" move and pictured us as "the bad guys". The bad guys are not
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hackers. They are criminals. End of the story.
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Why do we lack them? Because people are not flawless. We make mistakes, even
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when we think we are doing the right thing. A statement kills curiosity. It
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closes your options and puts you on a single track. Some parents do that. Some
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teachers do that. Which can have profound effects on the child. Children need
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questions. They are born to be curious. If the environment models them to be
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silent, shut up, and not question about the system or statement in question,
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how will they ever familiarize themselves with it? That is why extreme patience
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is needed when introducing somebody to a topic. Especially children.
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Is there a way out of such closed thinking? Perhaps. For me it was FOSS (Free
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and Open-Source Software). I no longer am tied to a proprietary system that I
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detest. I am free to use my computer however I like. Which pushes me to
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understand my own system better and in more depth. It enables me to think in
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new ways and make my computer do funny things. Even if impractical, it still
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is.. fun. The reason behind it also lies in data protection and privacy. But
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that is another discussion. For you, the entry point might also reside in FOSS,
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or maybe mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, etcetera. At the end of the
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day, all major subjects are fundamentally interlinked. Curiosity will push you
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outside of your own field if you just let it do so. That is when you will
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realize that every subject has a profound meaning and beauty.
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The greatest twist will come when you discover something new on your own that
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is interlinked with what you know you LOVE doing. But that resides inside a
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completely different field that you remember hating because of a past
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experience - like school.
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This is what I learned in my concluding years of adolescence. I now like to
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think optimistically about the coming generations. Let's take care and be
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welcoming of our future pioneers. Let’s respect the work of the ones who came
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before us. They are after all, the reason why we are here.
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