Hacker Perspective: KC

A hacker is someone with a need to know.

A hacker is not merely a person with a strong technical aptitude, adept at math or technology or mechanical work, for those are all the means that we use to satisfy the need.  The need is that of curiosity, a desire to peek behind the curtain and take a poke at what makes the world work.

The world is an iceberg, hiding the great majority of itself behind interfaces.  The front-end experience, I have discovered, is magnitudes less interesting than the underlying infrastructure.  Behind every door, every panel, in every wire and circuit, there are gears and cogs, bits-and-bytes.  They move and spin and flash entirely without pretension, an enormity in an instant.

We are all interconnected, part of one machine.  Set aside the metaphysical for a second and consider the physical implications of this.  Often less chaos than ordered discord, my actions have real and lasting consequences, and that is exciting!  Sometimes the results are small, sometimes they're large, but for every action, there is a reaction.

"Why?" drives me onward, encouraging me to discover why something is.  "Where," "what," and "how" are greater together as "why" than they are alone.  Larger than the sum of its parts, "why" is an insatiable curiosity as great as any hunger or thirst I will ever feel.  Is there a limit?  In the end, the limit is where I draw the line.

The question that keeps me hacking is "What happens if?"  "What happens if I pull this gear out?"  "What happens if I type this?"  "What happens if [anything]?"  Far beyond computers, electronics, or hardware, hacking is an application of perpetual discovery.  A hacker is never bored, because there will be an infinite number of questions to be asked, long after the time for questions is finished.  In my own mind, I find endless possibilities, and all it takes is a hack or two.

The question shouldn't be "Why hack?" but rather "Why not?"  How can someone possibly go through living experiencing it in the most shallow manner possible, never looking past what's presented?  It's unfathomable that someone could spend a lifetime with a toe in the shallow end, for fear of the unknown.  In the deep end there be monsters, but they're far outnumbered by the wonderful experiences that come with discovery.

A life on the surface is possible because apathy is addictive.  It's easier to take things at face value and accept them, because that path is already trodden.  Someone has asked all the questions that need asking and provided the answers, and this is abhorrent.  I don't want to just push the feeder bar and receive my pellet: I want to know why a pellet comes out, and what happens if I push it as fast as I can.

Hackers are made, not born.

Every one of us was born with the potential to be curious.  It doesn't take a genius to be a hacker.  If this were the case, hackers would be few and far between.  The difference, as with most facets of a person's personality, lies in the upbringing.

My father was a carpenter, plumber, and allaround handyman.  He never sat me down and said "Now you're going to learn to like tinkering, or else."  Instead, I watched him solve problems on his own, often making the product better in the process.  Many children believe their father can do anything.  When said father comes pretty close on a domestic scale, that leaves a lasting impression.  Very early on, I learned that with a little bit of knowledge and the willingness to try, a person can accomplish anything.

I started out taking apart old appliances and toys.  If a screwdriver didn't work, I took a hammer to whatever had piqued my curiosity.  It was an inauspicious and often messy start, as my mother could attest.  True too, it resulted in a few smashed items that weren't meant for my own brand of exploration, but it was a fantastic way to start learning about the world around me.  To this day, nothing makes me happier than disassembling something to see how it works.  It was a childhood and set of experiences that I wouldn't trade for anything.

Raising a hacker doesn't have to be so dramatic.  If there's one thing a parent can do to encourage a child to dream big, it's to simply encourage them.  Show them there's more to the world than meets the eye.  Learn a little bit about nature and then share it.  In fact, learn about anything and share it with anyone, for that is the other side of hacking.

Hacking is inherently social.

This is contrary to stereotypes, but stereotypes are inaccurate misrepresentations of the noblest of pursuits.  A hacker does not tinker and poke and prod for himself.  He does it to say to others, "Look what I did!"  There is no small measure of hubris in a hacker, but the best hackers temper this with a desire to share and collaborate.

Hacking is the noblest of pursuits because it is a desire to make something better and share it with the world, and this holds no small measure of dignity.  It is a meta-pursuit, encompassing all jobs, hobbies, and walks of life.  Everything around you can and will be hacked to improve it.  If this were not true, we'd still be in the Stone Age, content to let technology flounder.

Hacking saved my life.

On top of the usual growing pains that come with adolescence, I fought off depression and suicidal urges all through my teenage years.  I could have easily turned to drugs or petty crime to express my outrage at the imagined inequalities of the world.  Instead, I turned my selfrighteous fury into determination.  Suddenly, every puzzle was a challenge.  With a tenacity that served me well later in life, I attacked each challenge until I mastered it.

I now know that a great many people go through adolescences similar to my own.  Unlike many, in hacking I found an advantage and an outlet that most teenagers don't have.  If it wasn't for that outlet, I would have imploded years ago.

When the self-centered despair of youth became overwhelming, I retreated into the quiet of my mind.  I shut off the outside world and lost myself in pursuit of knowledge.  The logic and order of a well-engineered system always helped me to become centered.  I spent most of a shift at my first job attempting to fix a three-hole punch with a drywall screw and a power drill, during one particularly trying day.  What really irks me is that I know if I had had another half an hour, I could have done it.

The hours I spent tracing the workings of various machines became a kind of meditation, with "why" being the mantra that continues to set me free.  Every hacker meditates in a similar fashion.  Every time you lose yourself in a project for hours on end, you're meditating.  There's nothing New Age or mystical about it.  All that happens is the outside world gets shut out, allowing your brain to focus squarely on the task at hand.  People pay a great deal of money to learn how to do this, and for many hackers it is inherent.

In the end, what I gained was an appreciation for what matters, and a few skills that have served me well.  Perhaps not surprisingly, I found myself employed in the IT field right out of university.  What was unexpected was the level of success I found almost immediately, because I was used to solving problems and coming up with solutions.

I have created a future for myself that is brighter than I would have dared to dream, all because I let my imagination run wild, and never stopped to wonder if I was stranger for it.  Engage, envision, and above all else enjoy what you're doing, or you're no further ahead.

The skills a good hacker has are skills that all in-demand employees possess.  Troubleshooting, ability to work independently, and attention to detail are skills that pay the bills, no matter the industry you find yourself in.

To future and current hackers alike, I urge you above all else to find balance in your life.  Learn to appreciate the time you have to tinker and experiment.  With age comes responsibility, and those responsibilities will take precedence.  Though I'd love to be ears-deep in new toys, the last thing I hacked was my kitchen sink.  Unglamorous, perhaps.  Messy, certainly.  But I fixed it by myself, using the same skills I would have used to hack anything else.  Logic, reason, and intuition are the greatest tools at my disposal.

Never stop exploring.

Read everything you can get your hands on, actively engage in the world around you, and never stop asking "why."  The "why" will often echo for lack of takers, but ask it anyway.  Shout it, if you have to.

We are the face of change, the propagators of progress.  If you want a Buck Rogers style future with hovercars and jet packs and robotic maids, then go out and create it!  There are no set limits; the only limit is how far your vision goes.

One day, we will all of us be gone, but the changes we make to the world will live on.  Bring up the next generation of hackers to the best of your ability, and never forget the sense of wonder that got you started down this road.  I will forever be grateful to have had a family that let me take apart things with a hammer and let me make my own mistakes.  Someday, I will do the same for my own family.

Keep your horizons broad and your eyes open, and your life will be richer for it.  We are far outnumbered by people happy to follow in the footsteps of giants, hopping from shoeprint to shoeprint.  Blaze your own trail and enjoy the trail while it lasts, because nothing is forever.

Hack on.

KC is an IT consultant by day.  He spends his time outside of work pursuing purely analog hobbies, having recently graduated from smashing things to building them.