The Hacker Mindset or How We Can Move the World

by Daelphinux

It will never stop blowing my mind.  People just do not understand the mentality.  I will get something new, and I will want to break it.  I do not want a broken toy, or piece of gear, or new tech: I want to know what makes it tick.  I want to tear the thing to pieces, look at its insides, and put it back together meticulously.  I want it to work as well or better than before, and I want to know its every secret.

It is this mindset that drives us as hackers.  At the heart of every black hat, white hat, or grey hat is someone who wants to know how everything works.

I was at a seminar recently.  The presenter got asked questions he couldn't answer, and a girl from the crowd piped in and helped.  He got asked another one, and I answered the other student's question.  After this happened a few times, some suit from the front row called us out and said, "We should respect the presenting expert and let him talk."  He, clearly, had never been to a small 30-person seminar before.  When we recognize our own, we do not let them stand there unable to answer a question, flapping in the wind like a confused flag.  We help.  Honestly, partially because we like knowing more, but mostly because we want everyone to know.  Information, data, knowledge, all of it should be free; everyone should have access to as much of it as possible.

It is this mindset that pushes us.  All of us keep wanting to know, keep wanting to learn, and keep wanting to share so everyone can know.

I build stuff.  I build some super dumb stuff sometimes.  I will smith rods of steel into smaller identical rods of steel and make nothing with them.  I will build a robot arm that waves at you and never turns on again.  I will write code that does exactly one thing once, and I will probably never use again.  We all do it.  We all find solutions for bigger problems that we do not have.  It is because hackers want to accomplish something.  We do not just want to get through the task; we want to solve the problem.  If there is no problem to solve, then that is the problem.  We will find the problem and then we will solve that problem too.

Our motivations differ, that's for sure.  Some of us want to make the world a better place, some of us want to watch it burn, and some of us want to do a little of both.  But we all want to know, we all want everyone to know, and we all want to feel accomplished.  At the end of the day, that's what brings us all together.  A common drive for completion.

The point is, this drive for completion, the drive to know and share is what makes us what we are.  I have talked about how social we are, even when we do not want to be.  I have talked about how much we care about information, and I have talked about our passions for rights and access.  I do not think I have ever talked about why we are this way.  Without this mindset, our world would not exist.  Without us, people would still just be sitting around grunting and bashing sticks together.  It was our mindset that thought if we rub the sticks together fast enough, they will get hot and might keep us warm.

It was our mindset that thought if I can call that thing a "tree" every time, I can tell other people what I want to say.

It was our mindset that brought humanity to where it is.  We cannot let it die.  We cannot let it be oppressed.  We certainly cannot, under any circumstances, let it stop the world.  We need progress.  We need progression.

Stand up, think new thoughts, think free thoughts.  Do not let anyone tell you what to do, what to think, or what to feel.  Embrace new ideas, embrace new people, and do not be afraid of what you do not understand.  Whether you do not understand why someone thinks what they think or feels what they feel, embrace it, embrace them, and learn how they work, learn why they think that way.

Die Gedanken sind frei, wer kann sie erraten?

(The thoughts are free, but who can guess it?)