Thoughts From a Newcomer

by Lean G.

When I got my first computer for my eleventh birthday in 2014, I didn't immediately understand how to fully utilize the access to the machine I had just gotten.

I had vague notions of learning how to program, and setting up Minecraft servers for my friends and me to play on.  That is to say that I'm a relatively new player in this game, and am writing naively and idealistically about one of the only interests I've held for more than six months.

Firstly: the whiny part where I say it's not as easy for us as it was for the early guys.  The biggest obstacle that I have found is just all the baggage information that exists, which is both a blessing and a curse.  When I say us, I mean the newcomers, the people my age, growing up in the current climate of the walled gardens and popular culture's stifling of exploratory computing.

We are no longer pioneers and must follow in someone else's path to l33tdom.

The mainstays of the culture have been formed and for the most part agreed upon years before our parents even met.  In a way, we are lucky.  I can associate myself with people and ideas that have been tested.  I am not taking as many risks as the early hackers were.  However, the stories of glory and the connotations picked up by popular culture have strengthened.

In essence, like every other person that has participated in culture of any kind, we (the newcomers) must learn how to process the old cultural material (be that music, old files, etc.), but also learn how to move forwards and define the hacking experience for ourselves.

My second point is related to my first, and it is essentially this: the muddiness introduced by old cultural material is offset by how inclusive and willing to share and collaborate most of the hacking community is.

Publications like 2600 and online groups provide an entering point with anyone willing to put in some hours and contribute.  And that is one of the most important parts of the hacking community to me: it's a place where I can share ideas and projects that the people around me at school and family do not necessarily appreciate themselves.

Out of the school of 2000 kids I go to, only two have shown even a slight interest in the kind of geekery I subject them to on a daily basis.  However online, I show milk12345 my bad character heuristic implementation, and they'll actually respond with enthusiasm.

It's an awesome feeling.  2600, hackerspaces, and all the other places physical and not, make this world more inclusive, and safer for us.

Hackerdom is a culture of seeing-what's-around-the-corner and creativity, a palace of free-thinking built on the foundation of inclusiveness and being passionate about what one does.

Thank you all so much.