Reading03

As I was reading Paul Graham’s “The Word ‘Hacker’” it was clear that his version was compatible to Steven Levy’s description in some ways. Levy viewed a true hacker as someone who thinks that all information should be free. Graham wrote about the mechanisms that companies had in place to prevent copying and how hackers saw that as a threat to the intellectual freedom so their responsibility is to break these locks. In a similar was Levy speaks about how art and beauty can be created on a computer. Graham describes hackers and painters to have a lot in common. Paintings can be done by multiple people, just like multiple people can collaborate on software. I think that Graham does have a version of a hacker that was compatible with the description that Levy gave in his book.

From the discussion in class and “Why Nerds Are Unpopular,” I tried to reflect on my high school days to determine if I fell into the category of a ‘nerd’ or something like that. I personally don’t think so but what do I know. I never considered myself as a part of the ‘smart’ crowd at my school even though I would get pretty good grades and try more than others in school. Graham described nerds as people who wanted to be smart and had a passion to have more and more knowledge. This seems very accurate to my thoughts of what a nerd is. I feel like at some points, like when my sister called me a nerd, I could be a nerd but for the most part I think it was just that I valued education more than she did. Even with this I am conflicted because I never really thought of anyone at my high school as a nerd, so I am not exactly sure how that plays out. Either way, I never pictured myself as a nerd, I have always felt like more of an outsider.

Grahams depiction of a hacker still does not create a desire in me to be one. I feel like I still have a negative depiction of a hacker that I would not want to become one. When he mentioned that hackers are like painters and that there’s a lot in common I am reminded of how many people tell me that art is very related to the STEM fields and how many STEM majors are drawn to it, myself being one. I actually love painting canvases and being able to express through that form of art. I think that with things like this I was able to see some characteristics of Graham’s hacker within myself. This confirms within me that I am studying what I love and I still feel a part of the ‘computer science’ community, but being a ‘hacker’ still does not seem something that I want to do.

The person that Graham describes as a hacker is more off putting for me just like Levy’s description of a hacker.