Reading 1
Steven Levy doesn’t directly come out and define what it means to be a “true hacker”. Rather, the first section of the book is littered with bits and pieces that, when put together, have allowed me to arrive at my own definition. All “true hackers” have an “exploratory impulse” (page 29) with an ultimate goal of creating “The Right Thing” (page 69). Aside from that, I think “true hackers” are devout to the Hacker Ethic. They are people who prefer the Hands-On Imperative, promote the free exchange of information, mistrust authority, welcome others based only on skill, and appreciate the beauty and life-changing qualities a computer can bring (pages 28-34). These hackers live and breathe this ethic above all else, to the point where some would not care for class, jobs, or even hygiene. On a side note, Levy mentions an extension of the hacker ethic: “If we all acted on our drive to discover, we’d discover more, produce more, be in control more” (page 86). As