Definition of Hackers
Once I had a client who was a well-respected medical professional in his field. He wanted to “explore” the possibility of contracting me as his personal technologist, which, to him, was a glorified webmaster.
Somewhere in my resume or profile I might have written the word “hacker” (could have even been “hacker news”) because the first thing that came to his mind during our meeting was to have me hack into one of his colleagues’ email whom he thought might have been up to no good.
To be fair, it was a tough time for me, and I was tempted to explore the possibility of doing that. But I swallowed it and said no. If this person couldn’t even respect privacy and didn’t bother to learn the true definition of hackers, then I shouldn’t be dealing with him.
So let me get this straight once and for all.
Hack is a verb or action of using one or more tools (which might not be made for such purpose) to brute force into doing something and get it done, often not in a perfect or beautiful way.
And hackers, after all, are just a plural form of derivative noun of that action. Hackers aren’t necessarily computer programmers. Hackers are people who are so creative and out-of-this-world cunning they think differently and try out different tools and methods to achieve what might have been achievable by some other more mainstream means. Yes, computer hackers are also hackers, but hacking into a private, secured premise on the internet is just as illegal as someone hacking into someone’s house, even if he does it with unconventional tools like a cat.
This would make you appear less as a joke the next time you hang out with your tech friends.
