{"id":1925,"date":"2010-04-20T23:28:21","date_gmt":"2010-04-21T03:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/?p=1925"},"modified":"2014-03-22T06:25:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-22T10:25:00","slug":"hear-o-nobly-born-the-way-of-the-hacker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/?p=1925","title":{"rendered":"Hear, O Nobly Born: The Way of the Hacker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I get several requests in an average week from people who want me to teach them the way of hacking.  Yesterday I got an unusually witty one in the form of a mystical poem, imploring me to accept the author as a disciple.  I replied that I don&#8217;t know how to do what he seems to want, which is to pour the essence of hacking in through his ears or something.  He replied that he was pretty sure I&#8217;d say that, but had been hoping for a reply in the manner of <a href=\"http:\/\/catb.org\/~esr\/faqs\/loginataka.html\">The Loginataka<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I told him &#8220;Sorry, I was distracted.&#8221;  Then I wrote this:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--> <\/p>\n<p>Hear, O nobly born: Techniques can be taught, but the Way of the<br \/>\nHacker cannot be taught.  Skills can be acquired, but the Way of the<br \/>\nHacker is not a checklist of skills. Programming can be accomplished,<br \/>\nbut the Way of the Hacker is not a place at which you can stop and say<br \/>\n&#8220;I have arrived!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Hear, O nobly born: The Way of the Hacker is a posture of mind; he who<br \/>\nseeks a teacher of the Way knows it not, but he is only looking for a<br \/>\nmirror. All those competent to teach the Way know that it <em>cannot<\/em><br \/>\nbe taught, only pursued with joyous labor and by emulation of the<br \/>\ngreat hackers of the past.<\/p>\n<p>Hear, O nobly born: Great were the hackers of the past! Subtle and<br \/>\ndeep in their thinking, shaggy-bearded and with thunder on their<br \/>\nbrows! You may seek to become as them, but it will not suffice you to<br \/>\ngrow a beard.<\/p>\n<p>Hear, O Nobly Born: The center of the mystery is the act of coding. You<br \/>\nhave a keyboard before you; pursue the Way through work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I get several requests in an average week from people who want me to teach them the way of hacking. Yesterday I got an unusually witty one in the form of a mystical poem, imploring me to accept the author as a disciple. I replied that I don&#8217;t know how to do what he seems&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/?p=1925\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Hear, O Nobly Born: The Way of the Hacker<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hacker-culture","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1925"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2184,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925\/revisions\/2184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}