[scarecrowbob]

Consider the case of two kinds of users operating on some kind of interface that is unfamiliar, say, MS Word.

One class of user will consult a manual and try to find the right answer, or perhaps will call an expert.

Another class of user will just start pushing buttons to see what happens, because they have a rough familiarity with the system even if the specific interface is not well understood.

It's that second class that I am thinking about when I think about how "hackers" operate.

In that case, I get that it's dangerous to mess around with a system whose internals you don't know about... but at the same time, there is a kind of fantasy that somehow other folks have a privileged knowledge of what our bodies do.

Personally, I quit wheat and dairy (and reduced my alcohol consumption) because it's a specific tree allergy season here. I have a couple possible accounts of why this is working (because I believe that it is) but I don't really understand the interface or even what I am manipulating when I alter my diet like that... I just know that I can breath, whereas historically I have terrible allergies at this time of year. Feel kind of like a hacky solutions... it's not an engineered solution, that's for sure.