[cuchoperl]

I think HN's name is appropriate. Most people who write here are not (just) computer hackers (as in '90s definition) but people who hack themselves and the world around. Entrepreneurs are hackers. Most world-changers are hackers.

[pavs]

Its very easy to "dilute" a meaning by calling everyone a hacker. Yes strictly speaking you are right, there are Economists hacker, Financial hacker, Life Hacker, Music hacker and so on and so forth.

In the world of the internets the most commonly associated meaning (rightly or wrongly) of the word Hacker is for computer nerds.

In that sense "Hacker News" has nothing to do with hacking, Startup News is more apt description of this community.

[frb]

I would agree if startups were the only topic covered on HN. But they aren't.

HN has always a lot of interesting stuff that has nothing to do with startups. E.g. general CS, psychology, physics ans so on...

[wildmXranat]

Indeed it is. In addition to making it easy to dilute, it's a good search term to capture and stream a specific audience with.

[bad_user]

Being a world-changer doesn't imply being a hacker ... adapting the world to your needs, that's just human nature and it's what people always did.

Hacking really means going against the status quo, and that's a different thing altogether.

Example: building something like Facebook is not hacking. That's just good engineering and opportunistic use of human nature.

The simplest test you can have to call something a hack or not: did other people laugh or got angry when hearing about it?

Of course you can still call yourself a hacker, for feeling good and all that, but I like how ESR puts it: you're not a hacker until other people start recognizing you as one.