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by pacomerh 2215 days ago
I don't like this new definition of the word "hacker". I wish people would call builders and tinkerers something else. We have all this strong history with hackers who are the ones that infiltrate systems. And now someone makes an app and he/she is a hacker. Somehow I feel like there's a necessity to feel special and unique. This word is so soft now.
4 comments

The builder/tinkerer meaning predated the infiltrator meaning by like a couple of decades, but whatever, okay, zoomer.
Based on your comment and some of the other ones on here, I looked this up and it looks like the original meaning of “working on a tech problem in a different way than what’s outlined in the manual” dates back to the 1950’s.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-o...

Curious to see this comment on "Hacker News".

Did you think this resource was about the infiltration profession?

Yup, on hacker news, that doesn't mean I like the name of this page, right?
It's clearly not "new", at least.
Absolutely agreed, the word used to carry a good bit of street cred but now everyone and their grandma is a hacker.
This is exactly what I mean. But I guess I'm a minority here