[Legion]

It's sad that many of the people who say the word "hacker" means all these positive and inclusive things are often the same people who lambast someone for actually using the word that way to refer to themselves.

Make up your minds. Is it the inclusive, "explorers of technology" meaning where it's more about curiosity and open-mindedness than skill level, or is it your little l337 boys club badge of honor?

[jff]

It's highly desirable to be called a genius, but in general people calling themselves geniuses are looked down upon.

I think among people who do use the word "hacker" to mean someone skilled with computers, it's considered poor form to call yourself a hacker but high praise to be named a hacker. Eric Raymond wrote long screeds about this way back in the 90s when people still gave a damn about him.

Personally, I call somebody who is skilled at breaking systems a hacker. The guy who discovers how to Man-in-the-middle attack an SSL connection is a hacker. The morons in black trenchcoats and leather fedoras who then download a .EXE to automatically do just that and harvest passwords at Starbucks... are fucking scum of the earth script kiddies.

[Legion]

But is "hacker" really analogous to "genius"? I mean, we have a bunch of annual hacker conferences. If "hacker" isn't something you can call yourself, who is going to all of these things?

[jff]

Joke answer: Have you ever been to Def Con? People who wear utilikilts and dyed mohawks unironically probably have no qualms about calling themselves hackers, deservedly or un-.

Real answer: I did actually attend Def Con this year, with the intent of learning about hacking, possibly from hackers. I wouldn't call myself a hacker, I just went because I wanted to learn about the subject. Really the whole topic is not something I worry much about... in my line of work we don't compliment people by saying "he's a good hacker", we just say "he's brilliant" or "she does really great work", which to my mind is a better and less ambiguous compliment.