[Aftershock21]

Hacker Hacker Hacker.I am sick of this word. Whats wrong with simple words like techie. There are far more people considering themselves as Hackers nowadays even though they are simply an average engineer. Please stop abusing this word. Was Einstein a Hacker ? How about Leonardo Da Vinci ?

By the way, startups are for people who are interested in business. If you are interested in business, YOU ARE NOT A HACKER. Hackers are interested in technology for the technology's sake. They don't do UI, they don't do A/B testing. Please stop.

[unimpressive]

>By the way, startups are for people who are interested in business. If you are interested in business, YOU ARE NOT A HACKER. Hackers are interested in technology for the technology's sake. They don't do UI, they don't do A/B testing. Please stop.

"Once a vague item of obscure student jargon, the word “hacker” has become a linguis-tic billiard ball, subject to political spin and ethical nuances. Perhaps this is why so many hackers and journalists enjoy using it. Where that ball bounces next, however, is anybody's guess." - Free as in Freedom, Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software

I find this particular usage especially amusing considering that the words "hacker" and "business" were about as diametrically opposed as words could be. (In the same way that "punk" and "policeman" don't go together.) And yet now it seems that many businesses are being overrun by people who like to rip things apart just to see how they work.

Theres a delicious irony in a world where the people who rejected the likes of IBM as disgusting went on to create businesses that do things like track you across the web for ad money, or lock you into an environment of rampant ADHD web posts with side offerings of 'social games' that exist solely to convince you to waste your time playing them.

[jacobolus]

You’re at a site called “hacker news”. The word isn’t going anywhere, so I think you’re gonna just have to get over it.

Anyhow, Leonardo da Vinci was certainly a “hacker”: misfit who spent all his time cutting things open and taking things apart, doodling new inventions, etc.

[mahmud]

the site abuses and misappropriates the title.

[Karunamon]

..which is pretty much your subjective stance and nothing else.

[mahmud]

"that's just, like, your opinion, man"

When the Coen's wrote that line for Lebowski, they were shooting for comedy, not debate.

[Karunamon]

Arguments presented without cause can be dismissed without cause.

[FreakLegion]

I'm not a big fan of the word either[1], but hackers are interested in more than just technology, if by technology you mean circuit boards and code and the like. Pretty much anything can be hacked, including UI and A/B testing[2].

1. It's a little too self-congratulatory, like people who call themselves poets. In the words of Louise Gluck: "'Poet' ['Hacker' for our purposes] must be used cautiously; it names an aspiration, not an occupation. In other words: not a noun for a passport."

2. #7: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/H/hacker.html