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by alekseyk 4799 days ago
Am I the only one annoyed by blatant overuse of the word 'hacker' in this article?

I'm starting to group this word with catastrophes such as 'rockstar' and 'ninja' now.

1 comments

"Hacker" is a specific term, and I hope this article uses it correctly. It is not a synonym for programmer or problem solver or digital vandal. It refers to someone with a deep curiosity about the mechanisms behind things and a desire to find new ways to use them, amongst other things.

Hackers are not necessarily smarter or more gifted than other programmers in any sense. Hackers might be disorganized or lazy or write clever code for its own sake.

So I hope nobody thinks it is synonymous with ninja or rock star.