Thoughts on the traits of a hacker.

[maboroshi]

This is how I define the traits of a hacker.

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A hacker is someone who gains knowledge of the internal workings of a system through obscure means.

[bad_brain]

waaait a minute....I thought buying a guy fawkes mask on amazon for 5 bucks is the way to instant 1337ness...

nah, you're right, pretty accurate description imo...

[ph0bYx]

I like it! Quite elegant.

[Gogeta70]

I'm only like 8 months late to the party here, but I'd say I disagree with your definition.

Anyone who works in skilled labor gains knowledge of the internal workings of something, generally speaking.
Also, why does the means by which the knowledge is obtained matter? What qualifies as "obscure means"?

Take, for example, some 60-year old car mechanic who decided to start playing around with his car engine 40 years ago.
He never went to school for it, but eventually became good enough and got a job fixing cars.
Is this guy a hacker? He obtained his knowledge solely through experience, which you could say is unique to the individual.
In that case, since he was the only one to learn from his own experience, did he learn the internal workings of cars by obscure means?

I would offer an alternative definition:

An individual who challenges the purpose and limits of a system, often reinventing or re-purposing it in ways unintended by the creator and unforeseen by others.

Not trying to dig on ya mabs, just throwing another perspective out there

[ayu]

A journalist called me "Lisbeth Salander" (Some Hollywood hacker) the other day, does that count as a hacker definition?
I guess that was the definition she thought of at least, being a mortal and all

[Gogeta70]

Lisbeth Salander is a fictional character created by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson. She is the lead character in Larsson's award-winning Millennium series, along with the journalist Mikael Blomkvist.

Salander is a world-class computer hacker. Under the pseudonym "Wasp", she becomes a prominent figure in the international hacker community known as the Hacker Republic (similar to the group Anonymous). She uses her computer skills as a means to earn a living, doing investigative work for Milton Security. She has an eidetic memory and is skillful at concealing her identity; she possesses passports in different names, and disguises herself to travel undetected around Sweden and worldwide.

Nifty. Sounds like you were paid quite the compliment there ^_^

[ayu]

Lisbeth Salander is a fictional character created by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson. She is the lead character in Larsson's award-winning Millennium series, along with the journalist Mikael Blomkvist.

Salander is a world-class computer hacker. Under the pseudonym "Wasp", she becomes a prominent figure in the international hacker community known as the Hacker Republic (similar to the group Anonymous). She uses her computer skills as a means to earn a living, doing investigative work for Milton Security. She has an eidetic memory and is skillful at concealing her identity; she possesses passports in different names, and disguises herself to travel undetected around Sweden and worldwide.

Nifty. Sounds like you were paid quite the compliment there ^_^

haha yeah it actually made me kinda happy