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Eric S. Raymond Unveils New List Of 'Hacker Archetypes' (ibiblio.org)
An anonymous reader writes:
Open source guru Eric S. Raymond has announced public brainstorming on a "gallery of hacker archetypes to help motivate newbies" by defining several different psychologies commonly found among programmers. He's unveiled an initial list developed with a friend, along with some interesting commentary. (Algorithmicists often have poor social skills and "a tendency to fail by excessive cleverness. Never let them manage anyone!")
Raymond cautions that "No hacker is only one of these" -- though apparently most of the hackers he knows appear to be two of them, "an indication that we are, even if imperfectly, zeroing in on real traits." But the blog post ends by asking "What archetypes, if any, are we missing?"
It'll be interesting to see if Slashdot readers if they recognize themselves in any of the archetypes. But the blog post also answers the inevitable question. What archetype is Eric S. Raymond?
"Mostly Architect with a side of Algorithmicist and a touch of Jack-of-All-Trades."
Raymond cautions that "No hacker is only one of these" -- though apparently most of the hackers he knows appear to be two of them, "an indication that we are, even if imperfectly, zeroing in on real traits." But the blog post ends by asking "What archetypes, if any, are we missing?"
It'll be interesting to see if Slashdot readers if they recognize themselves in any of the archetypes. But the blog post also answers the inevitable question. What archetype is Eric S. Raymond?
"Mostly Architect with a side of Algorithmicist and a touch of Jack-of-All-Trades."
Well TIL.
Imagine getting to be Internet famous today for writing a few extensions to a POP3 suite. Life was once pretty easy.
What archetypes, if any, are we missing?
The type for whom the journey (or development process) is all. They love creating something: code, hardware, paintings. And for them, it is the production that matters, not the the final result. You might call them "perfectionists" because they will never finish anything (until they get bored and just drop it, to start travelling on a different journey) and will constantly be adding new parts, features or functions.
Their favourite saying is "just another couple of weeks" when asked by their team-leader, project supervisor, manager when their assignment will be ready. But 2 weeks later, the answer is still the same. Although they are enthusiastic, their failure mode is that they never produce an end product and their office, lab or home is full of half-completed projects.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Eric Ass Raymond believes that "hacker" means "programmer," that the plural of "virus" is "virii" and that "Information Wants To Be Free." He has become the cringe-worthy grand-uncle at the Thanksgiving table who insists upon telling stories about when he attended Woodstock and why today's musicians all suck compared to Hendrix, whom he met once outside the Fillmore...
Algorithmicists: Very good at algorithms and sustained, intricate coding. Have mathematical intuition, and are one of the two types (with Architect) that have the highest tolerance for complexity. They like the idea of correctness proofs and think naturally in terms of invariants. They gravitate to compiler-writing and crypto. Often solitary with poor social skills; have a tendency to fail by excessive cleverness. Never let them manage anyone!
I wonder if this is why I'm only allowed to start and end vacations on prime numbered days but only if the duration is a power of two. ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Why is this guy and others like him so intent on categorizing people, personalities, and traits? Only egotistical people do that so they can feel superior to others.
Satire or blindness? You decide.
Don't underestimate the role that esr had on the fledgling open source movement.
While his software accomplishments may be looked down upon by some, it was his role as a free thinker and a spiritual leader of the open source movement that was his greatest accomplishment.
Movements need leaders. These leaders act as a sort of "glue", tying together heterogeneous individuals and factions into one cohesive homogeneous movement. That's what esr did. His writings gave an entire community a common purpose, a common philosophy, and a common pattern of thought.
His role is much like that of Jimi Hendrix to the nascent hippy movement of the 1960s.
esr's vision set us down the path of success. He rallied many individuals and helped coordinate our efforts into creating the vibrant open source ecosystem we know today.
I used to go to Linux user group meetings where we would read an excerpt from "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" and then we would collectively meditate upon its reading. His writings inspired millions of open source programmers, and without his guidance we wouldn't have been able to create the software and the community that we have created.
It's no mistake that he's considered part of the Open Source Trinity, along with rms and Linus. He's one of the pillars upon which the entire open source movement has been built. If you remove the contributions of rms, the open source movement never would have started. If you remove the contributions of Linus, the open source movement would have never reached the heights it reached today. If you remove the contributions of esr, the open source movement would have fractured and broken into nothingness.
esr is one of our main guiding lights. His vision and deep understanding of what it means to be open source has been invaluable. The open source movement owes its existence to esr, and that's why we pay tribute to what he has so graciously given us.
Great. That's just what we need... the equivalent of MBTI for Hackers. Hey, maybe next April we can come up with a guide to Hackers' astrological signs! I'm sure that will be informative and totally not a navel-gazing waste of time.
He does indeed regard himself as a hacker. And, RobotRunAmok, before you say he believes "hacker" means simply "programmer", I suggest you consult his own writing on the subject: Start with How To Become a Hacker, especially the Section "What Is a Hacker?".
He definitely does not believe information wants to be free. That's a Stallmanism.
And, as it happens, he does recognize Hendrix as groundbreaking, but does not agree with the common assessment that he's the greatest guitarist ever. He's more likely to argue that Joe Satrianni qualifies. ("But don't let [Satrianni] sing!")
Disinfect the GNU General Public Virus!
He ignores SJWs like you. So should the rest of us. (Including me.)
Disinfect the GNU General Public Virus!
Why is this guy and others like him
Do you needing a mirror, maybe? After all, you just created categories to divide people between "categorizers" vs. "non-categorizers" (you being in the former), "marginalizers" vs. "inclusivists" (you being on the former too), "egotistical" vs. "altruists" (no clue about you, but probably on the former), "superior-feeling" vs. "equal-feeling" (you evidently feeling superior), and "noble writer" vs. "a**hole writer" (your message most definitely fitting the later).
So, Mr. Categorizer-Marginalist-Egotistical-Superior-Feeling-A**hole-Writer, go get a clue.
Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
Btw. Hackers aka. social degenerates / retards / ++aspergers / youfuckingnameit are also known by their monodiet consisting of pizza (Margherita) and Coca Cola. And all managers are sexual freaks with psycopatic tendencies.
And all moderators are suffering from low self-esteem.
Now, who or what did i miss?
People who show anger issues in their posts?
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Why is this guy and others like him so intent on categorizing people, personalities, and traits? Only egotistical people do that so they can feel superior to others.
Satire or blindness? You decide.
There are two kinds of people.
Those who separate everything into two types, and those who don't.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
That thread is already so long I doubt it will make it in:
Accidental intruders: Exceptionally curious hackers with a broad knowledge and understanding of how different systems work and interrelate. These individuals thrive on and learn primarily by exploring any and every system they are given access to. These types of hackers do not break into anything that is not there's on purpose, but can easily break security and enter into a secured area without realizing they have broken in.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
At first I thought ESR posted that as AC, but then I remembered Mr. Poe's advice and read it again. Now I think it was written by Bruce Perens.
Two very different groups care
"The Army Needs Anthropologists" July 28, 2015
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/...
Army frowns on Dungeons and Dragons (28.02.05)
".. a low security clearance"
http://www.ynetnews.com/articl...
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
And Hendrix had a massive amount of real, verifiable, talent.
Originally, the art of using algorithms was called algorism so the person in question would be an algorist. The -ithm in algorithm was apparently added due to words like arithmetic.
I've also seen "algorithmist" which follows the common logic of adding -ist to a known concept, so that too would be somewhat acceptable.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
I'm probably a JOAT. I understand broad concepts but I never got into the nitty gritty of anything. That drives recruiters up the wall because I'm willing to do anything and that makes it difficult for them to pigeonhole me beyond being an enterprise-level technician. I've done software testing for virtual worlds and video games, help desk/desktop support, PC refresh projects, built out a data center, hardware testing on 11AC-equipped laptops, and, currently, InfoSec remediation.
You have no idea what ESR thinks, and have never given his works a solid reading. It's too bad really, because you would learn a great deal, including the fact that he has a much better understanding of what a hacker actually is, given that he is one.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
>>before you say he believes "hacker" means simply "programmer", I suggest you consult his own writing on the subject
No. That's the whole point. The meaning of "hacker" has changed (meanings of words *do* that). When Raymond revised Steele's Hacker's Dictionary in 1991, "hacker" meant "computer programming enthusiast." Now it means "someone who gains unauthorized entry into a computer system." We can, like Raymond, wish we still lived in the fresh and exciting Mondo 2000 world of the mid-90s, but that -- and any amount of articles he writes mis-using words in their titles -- won't make it so.
>>He does indeed regard himself as a hacker
And I regard myself as one sexy man-beast. Rrrrrrooowwwwwrrr You see how that works...?
He also co-founded the OSI, and wrote quite a bit of technical documentation for Linux (HOWTOs). If we disparage technical writers, then we won't have technical documentation. It takes all sorts and he does a good job of it.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
This is the kind of post-hoc hagiography that fuels Ayn Rand's objectivism crap mountain.
Out of these three, it's only hard to imagine a different, yet equally grand path if RMS had never occurred. His foundational dog work on binutils invited many others to host parties they could not have otherwise managed to throw.
Due to RMS as a unique personality, we got a highly political license sooner than we would have by another probable path. This was both a strength and a liability, whose relative magnitudes are almost impossible to judge in retrospect.
Without Linus, FreeBSD either would have become far more participatory, or some variant with a far greater embrace and tolerance of messiness would have forked within two years. And since this wouldn't have embraced GPL at the system level, Gnu HURD might even have been finished, with perhaps a necessary course correction or two under mounting pressure from a large install base.
Saying that open source wouldn't exist as it now does without ESR is pretty close to saying that the internet boom of the late nineties would not have happened without George Gilder. ("George who?" all the children ask. Exactly my point.)
Certainly charismatic figures come along when the moment is ripe to crystallize the zeitgeist, but history does not record that these people have ever been in short supply (something that would become immediately obvious if that stupid scheme from Atlas Shrugged had ever been tried for real in the real world.) Generally, you can never have more than a few of these types at any given time, because the human psychology of prophets and prophecy accrues special powers to the lone voice. A solitary howling wolf is divine revelation, a million howling wolves is just a statistical noise (see again the howlingly ludicrous legacy of one Ayn Rand).
Hey, maybe next April we can come up with a guide to Hackers' astrological signs!
I can see the punchline: Cancer afflicts one in twelve.
so the person in question would be an algorist
I guess that name would be associated with too many inconvenient truths.
Those are traits of people, not of hackers specifically.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I think it's like horoscopes or Chinese birth years or other kinds of cold reading. There's enough general stuff in there that you can always recognize something of yourself. But then as a Scorpio I am always going to be sceptical of such things.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
"But the blog post also answers the inevitable question. What archetype is Eric S. Raymond?"
Uhhh, no, that just answers the question "what archetype does Eric S. Raymond THINK he is?" Come on, the man is a narcissistic self-promoter with vile political views and a very flimsy "hacker" resume.
I dont see Sharpshooters are the opposite to Architects. Design from the bottom up, simplify from the top down, its the only way to perfection.
Or, maybe that explains why i never finish anything...
or do i ?
Each archetype really needs a picture!
See the Flame Warriors Guide as an example.
The key sequence to access my Slashdot bookmark in Firefox is Alt-B-S. I don't believe this is a coincidence.
Are you insinuating that I'm a hacker?
No, just you're kinda gruff this morning. It's how I sound before my coffee.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Not an adherent of the "great man" theory of history then?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
It does take people to advocate for ideas, but the time usually has to be right too.
Reminds me of Antonio Gramsci's comments on economic change: http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-g...
"Gramsci was concerned to eradicate economic determinism from Marxism and to develop its explanatory power with respect to superstructural institutions. So, he held that:
* Class struggle must always involve ideas and ideologies, ideas that would make the revolution and also that would prevent it;
* He stressed the role performed by human agency in historical change: economic crises by themselves would not subvert capitalism;
* Gramsci was more "dialectic" than "deterministic": he tried to build a theory which recognised the autonomy, independence and importance of culture and ideology."
And in Antonio Gramsci's own words from there: ... form the terrain of the 'conjunctural' and it is upon this terrain that the forces of opposition organise. ... Critical self-consciousness means, historically and politically, the creation of an elite of intellectuals. A human mass does not 'distinguish' itself, does not become independent in its own right without, in the widest sense, organising itself: and there is no organisation without intellectuals, that is without organisers and leaders... But the process of creating intellectuals is long and difficult, full of contradictions, advances and retreats, dispersal and regrouping, in which the loyalty of the masses is often sorely tried. ... So one could say that each one of us changes himself, modifies himself to the extent that he changes the complex relations of which he is the hub. In this sense the real philosopher is, and cannot be other than, the politician, the active man who modifies the environment, understanding by environment the ensemble of relations which each of us enters to take part in. ...."
"A crisis occurs, sometimes lasting for decades. This exceptional duration means that incurable structural contradictions have revealed themselves (reached maturity) and that, despite this, the political forces which are struggling to conserve and defend the existing structure itself are making every effort to cure them, within certain limits, and to overcome them. These incessant and persistent efforts
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Sorry, Bud, nobody uses "cracker" to mean anything other than White Southern Racist or salty wafer anymore. The media and pop culture decided they liked the word "hacker" to mean bad guy who breaks into computer systems, and ran with it, and that's all she wrote. I'm truly sorry for your loss, but that's the way language lives, breathes and evolves.
>>Before you were born
Before I was born the only hacking or cracking that was done was on punch cards, but bless you, that made my day...!
"While his software accomplishments may be looked down upon by some, it was his role as a free thinker and a spiritual leader of the open source movement that was his greatest accomplishment"
Well, the problem is he has spent a long time bragging about his software accomplishments, trying for decades to craft this image of himself as an effortless universal programming genius who understands it on a deep level, when his actual achievements don't merit that image in the slightest. Which wouldn't be so bad by itself if he wasn't just a nasty, arrogant, racist, misogynist, islamophobic guy as well who also tries to paint himself as this supermacho badass; some of his self-congratulatory writing is so over-the-top that it suggests a need for mental health professionals intervention.
Mr Raymond is a tricky bugger. I would not be surprised if this story was not purposefully released to create a data set based upon the responses, With each type of response being categorised to hacker archetype. Of course it wont be real fun until a full psych test is crafted to further analyse archetype responses.
Could be really useful for employment, keeping hackers best employed within the archetype to be more productive, less purposefully unproductive and to prevent burn out from having to continually try to hard. Then of course they are types no one might wish to employ outside of spy vs spy application.
It would be interesting to see how people reading this article would categorise themselves, a poll, I kind of like sharpshooter, prankster, architect myself (leaning towards architect and away from prankster).
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
When Raymond revised Steele's Hacker's Dictionary in 1991, "hacker" meant "computer programming enthusiast."
You're still wrong. There's a difference between a "computer programming enthusiast" and a hacker. The latter is a state of mind, an approach to problem solving that is different from someone who is simply a programmer, no matter how enthusiastic. Again, go read the section I quoted.
And while I'll grant that popular usage has debased the honorable title "hacker", I will not grant that the older meaning is invalid. He is not misusing the word; he's at most applying a definition that's one of two accepted ones.
Those who corrupted the honorable "hacker" to mean "computer criminal" should be taken out back and shot. (Figuratively speaking.)
Disinfect the GNU General Public Virus!
I'm not about to get into that argument. I'm no musician, let alone knowledgeable at that level about guitar playing. I'm perfectly happy with ZZ Top or Stevie Ray Vaughn.
Disinfect the GNU General Public Virus!
Me? Um ... architect because it makes my life easier, sharpshooter if necessary, tinker since it's my job, algorithmicist as long as it's signal processing related.
Definitely not castellan or translator. The most complex UI I had to manage was "one button, one LED".
The media and pop culture decided they liked the word "hacker" to mean bad guy who breaks into computer systems, and ran with it, and that's all she wrote.
Well, that's cool, for them. Meanwhile, we coders still hack out code at our hackathons without being confused about what we're really doing.
I would like to see this assessment done with the collection of data done by a Myers-Briggs or enneagram (with wing analysis) test. I think it would produce some interesting and more revealing results about strengths and vulnerabilities, this really being able to drill down on the conscious and subconscious drivers of rat "type" of hacker.
The Tao that can be named is not the Tao