July 29, 2004

Great Hackers
(second post today, I know, but it's a great essay)
posted by mare 20 years ago
  • I loved this quote: "Because you can't tell a great hacker except by working with him, hackers themselves can't tell how good they are. This is true to a degree in most fields. I've found that people who are great at something are not so much convinced of their own greatness as mystified at why everyone else seems so incompetent. The people I've met who do great work rarely think that they're doing great work. They generally feel that they're stupid and lazy, that their brain only works properly one day out of ten, and that it's only a matter of time until they're found out."
  • Here's my favorite quote: The programmers you'll be able to hire to work on a Java project won't be as smart as the ones you could get to work on a project written in Python. [2] And the quality of your hackers probably matters more than the language you choose. I don't know why, but the thought never occurred to me. But it's absolutely true. You want something coded in VB? Fine, but you'll never get top-shelf talent to work the project. And yeah, the programmer matters *a lot* more than the language, seems to me.
  • The people I've met who do great work rarely think that they're doing great work. They generally feel that they're stupid and lazy, that their brain only works properly one day out of ten, and that it's only a matter of time until they're found out. A pity that this doesn't necessarily work the other way around; I would be the greatest hacker ever known.
  • d0n-t U m3an: Grat3 H4x0r$$?!! ph34r l33tn3$$!! kthxby3! 01000111100010111!!1
  • Good article and I loved the Python bits, as I am lucky enough to get paid to use it.