in reply to The new 'hacker' word?

Greetings!!

At some times I will refer to myself as a hacker, although typically not when faced with a crowd or audience that might not quite understand the true meaning of the term. Often, I prefer the term coder. It is short and simple, although not necessarily understood by those outside of the coder realm. For my work, coding is only a small part of my duties.

Most of my hacking or coding is done for fun and learning. When I'm in a fun mood, I might describe myself as a bit twiddler, but that has caused more than a few occasions of explanation and curious glances...

I've not relegated myself to the simplistic scripter moniker in any situation. I rarely use the term programmer, because I personally feel that is reserved (reverently) for those that actually get paid to do that sort of work full time...

As a consultant (ick!!), I do many things. Unfortunately, coding is only a fraction of my duties.

-Daruma

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Re: Re: The new 'hacker' word?
by rinceWind (Monsignor) on Nov 07, 2002 at 11:56 UTC
    Caveat scriptor ;-)

    Daruma I concur with your sentiments on this. I too am a consultant - with little I do actually designated as programming.

    I have found the general purpose moniker techie useful, as it includes the other aspects of the job, like support, systems analysis, sysadmining etc.

    A lot depends on the audience - if some stranger is asking me what I do for a living, assuning that the stranger is not an IT person, I usually include 'programmer' in the description.

    Thank you BUU, this is a good thread.

[reply]

      The problem with techie is that it already has a history and meaning outside of computerdom, and a strong history at that. I would actually get more misconceptions if I told people I was a techie than if I told them I was a hacker (partially because I am a techie in the theatrical sense of the word). At work we all call ourselves techs but that is a word with a more specific conotation and another set of meanings specific to the tech support community

      Hacker wins because it's a deep seated part of our culture. I call myself a hacker (merlyn's regretable situation not withstanding) because it ties into a history which I am proud to at least pretend to be a part of. And I think that explicitly or implicitly the same is true of most people who call themselves hackers. Even the l33t script kiddiez who don't know what they are talking about are trying to buy into a some modern myth about who and what hackers are and what to takes to be one.

      Cheers,
      Erik

      Light a man a fire, he's warm for a day. Catch a man on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life. - Terry Pratchet

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