[HN Gopher] Calling All Hackers
___________________________________________________________________
Calling All Hackers
Author : picture
Score : 501 points
Date : 2024-08-21 02:08 UTC (20 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (phrack.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (phrack.org)
| mrinfinitiesx wrote:
| Conway's law
| Terr_ wrote:
| Gonna need more context for what part you're replying to.
| defrost wrote:
| Calling All Hackers | 2 points 15 hours ago | Phrack 71
| | 194 points 1 day ago |
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41296949 Calling All
| Hackers | 7 points 1 day ago | Phrack Issue #71 | 12
| points 1 day ago |
| rfl890 wrote:
| It's worse formatted than dang's stuff, but ya tried
| defrost wrote:
| Given the opportunity to offer up a better template ya copped
| out with a snide comment and didn't even try.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
| rfl890 wrote:
| I was on mobile and didn't want to type out all that. An
| example (dang usually posts comments like this on popular
| submissions):
|
| Related:
|
| _Post title_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=XXXXXXXXX (date) | XX
| comments
|
| _Different title_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=XXXXXXXXX (date) | XX
| comments
|
| in order by date.
|
| Such a comment provides useful information on previous
| discussions (date posted, amount of comments). Your comment
| seemed like it was simply calling out the fact that this
| link was reposted a few times, which is unhelpful.
|
| Apologies for being snide in my original comment.
| nuancebydefault wrote:
| What do you mean?
| defrost wrote:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=phrack.org
| kazcaptain wrote:
| i like this take a lot, what I get is hacker = infinitely curious
| individual
| sureglymop wrote:
| That's always been my interpretation of it! I would use the
| term "insatiably curious" to describe it to people.
| yetihehe wrote:
| Just "infinitely curious individual" is a bookworm. Hacker
| would also like to tinker with the rules underlying the systems
| to see how things might break. So bookworm + tinkering + wants
| to understand complex systems (hackers call it "to grok").
| Systems - not only computer systems, also biological, physical
| and any kind of complex assemblages of rules.
| port19 wrote:
| I personally prefer "infinitely creative individual", with
| the non-artsy definition of creative: to create something
| yetihehe wrote:
| Still not specific enough and doesn't evoke hackers. I
| consider myself a hacker but I don't consider myself
| "infinitely" creative, just creative in technical areas. So
| maybe technically creative individual? But those are more
| like Makers.
| squigz wrote:
| No matter how you define "hacker", "argues about the
| definition of 'hacker'" certainly should be included :)
| bratwurst3000 wrote:
| thats a good take . i would add " a person that wants to
| understand how thinks work to manipulate them"
| BlueTemplar wrote:
| 'hacking' is commonly defined as "using tools for something
| else than their initial purpose".
| default-kramer wrote:
| > The market is incentivized to deliver a product that meets the
| minimum bar to meet that checkbox, while being useless. I invite
| you to think of your favorite middleware or EDR vendors here. For
| passionate security founders considering raising venture,
| remember that this is what your "success" is being benchmarked
| against.
|
| > Do not swallow blackpills. It's easy to get really cynical and
| think things are doomed
|
| > Creating leverage for yourself. Hackers should not think of
| themselves as "oh I am this little guy fighting Big Corporation"
| or whatever. This is low agency behavior. Instead become the
| corporation and RUN IT THE WAY YOU THINK IT SHOULD BE RUN.
|
| Should I do it? Does this mean me? Obviously not, because I don't
| know shit about EDR. But obviously neither does Crowdstrike. I
| mean really, I couldn't possibly do any worse... right? Right? On
| the internet, it's easy to feel outclassed. But IRL, a large
| majority of people suck at their job. So in theory this should
| work.
|
| In practice, I guess I'm just blackpilled. For much less effort I
| can get paid 6 figures for 2 hours of work per week. [Also, I
| realize that winning at business is more difficult than I'm
| implying. But if my former bosses, who didn't do much other than
| yell at people and also drugs, could build a 25M/year business
| then you probably can too.]
| ganzuul wrote:
| If your debt grows faster than your income you are blackpilled.
| If you run a derivatives market in your head and nothing you
| imagine can be boostrapped, you are blackpilled.
|
| Crypto gets a lot of shit but social contracts made analyzable
| as smart contracts is promising for ethical financial markets.
| e.g. you could detect a debt spiral as a flow/loop/void
| structure with renormalization groups and persistent homology.
| When you can spot entities trying to create wage slaves from
| 100 miles away you can focus your energy on being creative.
| jcpham2 wrote:
| Interesting thought experiment you've shared. Thanks now my
| mind is running
| ganzuul wrote:
| If you get results I'd be curious to know. Peace.
| jocaal wrote:
| Do you mind expanding on the meaning of blackpilled. I am
| struggling to make sense of your comment without that
| context. Google brings up stuff to do with misogyny.
| ganzuul wrote:
| In the Matrix movie Neo took the blue pill or the red pill.
| Taking the red pill meant Neo woke up and saw the Matrix
| for what it was. IRL being "redpilled" then started to mean
| you constructed a new world model which was critical of
| power structures, which then turned into both misogyny and
| misandry and pretty soon people realized this world model
| they created had made them mentally ill. Then the
| realization that they had constructed a new Matrix, worse
| than the old, became the 'black pill'. IMO it's different
| from nihilism because of the self-awareness and inability
| to stop it from happening.
| gen220 wrote:
| I usually think of "red pill" as "You learn some piece of
| information, the implications of which lead to your
| perception of the world expanding in a large and
| meaningful way that belies your earlier perception of the
| world and forces a reassessment of prior experiences".
|
| I think of "black pill" as a GMO'd red pill designed to
| nudge the "learner" into a position of learned-
| helplessness.
|
| Take a common aphorism around here: "99% of startups
| fail, so you shouldn't bother trying". The red pill is
| "failure is the most common modality for new ventures",
| but the attached advice makes it a black pill.
|
| In a meta way, the linking of the term "red pill" to
| misogyny/misandry turned the red pill concept itself into
| a black pill (why bother seeking "red pills" if the
| "community" most identified with them is so disturbing?).
| spencerflem wrote:
| The way its used in the article at least, to me means
| having a view of the world that feels true and important
| but is bleak and disempowering.
|
| Like the sibling comment said, 'red pill' is seeing the
| truth of the world (or, what the community that uses the
| term red pill thinks is the truth at least. often this
| refers to the truth as decided by internet mysoginiats).
| Black pill is this truth + its unchangeable and hopeless
| and pointless and why do anything and oh god I wish I could
| go back to not knowing.
|
| If its used by somebody reasonable, blackpill is a
| pejorative with the implication that the ideology is more
| cynical and hopeless than it really should be and has the
| connotation that their ideology is a little too internety.
| immibis wrote:
| EDR vendors don't seem to know shit about EDR, either. You
| could be one even if you don't know about EDR. It's all about
| how you make your customers see you. That's what the article is
| saying.
| ActorNightly wrote:
| It depends on what you value.
|
| The catch22 is that if you are good at technology, you tend to
| align your personal morals and character to actual true value,
| not fake value, which makes you a pretty good anti-bullshit
| filter. However people who align themselves to the concept of
| making money are more aligned to working with the bullshit, not
| seeing it as negative but as a part of life. Thats why your ex
| bosses could build 25M business, and why you are blackpilled.
|
| In the past, when there was room for innovation because things
| haven't been invented yet, you could do both. Now, you
| basically have to pick one or the other.
| LoganDark wrote:
| > But if my former bosses, who didn't do much other than yell
| at people and also drugs, could build a 25M/year business then
| you probably can too.
|
| They're in a privileged position. Someone who's not already in
| a privileged position can't necessarily get there just by
| trying super hard.
| benreesman wrote:
| I'll cut the author some slack because the alternative is worse:
| knowing things is better than an active posture of ignorance.
|
| But let's take it easy on the gatekeeping that any of that is
| even a little complicated.
|
| Quantum chromodynamics is complicated: price-time precedence in
| financial markets is flash cards.
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| Flash cards are not understanding, and it doesn't help that few
| if anyone explains finance without a lot of handwaving and
| magical thinking.
| tux3 wrote:
| I don't think the author is gatekeeping here. The way I read
| your comment, you seem to be gatekeeping what is complicated
| enough
|
| 'Tis not a contest. Curiosity is its own reward.
| sanderjd wrote:
| The existence of more complicated things does not mean that
| other things are not also complicated.
|
| Financial markets that are open to the participation of
| billions of people, amalgamating all the behavior of all those
| participants, are complicated. Perhaps not nearly as
| complicated as quantum chromodynamics, I dunno, but complicated
| nonetheless.
| Aleksdev wrote:
| This whole thing comes off as very "edgy". We just like to tinker
| with things. It's really not that deep for most of us.
| dimator wrote:
| phrack has always had this kind of article. i'm sure if you
| grep for "A hacker is" or "the hacker ethos" you'll get a hit
| for every phrack issue going back to the 80s.
| larodi wrote:
| Only thing I fail to understand is why a hacker needs to know
| where to buy estrogen... I can more easily take the idea of
| hacker knowing how to cook Molotov cocktails.
| TZubiri wrote:
| They may be hacking their own body to a binary that's
| different from their source code
| Retr0id wrote:
| why not both?
| Jaccca wrote:
| That part is definitely not aimed at every reader, but it
| is appropriately used to highlight how some might
| circumvent the lengthy legal processes involved in getting
| estrogen. Moreover, it points to the possible need for them
| to compound it themselves which in turn makes them a
| hacker.
| bheadmaster wrote:
| There have been hypotheses that a significant number of
| trans women (i.e. biological men who identify as women) are
| actually on the autism spectrum. Considering natural
| tendency of autistic people to prefer isolated activities
| and puzzles, there may be a correlation between hackers and
| trans women.
| newzisforsukas wrote:
| > There have been hypotheses
|
| https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27872002/
|
| https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26753812/
|
| https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38803560/
|
| https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38831234/
| bheadmaster wrote:
| As with any novel phenomena, especially in sociology, it
| is very hard to provide tangible evidence for anything.
| If you demand nobody speaks of anything of sort without
| hard evidence, rarely anything would ever be said.
| newzisforsukas wrote:
| > If you demand nobody speaks of anything of sort without
| hard evidence, rarely anything would ever be said.
|
| Eh, that is some bullshit, but there is evidence though.
| I edited my comment to provide it, instead of asking you
| to do so.
| bheadmaster wrote:
| > I edited my comment to provide it, instead of asking
| you to do so.
|
| Nice of you to do that. Thank you.
| spencerflem wrote:
| Even if this is true, it need not be either-or. Saying
| that they are 'actually' autistic seems to imply that you
| do not believe that they are 'actually' trans.
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| It doesn't seem that way with a charitable reading.
| leptons wrote:
| Might also depend on how you define "hacker". Most people
| don't know the true meaning of the word, and should be
| using "cracker" instead.
| hluska wrote:
| What's with this 'biological men' stuff? How would you
| define that and what about chromosomal abnormalities like
| XXY or XYY people? If I have Jacob's syndrome and a penis
| am I biologically male or something else entirely?
| Explain.
|
| If you just want to have silly ideas about trans people,
| that's fine because I'm done arguing with people over
| that. It's a huge waste of time to get that interested in
| another person's genitals but you do you. However if
| you're going to use something as silly as 'biological
| male' you have to support that.
| gosub100 wrote:
| A few years ago I freaked out the Reddit moderators on a
| sub called /r/bodymods , which was, ostensibly, about
| _modifying_ your _body_ , when I asked about the
| feasibility of doing ones own liposuction.
|
| I'm not saying that's a good or bad idea from a medical
| perspective, but I certainly was off-put by their hypocrisy
| at shutting me down and their myopic definition of "body
| mods" which apparently to them was just poking holes in
| their face.
| UniverseHacker wrote:
| Unless you think/say/repeat the same things as everyone
| else on a subreddit you get downvoted and shadowbanned.
| It has the most aggressive and militant groupthink
| culture I've seen anywhere, which makes it pretty useless
| for trying to learn new things or share new ideas.
|
| If you have any type of niche hobby for example, and
| someone finds a new and better way of doing something,
| they will pretty much universally be attacked and
| censored.
| UniverseHacker wrote:
| This is only an example of the type of thing a hacker would
| do- a hacker is willing to solve problems on their own on
| their own even if it requires methods that are illegal,
| dangerous, or complex.
|
| A lot of people throw their hands up and give up when they
| need an expensive medication they can't get prescribed but
| in general you can often buy them overseas, grey market,
| make them yourself, etc.
| UniverseHacker wrote:
| Replying to awooooo who was flagged dead:
|
| > They want it, but it's not a necessity.
|
| What a person "needs" is complex and individual. Unless
| you are their doctor or are paying for it, your opinion
| of what medications a person needs is irrelevant- it is
| absolutely none of your business.
|
| This nit-picking is in no way central to my point as it
| was a general statement about hacker culture ethos not
| any particular person or medication, so why did you post
| it? With only two comments so far - It appears you joined
| HN just to share anti-trans bigotry? That isn't okay.
| This is not a "hate forum" - accepting people that are
| different is a fundamental aspect of hacker and HN
| culture.
| UniverseHacker wrote:
| @awooooo - nonsense, you have people minding their own
| business and being themselves, and you don't approve so
| you are insulting them, and trying to say they need to
| hide who they are or be different. That is just plain old
| bigotry. Being trans doesn't hurt of affect other women
| in any way.
|
| I'm willing to bet you are different in some way that
| isn't acceptable to others, so you feel the need to hide
| it out of fear, or hoping for acceptance. It's true of
| most people, and the fact that people need to hide
| themselves is awful.. and what you are contributing to
| here.
|
| I'm not trans but I am neurodivergent in a way that I
| can't hide, and was bullied and attacked for being
| different a lot of my life. Bigots that only know of one
| way people can be different would call me "queer" when
| they cornered me in the school hallway in groups to try
| to hurt me. Luckily for me, I'm a strong guy, and even
| being in groups they usually had a worse time of it than
| I did. I understand what that is like, and don't wish it
| on anyone. I want a world where people can mind their own
| business as themselves without hiding and without awful
| people trying to shame or attack them.
| immibis wrote:
| I see you have only met a narrow subset of hackers.
| AdamH12113 wrote:
| Estradiol valerate (which is what the article actually
| names) seems to be used for a wide variety of female
| reproductive health issues, especially when (as the article
| suggests) it's compounded with other drugs. It's also used
| by transgender people as a hormone therapy. A hacker might
| live in a place where gender-affirming healthcare is
| illegal or unavailable, or where female reproductive
| healthcare in general is difficult or expensive to obtain.
|
| Reproductive healthcare is much more broadly useful than
| Molotov cocktails.
| easterncalculus wrote:
| The people in those past articles weren't crypto startup
| CEOs, or startup CEOs at all most of the time.
| 0xEF wrote:
| Phrack's tendency toward the edgy sentiment aside, I sort of
| understand it. Sort of.
|
| I grew up in the era of BBSs, microcomputers giving way to full
| desktops in the US and payphones we're still slightly
| interesting. though phreaking was sadly in its final days. I
| also had (and have) severe social anxiety, but had no idea what
| that was at the time. I just knew I did not understand the
| world or people much at all, seeing them as sloppy systems that
| seemed to operate without any predictable set of rules aside
| from maybe self-preservation and immediate gratification.
|
| So when I started taking apart computers, futzing with software
| and seeing what made the beige boxes tick, I found I could
| understand those with far more clarity. I also found other
| people like me in the message boards and a local library.
| Naturally, this became _my_ world, because I knew how to
| navigate it better than people who had little interest in using
| a computer for anything beyond homework or accounting.
|
| It really felt like there was this whole reality that sat on
| top of the "common" reality and I had ascended to it with some
| silly notion of secret knowledge. You can image how addicting
| that would feel to someone who does not do well social and felt
| very, very outcast as a kid.
|
| I guess the difference between myself and a lot of Phrack
| authors, whom I still very much respect for laying the paving
| stones that I got to walk on, is that as I got older, I dealt
| with my anxiety and found that my genuine curiosity was more of
| an asset to enriching myself than a key to the door of some
| secret counter-culture. Hacking, colloquially speaking, went
| mainstream and sort of left me in the dust, having become
| impossible for any one person to keep up with the flood of new
| methods, exploits, etc as the Internet exploded and suddenly
| everyone had computers in some form or another.
|
| I moved on, more or less. Yes, I still tinker, as a hobby and a
| form of therapy, but mostly with old computers and industrial
| machines, since that's part of my adult career, but I miss that
| feeling of being part of some counter-culture-like group,
| whether it was real or not.
|
| I can totally see where it would be hard to let go of that.
| Heck, I'd post that some of the Phrack authors have no business
| letting go of it since _they_ helped define that whole world
| and need to keep it alive. I say let them be edgy. I have
| trouble with that, myself, but I respect it.
|
| Sorry, this turned into a "Hacker Perspective" 2600 article, I
| guess.
| elefanten wrote:
| Thoughtful and insightful reflection, thanks for sharing. I
| think that interplay between personal sense-making, personal
| strengths and the addictive/rewarding aspects of belonging to
| a specialized/esoteric community are a very common
| combination driving the creation of new narratives, new
| factions/interest and, ultimately, all kinds of change in
| general... for better or for worse, usually only time and
| intervening chance can tell. It's cool how meaningful it is
| to the participants, and also cool when you can zoom out and
| connect it to the experiences of others across space and
| time.
| nuancebydefault wrote:
| I really liked reading your comment.
|
| Somewhat related. I used to think, if I get really good at
| some thing, people will respect or admire me more. So I do my
| utmost best to be excellent at what I do.
|
| I found out that getting respect or admiration works
| differently. When you are very good in one area, you come
| across as geeky/nerdy. That fills nicely a respected
| stereotype in film, where the geek finds the missing piece
| for saving the world. But in the real world, most people
| don't care.
|
| Also I more recently found out that if you show you are
| trying really hard, that comes across as feeling very unsure
| about yourself.
|
| So about the article, understanding how the world works. The
| author clearly has understanding about financial markets. He
| knows a lot about security weaknesses and how to exploit
| them. It is all knowledge available on the web after all, if
| you spend a lot of nights studying it, it starts to click.
|
| The world is so much more than that though. For me, it is
| mostly how you interact with it, and the best interactions
| are with people. At work, at home, on HN.
|
| Why do I work? I make something, I fix a problem, I discuss
| what is important, it makes somebody happy because it aligns
| with their goal. Be it a colleague who wants their design
| reviewed, a customer who has a problem with your product, or
| a manager who wants a new feature.
| aleph_minus_one wrote:
| > Hacking, colloquially speaking, went mainstream
|
| I disagree. What went mainstream is a pale imitation of what
| hacking originally was.
| Aleksdev wrote:
| Are you Phrack by chance?
| spacebacon wrote:
| I petition a 1337 Laureate nomination if such nomination
| exist.
| jancsika wrote:
| > I just knew I did not understand the world or people much
| at all, seeing them as sloppy systems that seemed to operate
| without any predictable set of rules aside from maybe self-
| preservation and immediate gratification.
|
| That's a fascinating view.
|
| In fact, I'd say most FOSS GUIs from the 90s and early 00s
| make a lot more sense if you see them as having the
| hidden/bonus goal of repelling this "world of people." I just
| remember using something like Dynebolic for the first time,
| (or, much later, Popcorn Time) and having the feeling I'd
| just found a sparkling piece of amethyst among so many clods
| of dirt. Hackers always seemed to me way too curious and lazy
| to shovel dirt in their spare time; basic resentment/elitism
| toward society so cleanly explain so many parts of FOSS,
| everything from the amount of time it's taken to get a decent
| multi-screen configuration GUI to that old error message,
| "You don't exist. Go away!"
|
| Digression-- I remember reading an interview of someone who
| wrote one of the APIs to get multi-screen video working in
| Linux. They'd written about how they realized that what
| they'd wrote would be generally useful and therefore needed a
| GUI. But they didn't have expertise in GUI design nor any
| interest in maintaining one. So they set down and explicitly
| wrote a _terrible_ GUI with the goal of making it so bad it
| 'd be less helpful than just using the command line, thus
| forcing someone else to take on the task of replacing the
| awful GUI.
|
| Does anyone remember what that was? The visual metaphor was
| something to do with playing cards. Anyhow, I'd love to see
| that GUI!
| contingencies wrote:
| _xorg.conf_ or _xrandr_ might be along the right lines.
| bityard wrote:
| Could very well be Xinerama:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinerama
| beardedwizard wrote:
| Different kinds of hackers then, I suppose.
| matrix87 wrote:
| I'm saying this on the wrong forum...
|
| all this shit I hear about working in early stage startups and
| I'm honestly surprised why anyone would bother (unless they're a
| founder)
| willguest wrote:
| > "... how the world works"
|
| This is the most generic trap of all. Get good at something and
| then extrapolate to claim that you know how everything works. I
| suggest that, given the insane proliferation of valueless
| derivatives and ejection of human values from these systems, a
| more suitable conclusion might be that this is how the world
| dies.
| swiftcoder wrote:
| An effective hacker has to be competent at social engineering
| as well as having a very deep understanding of
| software/hardware.
|
| By the time you have accrued detailed experience of how both
| these technical systems and social systems work, you may be
| well on your way to understanding how the world works (in
| abstract, at any rate)?
| willguest wrote:
| I think the term 'social engineering' gets right to the
| point. We aren't machines but we have found very effective
| way of hacking our rewards systems so that we can manufacture
| demand, modify behaviour etc.
|
| The author describes the phenomenon, but doesn't seem to see
| the broader picture. This is where a meta-systematic, or
| paradigmatic (if you're allergic to the word 'meta')
| perspective is needed, which transcends both social and
| technical systems, but appreciated how they fit into a larger
| scheme.
|
| Through this lens the world is decidedly pluralistic and
| cannot be condensed to 'it's like X, we gotta do Y'. That can
| work for a personal strategy, and the author is kind enough
| to make some suggestions, but it's intellectual overreach to
| try and label the world
| lo_zamoyski wrote:
| > I think the term 'social engineering' gets right to the
| point.
|
| "Social engineering" is just dystopian newspeak for
| "deception, manipulation, lying, and bullshitting to get
| what you want". If honest language were used, maybe it
| wouldn't look so sexy.
|
| Anything else that avoids immoral means is just a matter of
| rhetorical skill and ability to negotiate.
| meiraleal wrote:
| a smart weirdo can rationalize the world and life, yes. They
| will probably be very, very wrong in interesting smart ways,
| tho.
| klntsky wrote:
| I don't think the author is guilty of that.
| lucideer wrote:
| Agree with the sentiment of your comment in isolation but when
| I went to the article to see the quoted line in context, the
| author isn't saying anything of the sort.
|
| They're not taking a narrow definition of knowledge &
| extrapolating that once one has that specific knowledge it
| explains everything. Instead they're broadening the definition
| of "hacker" (& also invoking the idea of continuous
| interrogation) to describe an approach to always _seeking_ &
| finding "how the world works" in any given context.
| willguest wrote:
| It's there three times, which is partly what triggered the
| comment, as it came across as something of a theme.
|
| Certainly this article is less dogmatic that many, but I
| still got the sense that author was using effects like
| causes.
|
| The less lazy version is to do with treating the metric as
| the measure. Sure, the quant revolution is in full swing, but
| it's a terrible way to gauge the success (or failure) of
| society, and is perhaps a better metric for describing
| detrimental human activity.
|
| That said, I fully appreciate the author's efforts to break
| with convention, but I felt that the points made actually
| give creedence to the system that, in my view, is actively
| corrupting the values that might get us out of this mess
| dsab wrote:
| > I suggest that, given the insane proliferation of valueless
| derivatives and ejection of human values from these systems
|
| What do you mean by "these systems" ? Blockchain based money?
| willguest wrote:
| I suppose memecoins represent a form of this, but I was
| really referring to financial instruments, in particular
| those that exist based on a derived sense of value, rather
| than an actual quantification of it, such as:
|
| Stock and, to a lesser degree, commodities futures, stock
| index futures, currency futures, interest rate futures, index
| options, currency options, interest rate options, credit
| default swaps, total return swaps, currency forwards,
| interest rate forwards.
|
| The more exotic of these, which are usually more lucractive
| and less well regulated, include:
|
| derivative-based exchange-traded funds, leveraged ETFs,
| inverse ETFs, equity-linked notes, credit-linked notes,
| principal-protected notes, collateralized debt obligations,
| weather derivatives (yes, you read that right), catastrophe
| bonds (eesh) barrier options and lookback options, to name a
| few.
|
| They are all mechanisms to leverage expectation and
| uncertainty and most rely on the quantification of risk at
| some level. Risk, however, is defined in terms of expected
| return and subject to an assessment of externalities that is,
| at its core, resource-blind.
| newzisforsukas wrote:
| > given the insane proliferation of valueless derivatives and
| ejection of human values from these systems
|
| might want to clarify a bit there
| set5think wrote:
| How the world dies vs how the world works doesn't sound all
| that different, and there's still plenty of great wisdom in the
| article.
| willguest wrote:
| This is super depressing, but probably on point. I agree that
| the article has good points.
|
| I think the spirit that the author is trying to capture is
| that there is a better way. I just think that they don't go
| far enough. There is a tendency to arrive at a idea and
| believe it to be a good global model - my intention with
| these comments is to try and provoke a more holistic
| assessment of the issue, despite the fact that I think their
| criticism of startup culture is valid
| set5think wrote:
| It sounds like you should take it from where they left off
| and publish your own post about your perspective, and
| fulfill the prophecy!
| km144 wrote:
| This is exactly how most on this website sound to be honest--
| people who got good enough in their field to convince
| themselves that they can speak authoritatively on some
| unrelated complex topic.
| squigz wrote:
| Which is strange, because one might expect that as someone
| gains expert knowledge in a particular field, they would
| recognize that most fields are similarly complex, require
| just as much nuanced knowledge as their own, and would not
| try to speak authoritatively on it.
| sanderjd wrote:
| And yet, this turns out to be not really how the human
| psyche works! It is useful to keep this in mind, and to be
| reminded of it.
| eska wrote:
| _My point is, it is not just about computers. It 's about
| understanding how the world works. The world is made up of
| people. As much as machines keep society running, those
| machines are programmed by people--people with managers,
| spouses, and children; with wants, needs, and dreams. And it is
| about using that knowledge to bring about the change you want
| to see._
| port19 wrote:
| > 3 - How Money Works
|
| Bold
| sixthDot wrote:
| I feel miserable as I only check 4 or 5 criterions over 8000.
| hsbauauvhabzb wrote:
| If I've ever seen an article that needs a tldr, this is it.
|
| Just because we're both hackers, doesn't mean you can call on me.
| I don't care about all your handles or what you think hacking
| should be, get to the point and stop wasting my time.
| brap wrote:
| For real. A hacker knows this, a hacker knows that. Does a
| hacker know how to get to the fucking point?
| wormlord wrote:
| I appreciate what it is trying to say, it's pretty basic
| knowledge for anyone that has broken out of "the market is God"
| mentality though through reading about the basics of finance.
|
| I think the writing style is influenced by WallStreetBets
| infodumps, which are influenced by Wolf of Wall Street, The Big
| Short, and kinda remind me of Hunter S. Thompson a little bit.
| Personally I find it annoying but I understand the culture that
| this kind of writing is emerging from.
| hsbauauvhabzb wrote:
| I don't care what influenced it, I might be more interested
| if I know the content is actually of interest but it
| presumably took several paragraphs to get there. I didn't
| know it was about marketing, because I stopped reading.
|
| A hacker should know how to captivate their audience,
| particularly when talking about marketing.
| lifeisstillgood wrote:
| This did not seem as bad as it's played in the comments - it's
| somewhat akin to pg's breakout essay (pg is much much easier to
| read) but it's the same thing - set up a company, make the world
| better. I like the attitude (even if the text formatting could be
| improved but house style is house style)
| coldpie wrote:
| Yeah I think everyone got hung up on the kind of cringy first
| section. Past the "what is a hacker" junk, it's quite a good
| article.
| mehulashah wrote:
| > "The point is, all of this made me feel very small and
| powerless after I realized the sheer size of the problems I was
| staring at. Nowadays, to me it's about creating good jobs for my
| friends, helping our customers, and taking care of the community.
| Importantly, I realized that this is still making a bigger
| positive impact than what I could have done alone just as an
| individual hacker or engineer."
|
| I couldn't have said it better. This is why I'm an entrepreneur
| and still take the pains to do it.
| fsndz wrote:
| Absolutely great read. My thesis is you have to understand how
| the world works and one aspect of it is quickly identifying
| mainstream lies: https://medium.com/thoughts-on-machine-
| learning/the-secret-o...
| RaVeN_ShP wrote:
| Do group buys for IDA Pro even still exist?
| kurisufag wrote:
| I thought the move was just using a cracked version until you
| make it and can afford a real license to flex.
| kachapopopow wrote:
| IDA has gone full corporations since 8.0, but before that china
| always used to leak the latest version.
|
| Ironically this time IDA 9.0 was leaked by... hexrays
| themselves, including lumina, hexvault, etc. Pretty sure it was
| meant to be a demo page in defcon, but someone leaked the URL.
|
| Binary Ninja is a solid competitor if you don't mind cleaning
| up the binaries before hand to clear up opaque jumps or have
| 256GB of ram.
| SebFender wrote:
| Looking at the article I was expecting some dude popping out of
| nowhere on a skateboard.
| set5think wrote:
| Hahah I just realized the reference to the movie! Bravo.
| boomskats wrote:
| Entertaining read. To me it feels like a modern version of The
| Mentor's original manifesto, but having resigned itself to middle
| age. My inner 12 year old wants to frame this one too.
| lifeisstillgood wrote:
| FYI: https://davidgcohen.com/2011/08/28/the-mentor-manifesto/
| Handprint4469 wrote:
| lol no, that's a sterile self-help blogpost written by some
| VC.
|
| This is The Mentor's original manifesto:
| https://phrack.org/issues/7/3.html
| AYBABTME wrote:
| I thought this would be bad. The start with security stuff isn't
| my vibe. But then I kept reading it and the storytelling kept me.
| The econ stuff, parallels, etc.
|
| It ended up capturing perfectly a bunch of ideas I've been having
| for a few months now. ZIRP was toxic. It made us bad and lazy.
| Identifying the phenomenons and explaining their mechanisms has
| been a useful exercise.
|
| I think this post will stay in my brain for a long while. I'm at
| this point in life and this resonates a lot. I want to build
| useful stuff with intrinsic value and I'm sick of the BS that
| exulted in the last decade. In my own way I'm trying to start
| ventures, so it's a good motivating call.
|
| Slow start but damn solid article.
| set5think wrote:
| agreed, wholeheartedly.
| coldpie wrote:
| > ZIRP was toxic. It made us bad and lazy.
|
| Yes. It makes me really nervous to see people celebrating the
| fed talking about lowering rates. Maybe rates should be lowered
| a bit, sure, I don't know. But please, please don't ever let us
| go back to zero-interest. As a person who works with
| technology, that era was so incredibly depressing. So much
| waste. I'm on the verge of leaving the tech industry because of
| what happened over the past 10 years. City bus drivers don't
| have to share an industry with SBF and Juicero and Elon Musk,
| you know?
| dgb23 wrote:
| I'm only starting to learn about these things.
|
| From the data I've seen and read it seems like low interest
| rates are (politically) alluring, because of short term
| metrics, but will bite back via inflation and bubbles
| bursting very consistently.
|
| Is there any wisdom and data that challenges or expands on
| this that a layman can understand?
| antishatter wrote:
| https://www.amazon.com/Price-Time-Real-Story-
| Interest/dp/080...
| pas wrote:
| So, bubbles are hard, especially when the underlying
| fundamental thing does not respond well to price increases
| (NIMBYism, zoning, weaponized environmental legislation,
| etc.)
|
| https://www.fullstackeconomics.com/p/the-2000s-housing-
| bubbl...
|
| Tech bubbles are doubly so, because now that "total
| addressable market" has exploded thanks to the internet
| everything is a bubble. (Starting with the good old dot-com
| one, and crypto, and AR/VR/Metaverse, and now AI. Folks are
| comparing Nvidia stock graphs to Cisco around 2000.)
|
| ....
|
| Likely the HN crowd overestimates the effect of ZIRP on
| tech, because how crazy the last 10-15 years have been.
| (But we see that the economy in general performed extremely
| well, real wages increased, etc.)
|
| Yes, of course there were (and are) a lot of scummy
| ventures, but there will be more.
|
| ...
|
| Regarding rates, the picture is a bit more complex. So
| coming out of the 2008 crash the Obama/ARRA fiscal stimulus
| was too small. (And of course it got hyper-over-politicized
| on "both sides".) And the monetary response was also
| lackluster.
|
| But we also know now (benefit of hindsight!) that the rates
| before 2008 were too low.
|
| https://www.caixabankresearch.com/en/economics-
| markets/monet...
|
| One important take-away is that of course everyone wants
| growth, more growth would help lower taxes, inflate away
| deficits, yey! Prosperity is good!
|
| But ... we can't simply buy growth with endless loans from
| our future selves. Real economic growth requires increasing
| productivity, which requires applying new (better, more
| suited to the situation, more profitable) technologies,
| which requires changes (duh), but an aging population is
| very change-averse. The US with the political gridlock
| tends to go on wild goose chases, spending enormous amounts
| of money on bullshitting instead of picking better
| technology.
|
| (And here technology includes social technology too. From
| the things like "lack of funding reform for fire
| departments leads to them going with too large firetrucks
| everywhere to be able to bill a lot, which leads them to
| not sign-off on thinner roads, which leads to too wide
| roads where motorists drive too fast, which leads to too
| many injuries and fatalities" to all the usual like lack of
| gun control and bribery rules for the courts.)
| rvense wrote:
| Not a fan of the terminology that corporations are people,
| but stacks of free money will mess up a company much like it
| will a person.
| immibis wrote:
| The long term trend for the Fed is that it raises rates
| somewhat, and then lowers them even more. There is no reason
| to think this won't happen again this time, landing squarely
| in negative rates. It only stops when US dollars are
| worthless because any Tom, Dick and Harry can get a billion
| of them for free and even get paid for doing so.
|
| So far, the Fed does a good job of gatekeeping normal people
| out of the negative rate market even when rates are negative
| - only rich people are allowed to benefit.
| phkahler wrote:
| >> It makes me really nervous to see people celebrating the
| fed talking about lowering rates.
|
| One thing I've often thought true but not confirmed is that
| lowering interest rates has it's own effect on top of the
| lower rate itself. Lowering rates leads to refinancing for
| example which is not a thing in a steady state. I'm inclined
| to think most of the benefit of a rate lowering is in fact
| transient, while the effects of having low rates are
| permanent and there are similarly transient costs with
| raising rates. It's a trap.
| schmidtleonard wrote:
| You talk about low rates like they are a choice. That's
| mostly not true. A better way to think about it is that low
| rates are a consequence of "lots of savings chasing few
| investment opportunities."
|
| Sure, the fed can buy and sell treasuries and use its
| magical balance sheet to push/pull on treasury yields, and
| these in turn are the lowest risk and most liquid mechanism
| for duration transformation so they tend to serve as a
| baseline / comparison point for every other kind of
| investment, transmitting monetary policy into the real
| economy. However, the fed's magical balance sheet has
| limits: if they push or pull on treasury yields too hard
| for too long, people will stop using them as a default
| point of comparison and put their money somewhere else.
| See: Bank of Japan and the JPY Carry Trade that everyone
| became an expert in about 3 weeks ago. Point is: the fed
| can push and pull, but it can't fight the market-determined
| macro and win. Not for long, anyway.
|
| Low rates are inevitable between growth sigmoids. Unless
| you think we can exponentially grow forever, we need to
| figure out how to cope. What would that look like? How
| could we possibly cool off the economy without paying
| people to not invest? Well, I mean, we _could_ raise taxes
| and spend that on the people who got left behind on the
| last growth sigmoid, but I can hear the "boos" and
| "hisses" already. Hey! Tomatoes are for eating, not
| throwing! Guys, come on! You know it's true.
| dgfitz wrote:
| > Well, I mean, we could raise taxes and spend that on
| the people who got left behind on the last growth
| sigmoid, but I can hear the "boos" and "hisses" already.
|
| I mostly agree. The issue comes from how the money gets
| spent. It costs money to collect money, it costs money to
| spend money. Most of the spent money is used to "buy
| solutions" from private industry, so the rich still get
| richer, and nothing really changes.
|
| Baltimore, MD, USA, spends more per student [1] than
| almost any other city in the country, and nothing
| changes. Oh well actually, there is a lot of corruption
| in the city council and I think over half of the past few
| mayors have been arrested on criminal charges.
|
| [1] https://foxbaltimore.com/news/project-baltimore/in-
| baltimore...
| toast0 wrote:
| > Baltimore, MD, USA, spends more per student [1] than
| almost any other city in the country, and nothing
| changes. Oh well actually, there is a lot of corruption
| in the city council and I think over half of the past few
| mayors have been arrested on criminal charges.
|
| I'm not connected to Maryland, but is there a reason,
| other than history that the school board is appointed by
| the mayor and not elected? Everywhere I've lived, school
| districts have been independent from the cities they
| operate in, and supervised by a state education
| organization and perhaps mildly supervised by the county
| board of supervisors in the counties they operate in (or
| city councils when operating in cities that are
| counties). Then you could have corrupt city governance
| without necessarily having corrupt school governance;
| although you could still have both if that's what your
| local electorate chooses.
| dgfitz wrote:
| The gov. of maryland at the time of the freddy gray riots
| had the national guard on standby for HOURS before the
| mayor finally permitted the state to assist.
|
| It is a horribly fucked up city, corrupt from top to
| bottom, rampant crime, murder, fraud, etc.
|
| But no worries, residents of the city pay an ADDITIONAL
| tax beoyo9nd federal and state taxes to ensure things
| stay exactly the way they are. Baltimore city could
| triple their tax rates and nothing would change.
|
| This is a microchasm of the entire US. One of if not the
| wealthiest country in the world cannot figure out that
| throwing money at problems DOESN'T FIX THEM. It is a
| rich-person way of thinking: "something broke, I'll pay
| someone to fix it" but thr "someone" lines their pockets,
| pays lip service, does the least costly "fix" possible,
| and laughs all the way to the corvette store.
| thijson wrote:
| 1950-1975 property taxes in Baltimore increased 19 times.
| It's double the rate in neighboring Baltimore county. In
| the 2010's Baltimore was losing 500 residents per month.
| The city is in a death spiral.
|
| 1950-1975 San Francisco was in a similar situation,
| losing population. In 1978 prop. 13 passed and placed a
| cap of 1% on the property tax. Reducing it by 2/3's. A
| huge boom started. The overall revenue increased by 80%
| after a few years as the property values increased.
|
| Two Baltimore residents talk about it here:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrNjUCmTURg
| dgfitz wrote:
| Respectfully, SF is known for a handful of things,
| wealth, tech, and people shitting on the sidewalk
| prominent among them.
|
| So tell me, who won? I have a guess.
| underdeserver wrote:
| Lowering rates is fine. Lowering them to zero is bad.
|
| Economists generally believe the baseline, target rate should
| be around 2-3%.
|
| Zero interest rate is like steroids. You can take them for a
| while to pick you up and help fight a bug (like the 2008
| crash), but if you don't stop taking them, you'll need a
| long, painful, 5.5% interest rate rehab.
| wrycoder wrote:
| And, if you were to balance the Federal budget, you would
| inflate away 75% of the national debt in 50 years at 3%
| inflation. But, only a balanced budget amendment to the
| Constitution could accomplish that.
| mdorazio wrote:
| How are you calculating that? The national debt itself
| currently has an average interest rate higher than 3%.
| schmidtleonard wrote:
| > Zero interest rate is like steroids.
|
| The problem with your analogy is that paying interest is an
| active measure. It takes effort. The higher the
| rate*(outstanding debt), the more effort. This isn't a
| choice between injecting nothing vs injecting steroids,
| it's a choice between injecting sedatives vs injecting
| nothing. Raising the interest rate is like injecting a
| sedative. How much sedative should we inject? How much
| sedative _can_ we inject?
| Vegenoid wrote:
| I disagree, as this implies that an interest of zero is
| the normal default. Why would it be? Why would someone
| lend someone else money, when they get nothing for it?
| graemep wrote:
| > Economists generally believe the baseline, target rate
| should be around 2-3%.
|
| The problem with that is (as we found out) that does not
| leave you much room to cut without going to near zero
| rates.
| ZoomerCretin wrote:
| That's a feature, not a bug.
|
| The government reaction to the 2021 economic
| circumstances was to counter the hot job market, not
| inflation. It is explicitly and legally the mandate of
| the federal reserve to target maximum employment first,
| and 3% inflation if possible.
|
| Inflation has been normal for a while now by most
| metrics, but rates are still sky-high to crush worker
| power. This may not be the stated goal, but it is the
| actual outcome we can see.
|
| The purpose of a system is what it does.
|
| Super-low inflation targets hurt worker negotiating
| power.
| tiahura wrote:
| The relevant section of the U.S. Code is 12 U.S.C. SS
| 225a, which states: "The Board of
| Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal
| Open Market Committee shall maintain long run growth of
| the monetary and credit aggregates commensurate with the
| economy's long run potential to increase production, so
| as to promote effectively the goals of maximum
| employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term
| interest rates."
|
| The reason rates are staying high is because of the
| expectations game. The US had unfathomable price
| stability for decades. The fed realizes that the
| inflation genie is out of the bottle. The only way to get
| it back in is to overcompensate by raising rates and
| leaving them high until people forget about 10%
| inflation.
| marcosdumay wrote:
| Why do people insist on this?
|
| A rate of inflation + 0.5% is double of a rate of
| inflation + 0.25, that is double of a rate of inflation +
| 0.125%, that is double of...
|
| You can have as many steps as you want.
| Jensson wrote:
| > Zero interest rate is like steroids
|
| More like adding fat and never burn it. Zero interest means
| everything stays around, no pressure to produce since there
| is no expectation of ROI, and then when you suddenly add
| that pressure a lot of stuff collapses under their own
| weight since they don't have anything to keep it up.
| sangnoir wrote:
| I'll be the devil's advocate. Zero interest rates means
| it's easier for startups to raise money. High interest
| rates locks in the status quo - because of their massive
| war chests big companies don't struggle because of high
| interests, but small companies do.
|
| For individuals in the middle class and lower, high
| interest rates (and the associated inflation) directly
| lower the quality of life by eroding their purchasing
| power.
| usefulcat wrote:
| > high interest rates (and the associated inflation)
| directly lower the quality of life by eroding their
| purchasing power.
|
| This confuses me. Rates were raised to reduce inflation.
| How should inflation have been reduced, if not (at least
| in part) by raising rates?
| akira2501 wrote:
| > and help fight a bug (like the 2008 crash)
|
| That was not a "bug." That was a parasite. If you take
| steroids with a parasite you might just make the parasite
| stronger.
| marcosdumay wrote:
| > Economists generally believe the baseline, target rate
| should be around 2-3%.
|
| If it's lower than inflation, the government is just giving
| free money to the corporations with access to interbank
| settlement loans.
| bboygravity wrote:
| Elon Musk is very wasteful selling waste due to low interest
| rates? Please explain or make your point? I don't get how he
| relates to the rest of your post?
| btown wrote:
| I have a slightly different view on this. ZIRP allowed
| companies to do crazy things when it came to tech investment.
| For instance, would Kafka (and by extension, Confluent, and
| much of the distributed-systems landscape) exist if LinkedIn
| hadn't decided: "you know, let's not think too hard about
| whether building a custom queue system is fully economically
| rational, let's just let our engineers do it, and we'll be
| able to spin it to investors/shareholders as a good use of
| capital." It's no coincidence that this happened in 2010, the
| first year that the interest rate dropped below 1% (and
| substantially so).
|
| https://www.rtinsights.com/the-technical-evolution-of-
| apache...
|
| https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FEDFUNDS
|
| Were the people who worked on that project value-optimal for
| LinkedIn? Maybe, maybe not. Were they "lazy" and a "waste" in
| the value they brought to society overall, especially
| including the spin-offs and startups that members of these
| teams would go on to build? I don't think that's an accurate
| characterization.
|
| Zero-interest was an effective way to incentivize public
| companies, VC-backed companies, and their LPs to spend large
| amounts of money on speculative engineering work -
| speculative enough that one might even call it research, but
| the fact that we could call it something other than research
| is the entire point.
|
| It's far from the only such incentive, and it came with many,
| many downsides, including the creation of many over-funded
| startups that over-promised and caused harm in their under-
| delivery.
|
| To be sure, startups aren't going anywhere. There are
| surprisingly fun challenges when profitability and
| sustainable growth are core requirements for every project,
| both macro and micro, and it's just an evolution of our
| hacker mentality to have to deal with these new constraints.
|
| But I fear that we've lost the incentive to have companies
| invest speculatively in crazy projects without having a
| sufficient replacement for ZIRP, and it may take a generation
| before we understand how that will have affected the rate of
| innovative output for the entire world.
| coldpie wrote:
| It's a fair perspective, but I'd counter by bringing up the
| opportunity cost we spent on the incredible amount of trash
| startups that ZIRP produced. Those Juicero & crypto & NFT
| people could've been doing something productive with their
| lives instead of whatever that mess was. Was Kafka worth
| that cost? I dunno. But seeing the obvious waste and the
| clowns who profited from it made me, personally, really
| depressed at the state of our industry. A system that so
| blatantly does not distribute rewards for real, valuable
| work really discourages one from bothering to even try
| putting in the work.
| breakingcups wrote:
| It kinda feels like raising the Temperature of a LLM too
| high, if you'll forgive the analogy. Yes, there might be
| occasional-seemingly brilliant-bursts of creativity but
| most of the output is just going to be nonsense.
| easterncalculus wrote:
| Feel basically the opposite, in fact I would go to say this
| takeawway is the wrong one - the article is titled "Calling All
| Hackers" but can't go three headings without talking about
| shitcoins and venture capital. There's the HN definition of
| hacker and the infosec one, and phrack is for the latter. "High
| tech, low life" hackers don't have obsessions with venture
| capital.
| rnewme wrote:
| At one point you grow up and realize the fastest way to your
| goals is using money, and best bet to get lots of money fast
| is the VC game.
| set5think wrote:
| Thank you for finding a great way to say what I have been trying
| to say all my life. I will keep this with me for the rest of my
| life
|
| -Hassan
| shahzaibmushtaq wrote:
| The author is telling us that "Hackers" are people who know
| enough ins and outs about the things they interact with on a
| daily basis.
|
| > "My point is, it is not just about computers. It's about
| understanding how the world works. The world is made up of
| people. As much as machines keep society running, those machines
| are programmed by people--people with managers, spouses, and
| children; with wants, needs, and dreams. And it is about using
| that knowledge to bring about the change you want to see.
|
| That is what being a hacker is all about."
|
| I usually read/listen to people's experiences and whether or not
| their stories truly make sense depends on how they present them
| to the world.
| shahzaibmushtaq wrote:
| As I said above "for stories to make sense, you must be a good
| storyteller", and this author is definitely one of them.
|
| A must read for everyone.
| Elfener wrote:
| "It's about knowing what happens when you type "google.com" and
| press Enter" is possibly the best short explanation of hacker
| culture ever.
| diggan wrote:
| It literally goes on to say "But being a hacker is so much more
| than these things." after that, so it's not just about things
| like those :)
| sanderjd wrote:
| Yep, I still remember the feeling when I first developed at
| least _some_ mental model for all the steps along the way from
| "enter" to seeing the results, and realized that it was even
| _more_ shockingly complex than I imagined it to be when it was
| just magic, and that despite that complexity, it all actually
| works many billions of times every moment of every day.
|
| Then what happened is that pretty much every year (maybe closer
| to every day) since then I have learned about some piece of the
| puzzle where my mental model was actually nowhere near the
| truth, and that each individual puzzle piece is even _more_
| complex than I thought! Truly wild stuff.
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| We used to know what would happen. Now with AI, it might
| recommend putting glue on pizza or making bioweapons for a
| potluck.
| jll29 wrote:
| Web Page Blocked! You have tried to access a web
| page which belongs to a category that is blocked.
|
| :-(
| John23832 wrote:
| That seems like a problem on your end.
| diggan wrote:
| Sounds like someone (your parents? the company you work at?
| your school?) have installed a firewall of some sorts.
| ffhhj wrote:
| Aha, caught browsing in the job. Head to HR for your daily
| beating.
| set5think wrote:
| Hahah
| cyberes wrote:
| Really pointless article
| set5think wrote:
| Really pointless comment :P
| goodpoint wrote:
| > Hackers should not think of themselves as "oh I am this little
| guy fighting Big Corporation" or whatever. [...] Instead become
| the corporation
|
| Hacker culture is inherently antiauthoritarian. Wanting to become
| the big corporation is something you would expect only from
| "hacker" "news".
| udev4096 wrote:
| Good to see phrack finally supporting HTTPS.
| throw_pm23 wrote:
| Seriously, who cares, it is an essay in a text file.
| brunoqc wrote:
| because your ISP doesn't need to know what your read?
| kayo_20211030 wrote:
| I agree with the premise and conclusions, but what struck me,
| particularly, about this was how well it was written. Thanks to
| the author for a super piece.
| denvaar wrote:
| "It's about knowing more about the web than most, but still
| choosing to make your site as mobile-unfriendly as possible." /s
|
| EDIT: I actually love that it's text based, even to the point of
| creating sigma notation out of plain text.
| 0xbadcafebee wrote:
| So a young hacker turned tech bro learned about the financial
| markets and told himself he was still a hacker working in tech
| and financial markets. But I see nothing of hacking here. I see
| pontificating about an "ethos" and how great hackers are, and
| making it seem like financial markets, bitcoin and startups is
| some mysterious unknown to "hack". Really it's just a job. Hey,
| you wanna nerd out on this stuff, that's great. But just doing a
| job in financial markets or silicon valley doesn't make you a
| hacker, or what you do hacking.
| samwcurry wrote:
| They are saying the exact opposite! The whole essay is about
| how financial markets are not some "mysterious unknown" and are
| instead predictable systems that are masked in a layer of
| bullshit that you can lean into and take advantage of. As a
| non-finance person, understanding "why" obviously terrible
| ideas get investment helps me understand how the world works.
| If we replaced the humans in the financial system with APIs,
| there would be inputs (pitch deck, founder persona, whatever)
| that can cleverly lead to an intended solution (raising
| capital, starting a company) in the same way that I could find
| a vulnerability on RuneScape or Eve Online, which I'm sure
| satisfies the traditional "hacker" definition. It's obviously
| not that cut-and-dry, but approaching the world in the "hacker
| mindset" is about observing and manipulating these systems.
| kelsey98765431 wrote:
| gz nspky ggwp
| pcdoodle wrote:
| I really enjoyed reading that. Thank you.
| iwontberude wrote:
| > Knowing that you're not worth burning a 0day on
|
| This has been a pretty tried and true way for me to figure out
| who is schizophrenic and who is important.
| afpx wrote:
| If your company is successful, won't the VCs just spin up some
| clones?
| fredgrott wrote:
| Good news....you know that worry about zero interest?
|
| TARP was closed in fall of 2023 as all assets were sold off, see
| https://home.treasury.gov/data/troubled-asset-relief-program
|
| That means assuming we do not screw up again, no more zero or
| negative interest situations.
| debo_ wrote:
| > A hacker is someone who understands how the world works. It's
| about knowing what happens when you type "google.com" and press
| Enter. It's about knowing how your computer turns on, about
| memory training, A20, all of that. It's about modern processors,
| their caches, and their side channels. It's about DSi bootloaders
| and how the right electromagnetic faults can be used to jailbreak
| them. And it's about how Spotify and Widevine and AES and SGX
| work so you can free your music from the shackles of DRM.
|
| This is a very... interesting definition of "the world."
| monitron wrote:
| I humbly suggest that you read beyond the first few paragraphs.
| The author goes on to significantly expand the definition.
| debo_ wrote:
| I did read the whole article, and I liked it. As an intro, it
| was a bit discombobulating to see this as the first
| paragraph.
| lo_zamoyski wrote:
| To know how the "world works", to know the causes of things,
| either includes hackers, or is identical with being a hacker.
| Is Aristotle a hacker? Human beings desire, by nature, to know.
| If you live in a technological society, it is important to
| understand the thicket of technology we find ourselves in, and
| how to navigate it. That's just prudence, and just a particular
| determination of the truth, that it was always good to
| understand oneself and one's predicament.
|
| I guess you can call that a hacker, or count hackers among such
| people. But then, if the latter, you must offer a
| distinguishing characteristic that distinguishes hackers among
| others in this genus.
|
| And what are the author's presuppositions?
| stong1 wrote:
| This is my article. Thank you for your kind words, I'm glad you
| all enjoyed it! I was very surprised to wake up this morning to
| see it on HN, haha.
| MetaWhirledPeas wrote:
| > Keep it private and closely held
|
| Yep. I know this is probably a bit revisionist (old-timey
| inventors wanted to get rich quick too) but it feels like
| companies used to more often be geared toward longevity, not
| ascendance, and I don't see how they could achieve longevity
| while constantly trying to make shareholders rich. Longevity
| really should be up there on the list of goals, with security
| and prosperity for all those involved.
|
| I suppose a meat grinder growfast company could invent world-
| improving products that justify employee churn and abuse, but
| those would be unicorns with diamond encrusted horns.
|
| What is the point of any of our actions if they don't benefit
| _people_?
| set5think wrote:
| Great job Luna!
| spirobelv2 wrote:
| can you give a tldr? whats the point? how are we going to get
| rich? what is your answer?
| minusLik wrote:
| Thank you for the article! I found the "I understand computers
| and therefore the world" in the beginning a bit pretentious,
| but after reading the rest anyway, it doesn't anymore. I'd
| summarize the piece as:
|
| "The hacker mindset comes with powerful tools: The urge to
| figure stuff out, the creativity to use it in unusual ways and
| the passion to share knowledge. Let's use it to make the world
| a better place. Start a company and gather allies. If enough of
| us do this, we'll have an impact on the world."
| biofox wrote:
| As a ex-hacker who left the scene to wear a suit and become a
| "grown-up", this is refreshing and much more palatable vision of
| the community that I wish I had seen more of when I was younger:
|
| `` Hackers should not think of themselves as "oh I am this little
| guy fighting Big Corporation" or whatever. This is low agency
| behavior. Instead become the corporation and RUN IT THE WAY YOU
| THINK IT SHOULD BE RUN." ''
|
| One question though, to the suggestion that hackers should focus
| on raising capital in a way that gives them breathing room... how
| the hell am I supposed to do that?
| shepherdjerred wrote:
| As someone who doesn't have a formal understanding of
| finances/economics, I really enjoyed the first half of this post.
|
| Are there any good resources to understand the world's financial
| systems as a layman? I'm not looking to be an expert.
| 3np wrote:
| Looking up new terms on investopedia and going down rabbit
| holes from there is not a bad start, I think.
| adhambadr wrote:
| Loved this. Thank you for putting it together, I could relate to
| it on a level you couldn't possibly imagine.
| TacticalCoder wrote:
| That article is worth reading. If you don't have the time, at
| least take a look at the "liquidity cycle" ASCII art: it is
| wonderful!
| winterrx wrote:
| > You can understand computers and science and math as much as
| you want, but you will not be able to fix the bigger issues by
| yourself. The systems that run the world are much bigger than
| what we can break on our laptops and lab benches.
|
| This.
| jchor wrote:
| This is such a beautifully written story with it's own kind of
| elegance. Love it!
| vicken wrote:
| This isn't just a call to all hackers...this is a call to all
| entrepreneurs. It really highlights the artificial success of
| many companies today.
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