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The Hacker Ethic

The Hacker Ethic explains the motivations and ethical considerations of a subset of computer programmer culture that have created much of the most powerful software systems and most profitable tech company business models to date.

In the 1984 book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, Steve Levy articulated six “tenents” of a hacker ethic based on his observations:

  1. Access to computers – and anything which might teach you something about the way the world works – should be unlimited and total. Always yield to the Hands-On imperative!
  2. All information should be free.
  3. Mistrust authority – promote decentralization.
  4. Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position.
  5. You can create art and beauty on a computer.
  6. Computers can change your life for the better.1

These six tenets were the expression of a revolution based on three basic principles:

  1. First, hackers reject the notion that “businesses” are the only groups entitled to access and use of modern technology.
  2. Second, hacking is a major weapon in the fight against encroaching computer technology.
  3. Finally, the high cost of equipment is beyond the means of most hackers, which results in the perception that hacking and phreaking are the only recourse to spreading computer literacy to the masses.2

Chris Castiglione, Computer Literacy professor at Columbia University, condensed and re-ordered the six tenets to four tenets as follows:

  1. Information should be free.
  2. Computers can change your life for the better.
  3. Mistrust authority — promote decentralization.
  4. Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not based on degrees, age, race, sex, or position.3

Castiglione’s version was encountered by Ben Cheek while researching collaborative approaches to leadership based on his experience as both a community organizer and open-source web developer while working for the GoAheadLaunch start-up consultancy. This version, and especially the order they were listed in, strongly influenced Cheek’s own [4] The Four Rules, applying similar principles to all human-managed complex adaptive systems.

References & Notes

  1. “The Hacker’s Ethic” The Cyberpunk Project, http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/hacker_ethics.html.
  2. Ibid.
  3. Chris Castiglione, “The Hacker Ethic: Understanding Programmer Culture” Learn Code in 30 Days, https://learn.onemonth.com/the-hacker-ethic/