@need 3200

@node On Hacking
@appendix On Hacking
@example
@group
                Oh, do not ask, "What is it?"
                Let us go and make our visit.
@end group
@group
@end group
@end example
@example
@group
                -- T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
@end group
@group
@end group
@end example

Shall I spell out the perfect architecture for our software?  Predict
the form of what we'll build?  Construct a fictional schedule and a
list of milestones?  Prepare a glossy presentation outlining all the
planned features?  Magically forecast the size of markets and our
share?  Foretell our winning marketing strategy?  Calculate ROI over a
three year period to an impossible precision?


Or shall we speak of truth?

@example
@group
                Hacking
@end group
@group
@end group
@end example
@example
@group
        In nightclubs, living rooms,
           computer labs at midnight,
@end group
@group
@end group
@end example
@example
@group
        Over meals and after shows,
           when sprinklers come on at 3AM
@end group
@group
@end group
@end example
@example
@group
        Fresh, strung out;
           sober, tripping
@end group
@group
@end group
@end example
@example
@group
        We have talked and talked, 
           experimented, 
           lived,
           as beautiful ideas
             took hold of our bodies
             and led them
        here
@end group
@group
@end group
@end example
@example
@group
        ``Yes -- it will work like this.''
@end group
@group
@end group
@end example
@example
@group
        ``And like that too.''
@end group
@group
@end group
@end example
@example
@group
        And we should build it this way: 
           without pain
           without a master plan
           by feel
             and feedback
           informed by knowledge
             and joy
             and life
@end group
@group
@end group
@end example
@example
@group
        After all:
          _That_
          is how
          the ancestors
          worked
@end group
@group
@end group
@end example

And off we went.  Into academia.  Into the industry.  Each with hopes
of making real our portion of the good ideas.  Has it worked so far?


Intellegence, perspective, and initiative have become de-valued
qualities in programmers; thoughtlessness and rapidity at filling out
mediocre code templates have aquired a high market value.  Even
"new" approaches to computing, for example Linux, are aimed more at
reimplementing what has already been done than at informed innovation
and exploration.


Many of the best hackers find that there is neither commercial nor
academic support for autonomy and sustained work on long term
projects.  When conditions arise that enable someone to carefully
design an elegant tool or a beautiful piece of computing art, those
conditions are typically unstable and the result of a very rare
accident.


Cynicism and resignation have become our survival skills.


We think this industry stinks.

@example
@group
        I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by
                madness, starving hysterical naked,
        dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn
                looking for an angry fix,
        angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly 
@end group
@group
                connection to the starry dynamo in the machin-
@end group
@group
                ery of night,
        who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat
                up smoking in the supernatural darkness of
                cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities
                contemplating jazz
@end group
@group
@end group
@end example
@example
@group
                        -- A. Ginsburg, Howl 
@end group
@group
@end group
@end example

Let's fix things, shall we?




