Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site uwvax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!godot!harvard!seismo!uwvax!derek
From: derek@uwvax.UUCP (Derek Zahn)
Newsgroups: net.college
Subject: Re: Where have all the hackers gone?
Message-ID: <78@uwvax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Dec-84 11:33:35 EST
Article-I.D.: uwvax.78
Posted: Wed Dec 12 11:33:35 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Dec-84 06:29:02 EST
References: <3138@utah-cs.UUCP> <676@clyde.UUCP>
Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
Lines: 40

>... however I do not agree that hackers make the best programmers.
> 
> 1) many hacker-types I met in school were more interested in working on
> their own projects and didn't always do the work they were supposed
> to. This is not a person I would want to work for me.
> 
> 3) they tend to spend most of their time in the computer center and
> often neglect other classwork they find dull and uninteresting. 
> I still feel that an engineer should know more than just his/her
> specialty in order to be more flexible.
> 
> 
> I do want to point out that I am not anti-hacker. I spent most of
> my college career in the computer center. 
>
> For those of us with true understanding, hacking is the only pure
> art form.

Well fine -- you wouldn't hire yourself.

The way I think of it:  hackers (not meaning the 15-year old TRW crackers
that infuriate me whenever I hear about them) do tend to do many of the
things that you say.  However, I find the hackers I hang around with to
be a remarkably eclectic group who just happen to share a passion for
computers.

While it is true that they are often unruly and unorthodox in their programming,
that stems from their brilliance (sometimes) and their mastery of their
machines.  For grunge-work programming, no, I would not hire a 'hacker'
either, which is porbably good since they don't want that kind of work.
I would hire yesterday's 'hackers' as today's innovators.

derek



-- 
Derek Zahn @ wisconsin
...!{allegra,heurikon,ihnp4,seismo,sfwin,ucbvax,uwm-evax}!uwvax!derek
derek@wisc-rsch.arpa