Name: The New Hacker's Dictionary
ISBN: 9780262680929

The New Hacker's Dictionary

This new edition of the hacker's own phenomenally successful lexicon includes more than 100 new entries and updates or revises 200 more. This new edition of the hacker's own phenomenally successful lexicon includes more than 100 new entries and updates or revises 200 more. Historically and etymologically richer than its predecessor, it supplies additional background on existing entries and clarifies the murky origins of several important jargon terms (overturning a few long-standing folk etymologies) while still retaining its high giggle value. Sample definition hacker n. [originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe] 1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. 2. One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming. 3. A person capable of appreciating {hack value}. 4. A person who is good at programming quickly. 5. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work using it or on it; as in `a UNIX hacker'. (Definitions 1 through 5 are correlated, and people who fit them congregate.) 6. An expert or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example. 7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations. 8.

What Hacker News says

jfengelMay 2022

It's funny that you should mention the MIT sense of the term. I was very influenced by this line from The New Hacker's Dictionary, which came out of the MIT hacking culture:

"[T]he ties many hackers have to AI research and SF literature may have helped them to develop an idea of personhood that is inclusive rather than exclusive — after all, if one's imagination readily grants full human rights to future AI programs, robots, dolphins, and extraterrestrial aliens, mere color and gender can't seem very important any more."

It has been a rather rude awakening to realize how much hacker culture is the opposite of that. They see the most powerful and intelligent people as looking like themselves, and see their exclusion of anybody else as proof that they were right about it. They believe in a "meritocracy", but define themselves what constitutes "merit", and it just happens to be the things that they're already doing.

I don't know what's actually going on in Cambridge, Mass, but Hacker News brings me every day evidence from their successors in Silicon Valley. I see so much intolerance here.

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tjrFeb 2022

It might be a bit too archaic now, as a lot of the terms and technologies discussed were on the way out even when the last printed version was published, but I did find The New Hacker's Dictionary very enjoyable in this sense.

Programming Pearls might be another good book that promotes enjoyment of computing; certainly a bit more technical, but I think plenty readable for someone interested.

https://www.amazon.com/New-Hackers-Dictionary-3rd/dp/0262680...

https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Pearls-2nd-Jon-Bentley/dp...

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misterAxiomJul 2017

1. All programmers should drop the "I don't have to be good at math" habit...you're disrespecting people who are likely in possession of knowledge that will help you later. Being "good at math" means you communicate and try to understand concepts. It's more about attitude than knowledge.

2. All programmers should learn Galois theory, not only to get over the idea that they can't be good at math, but to learn to appreciate math. The book by Ian Stewart is good, although I would supplement it with Artin or Dummit and Foote.

3. Try to figure out why Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie did what they did, when they did it. Very important for getting a historical understanding of programming. Also, try to figure out why Ken Thompson said what he did in "Coders at Work".

4. Read The New Hacker's Dictionary.

5. Read Naive Set Theory

6. Try (and fail, at least for a year) to read A Shorter Model Theory (don't give up!)

7. Read Code Complete followed by the Python 2.x source code

8. Read SICP and write a scheme interpreter in a language of your choice

9. Implement a simple LR parser, instructions here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_LR_parser

10. Play Kitten's game http://bloodrizer.ru/games/kittens/

11. Play the UC Berkeley CS 61a adventure game https://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs61a/reader/

12. Play JSRobowar https://statico.github.io/jsrobowar/

13. Read "Development of the C Language" https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/chist.html

14. Read "The Mythical Man-Month"

15. Read "Simply Scheme"

16. Read "The C Programming Language"

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LarryMade2Jul 2015

I'd add in that list the New Hacker's Dictionary edited by Eric S Raymond http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Hackers-Dictionary-Edition/dp/... - (aka the Jargon File http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/ ) It includes many computing terms invented over the years with their meanings and origins. You can learn a a bit about computer history by readin it.

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shmerlJun 2014

In such case it's worth reading the whole jargon: http://www.catb.org/jargon/ (in print version - The New Hacker's Dictionary).

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elemenoMar 2013

I've got a feeling that I first heard this story in the paperback version of the Jargon File - The New Hacker's Dictionary (3rd Ed). That book alone is a pretty great compendium of stories from the 70s and 80s.

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