How To Become A Hacker Eric Steven Raymond Thyrsus Enterprises Copyright © 2001 Eric S. Raymond Table of Contents Why This Document? What Is a Hacker? The Hacker Attitude The world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved. No problem should ever have to be solved twice. Boredom and drudgery are evil. Freedom is good. Attitude is no substitute for competence Basic Hacking Skills Learn how to program. Get one of the open-source Unixes and learn to use and run it. Learn how to use the World Wide Web and write HTML. If you don't have functional English, learn it. Status in the Hacker Culture Write open-source software Help test and debug open-source software Publish useful information Help keep the infrastructure working Serve the hacker culture itself The Hacker/Nerd Connection Points For Style Historical Note: Hacking, Open Source, and Free Software Other Resources Frequently Asked Questions A sample image A sample table