Has the word "hacker" really become so devalued around here that it's now considered something you can "become" from a standing start, by following a six-to-nine-month course of study?
That seems like a pretty trivial issue to be concerned about.
It's like saying, 'after this class, I'm going to be a pro at Photoshop!' Everyone knows you won't, but it's used for motivational purposes to get one started on the track to learning.
Anyways, it's a helpful list, iamelgringo. Thanks.
I wanted to at least point someone in the right direction. I figured it was a better course of action than pointing them to PHP.
You're certainly correct. 6-9 months of learning how to build a web app does not a hacker make. A more accurate title would have been: Baby steps to hackerdom by learning the very basics of web programming.
As nice as it would be to hang on to the word "hacker", it's devalued by everyone; from the 14 year old who can point-and-click through sub7 to the 25 year old hipster who wants to give his web startup (and, invariably, his blog) an air of in-crowd chic.
I don't really understand the meaning of this word anymore. Seems like in the past it meant someone with super-top-notch-elite skills who could crack into the world bank or pentagon or something. Nowadays it seems to be closer to "programmer".
I'd say 6-9 years would make you a reasonable junior hacker.
Problem with the word is it's come to mean "quick and dirty solution". eg someone does a search on google, finds some code and copy and pastes it. This is not hacking.
It's a helpful post. Not sure I agree with all the choices, but I know a few people who are looking to take the next step and can't find any guidelines like these.
I think what he meant by hacker was "coder" or "programmer": someone witht the ability to turn a concept/idea into a working web/desktop/mobile application. Therefore in this case "hacking" is a skill that can be learned just as martial arts or cooking.
Edit:Hacking does not start or even end with coding skills. Hacking is so much more than software that the YC app asks you what have you hacked that is not related to software. Chefs are hackers, so are youngsters who pimp they ride. Hacking is what happens to us when we start asking ourselves too many times "what if?". It just happens that here we answer those questions using ruby/lamp/.net/ajax......
