The goons at the Tele or the NSW Government, which is worse. Give me incompetence over their endless slimey and self interested confected outrage any day of the week. But thats just me....
Bob Ellis writes:
Billy Snedden, John Gorton, Harold Holt and Robert Menzies were adulterers, yet none of them resigned because of it, nor did any newspaper suggest an early election because of it. Sir James Killen committed adultery with a fellow minister, Bob Hawke with his biographer Blanche d 'Alpuget, Ben Chifley with his secretary, John Curtin with his landlady if we are to believe David Day. Sir Henry Parkes was a notorious fondler and swiver. Don Dunstan’s multiple homos-xual affairs were known at the time.
It is hard to think of a leader, state or federal, who has not strayed from the marital bed. Joh Bjelke Petersen kept his girlfriend Beryl. Jack Lang had children by another woman, known to the neighbourhood.
Yet no one seems to mind much. It seems to be regarded by many Australians as part of the package of energetic leadership. And by many Americans too, whose Presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush senior, Ronald Reagan, Lyndon Johnson, John Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower, FD Roosevelt, Warren Harding, Woodrow Wilson, Grover Cleveland, Abraham Lincoln (who caught syphilis and gave it to his wife) and Thomas Jefferson (who sired several bastard sons on his black slave) were known to be adulterers at the time, as was the wise hero and founding father Benjamin Franklin.
And many English too, who fondly forgave the "Welsh Ram" David Lloyd George, the bisexual Hugh Gaitskell, the cuckolded bisexual Harold Macmillan (whose wife bore, it is said, Lord Boothby’s child), the quietly promiscuous Harold Wilson, the blatantly homos-xual Ted Heath, the genial John Major who had an affair with fellow minister Edwina Curry, the haughty Margaret Thatcher who displaced a previous Margaret Thatcher in her eventual husband’s bed. Queen Victoria’s favourite Prime Minister Lord Melbourne shared his wife with Lord Byron, Benjamin Disraeli his mistress with several flat-mates, and Henry VIII, of course, who gave syphilis to his six wives and beheaded two of them.
And the French don’t mind it either, but that goes without saying.
Yet The Daily Telegraph finds John Della Bosca’s affair with a young scriptwriter shocking, and a reason for the Governor to overturn the constitution and sack Nathan Rees as her predecessor did Jack Lang. Della took a holiday from his famously stroppy wife and then went back to her. Shocking.
The government must fall.
Can it be The Daily Telegraph has a double standard? Or a boss who is frantic to bring down Nathan Rees, as he did Gough Whitlam with a constitutional coup d’etat? Or is it just a coincidence that splenetic puritans cluster in that newspaper and nowhere else?
What is really distressing is how the Australian public has copped all this. They don’t themselves feel affronted by what Della did. Yet they don’t mind seeing him ruined by a targeted campaign from whoever it is who wants Labor out in New South Wales bloody soon and don’t care how they achieve this unconstitutional goal.
How pathetic we have all become, putty it would seem.
What a sorrow and a pity. What a shame.
[ends]
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
3 September 2009
12 June 2009
Aussie house prices only the last to roll over, it seems
Renting looks good....
This seems reasonable for BrisVegas prices, imo..
But Dont worry Kev's on the job...
10 June 2009
We are running out of defences for our lies....
I…I think it's finally over. Our reactionary emotional response seems to have stopped it dead in its tracks. If I'm right, all we have to do now is smugly reiterate our half-formed thesis and—oh, no! For the love of God, no! It's thoughtfully mulling things over!
Run! Run! It's making reasonable, fact-based arguments!
Quickly! Hide behind self-righteousness! The ad hominem rejoinders—ready the ad hominem rejoinders! Watch out! Dodge the issue at hand! Question its character and keep moving haphazardly from one flawed point to the next!
All together now! Put every bit of secondhand conjecture into it you've got!
Goddamn it, nothing's working! It's trapped us in our own unsubstantiated claims! We need to switch fundamentally unsound tactics. Hurry, throw up the straw man! Look, I think it's going for it. C'mon…c'mon…yes, it's going for it! Now hit it with the thing that one guy told us once while it's distracted by our ludicrous rationalizations!
Gah! It's calmly and evenhandedly deflecting everything we're throwing at it. Our deductive fallacies are only making it stronger! Wait…what on earth is it doing now? Oh, no, it has sources! My God, it's defending itself with ironclad sources! Someone stop the citing! Please, please stop the citing!
The language is impenetrable! For all that is good and holy, backpedal with all your might!
Where are the children? Someone overprotect the children! They cannot be exposed to this kind of illuminative reasoning. Their young, open minds are much too vulnerable to independent thought. We have to shield them behind our unshakeable intolerance for critical thinking.
What?!? Noooooooooo! Richard! For the love of God, it's convinced Richard!
No time for tears now. Richard's mind has been changed forever. But we mustn't let it weaken our resolve. Mark my words, our ignorance will hold, no matter the cost. Now, more than ever, we have to keep floundering ahead with blind faith in our increasingly fallacious worldview.
For Richard's sake.
What's that? Now it's making an appeal to reason? Never! Do you hear me, you eloquent, well-read behemoth? Never! We'll die before we recognize what we secretly know to be true! The cognitive dissonance only makes our denial stronger!
We have but one hope left: passive-aggressive slights disguised as impersonal discourse.† Okay, everyone, careful now…careful…if this is going to work, we have to arrogantly assume that it won't be smart enough to catch on to our attempt to salvage some feeling of superiority and—oh, God, it's calling us out! Quick, avoid eye contact and stammer an apology! Tell it we were just joking! Tell it we were joking!
Arrgh! Our pride! Oh, Lord, our pride! It burns!
All is lost. We don't stand a chance against its relentless onslaught of exhaustive research and immaculate rhetoric. We may as well lie down and—Christ, how it pains me to say it—admit that it's right. My friends, I would like to take these last few moments of stubborn close-mindedness to say that it's been an honor to dig myself into this hole with you.
Unless…wait, of course! Why didn't we think of it before? Volume! Sheer volume! It's so simple. Quickly now, we don't have much time! Don't let it get a word in edgewise! Derisively cut it off mid-sentence! Now, launch the sophomoric personal attacks! Louder, yes, that's it, louder! Be repetitive, juvenile, and obstinate! It's working! It's working!
We've done it! It's walking away and shaking its head in disgust! Huzzah! Finally—defeated with a single three-minute volley of irrelevant, off-topic shouting!
Ironic, really, isn't it?
The Onion
Run! Run! It's making reasonable, fact-based arguments!
Quickly! Hide behind self-righteousness! The ad hominem rejoinders—ready the ad hominem rejoinders! Watch out! Dodge the issue at hand! Question its character and keep moving haphazardly from one flawed point to the next!
All together now! Put every bit of secondhand conjecture into it you've got!
Goddamn it, nothing's working! It's trapped us in our own unsubstantiated claims! We need to switch fundamentally unsound tactics. Hurry, throw up the straw man! Look, I think it's going for it. C'mon…c'mon…yes, it's going for it! Now hit it with the thing that one guy told us once while it's distracted by our ludicrous rationalizations!
Gah! It's calmly and evenhandedly deflecting everything we're throwing at it. Our deductive fallacies are only making it stronger! Wait…what on earth is it doing now? Oh, no, it has sources! My God, it's defending itself with ironclad sources! Someone stop the citing! Please, please stop the citing!
The language is impenetrable! For all that is good and holy, backpedal with all your might!
Where are the children? Someone overprotect the children! They cannot be exposed to this kind of illuminative reasoning. Their young, open minds are much too vulnerable to independent thought. We have to shield them behind our unshakeable intolerance for critical thinking.
What?!? Noooooooooo! Richard! For the love of God, it's convinced Richard!
No time for tears now. Richard's mind has been changed forever. But we mustn't let it weaken our resolve. Mark my words, our ignorance will hold, no matter the cost. Now, more than ever, we have to keep floundering ahead with blind faith in our increasingly fallacious worldview.
For Richard's sake.
What's that? Now it's making an appeal to reason? Never! Do you hear me, you eloquent, well-read behemoth? Never! We'll die before we recognize what we secretly know to be true! The cognitive dissonance only makes our denial stronger!
We have but one hope left: passive-aggressive slights disguised as impersonal discourse.† Okay, everyone, careful now…careful…if this is going to work, we have to arrogantly assume that it won't be smart enough to catch on to our attempt to salvage some feeling of superiority and—oh, God, it's calling us out! Quick, avoid eye contact and stammer an apology! Tell it we were just joking! Tell it we were joking!
Arrgh! Our pride! Oh, Lord, our pride! It burns!
All is lost. We don't stand a chance against its relentless onslaught of exhaustive research and immaculate rhetoric. We may as well lie down and—Christ, how it pains me to say it—admit that it's right. My friends, I would like to take these last few moments of stubborn close-mindedness to say that it's been an honor to dig myself into this hole with you.
Unless…wait, of course! Why didn't we think of it before? Volume! Sheer volume! It's so simple. Quickly now, we don't have much time! Don't let it get a word in edgewise! Derisively cut it off mid-sentence! Now, launch the sophomoric personal attacks! Louder, yes, that's it, louder! Be repetitive, juvenile, and obstinate! It's working! It's working!
We've done it! It's walking away and shaking its head in disgust! Huzzah! Finally—defeated with a single three-minute volley of irrelevant, off-topic shouting!
Ironic, really, isn't it?
The Onion
27 April 2009
Icelandic bankers adorn urinals ~ Photo
Reykjavik, Iceland: The faces of former Icelandic bankers adorn urinals in a bar.
Democracies will need to repudiate the booms winners...this is one way to do it that doesn't involve violence.
22 April 2009
19 April 2009
17 April 2009
23 March 2009
9 March 2009
Daily show rips CNBC
CNBC's Rick Santelli is angry that those loser homeowners are going to get bailed out.
8 March 2009
27 February 2009
18 February 2009
Primer from Russ Winter ~ The players
Basic concepts of plutocratic or crony capitalist systems:
Corruption - public corruption entails the use of state power by a government official to benefit himself or herself at the expense of the public. Examples of public corruption include (1) siphoning off public funds (tax revenue or borrowed money) into a private bank account or into other private uses, (2) accepting a bribe or a “kick back” from a rent-seeker in return for the unwarranted special privileges, (3) demanding bribes or “kick backs” from individuals for the performance of normal job functions such as granting a building permits or performing inspections. Private corruption occurs when an individual takes advantage of an information advantage in an illegal or immoral manner. Examples of private corruption include (1) insider trading where corporate insiders buy or sell stock based on information not available to the investing public, (2) companies withhold information regarding poor financial performance from their investors, (3) companies sell products or services based on fraudulent information
Transparency - a condition where the activities and the financial condition of public and private organizations are open to public scrutiny. Examples of transparency include: (1) a bank (or business firm) that regularly makes its financial condition known its investors, its creditors and its depositors (2) a government agency that makes its rules and procedures clear and known to all those who use its services (3) government agencies that make available regular reports on their revenues and expenditures.
Moral hazard - the propensity to engage in risky behavior when insurance or other guarantees protect the actor from the natural consequences of that risky behavior. Examples of moral hazard include (1) an individual fails to lock his car routinely after he buys insurance that will cover the loss of the car if stolen, (2) a bank loan officer loans out depositors’ money to a high-risk project at a high interest rate knowing the bank’s depositors are covered by a government-sponsored deposit insurance program, and (3) foreign investors, assuming the host government will “bail out” failing banks, loan money to a bank the financial condition of which is suspect due to a lack of transparency.
B&B: Berserkers and Bubblelonians: discussed in side bar here
Bully or Bullies, Bully Wannabees : This a metaphoric reference to Von Mises theory on inflationary boom and Bubble economic winners and losers, which he defined as earlier receivers, late receivers, and non-receivers. Typical of all plutocracies, this has led to large wealth and income gaps and disparities or Gini coefficient.
Flat Earther: One, typically a Keynesian, who believes the solution to any economic weakness is printing money or providing easy credit. The chief flat earther in the world today is the Bank of Japan, who allows Riskloves and Pig Men to feed at the free Ponzi finance money trough, and with barely an interruption. The resulting carry trade is the genesis for creating a vast array of overpriced and economically unjustified securities and assets, maladjusted economic activity, and inflation.
a Gente: Portuguese for people, folks, the people. I use it over the English word as it imparts a global scene, rather than monocentric American.
Godfather Protection Racket: a system which encourages, fools, bribes, or intimidates foreigners into “investing” in Old Maid Cards on a massive scale.
Joe Soccer Mom: An individual (little gender distinction, in fact a new rather blended gender), almost always American, whose life revolves around automobiles (usually several, including at least one SUVie, example of “rent seeking” , see above), long commutes, and debt based consumption using housing as a financial and Risklove speculative vehicle and ATM. As described here ad nauseam JSMs are usually “in over their heads”, and well on their way to serfdom. James Kunstler has fully developed this concept in his Clusterfuck Nation writings.
JULS: Joe Ultra Light Sixpack, buyer of housing near or at the peak in Bubble or Map Of Misery locales, often with little or no money down, no or low documentation. “Victimizied” and lured by the financial sphere into a myriad of scam and toxic financial mortgages including exploding ARMS, interest only, pay options, negative ams, subprime cannonballs and other notice arrives in the mail “surprises”.
Land of Oz, the Matrix, or Alice in Wonderland: market participants who actually believe or pretend to believe the Ministry of Truth, and trade accordingly..
Mad Max: Road Warrior economics where there is so much economic distortion that the basic means and material of production outstrips the output price.
Map of Misery: Visable on this map, the red or reddish area where JULS was particularly aggressive in the market.
The Milky Way: Subterfuge, lies, hiding things, failure to account for losses, but from the private or corporate sector, as opposed to official (Ministry of Truth). Example would the subprime transactions conducted in March, 2007.
Ministry of Truth: From George Orwell, refers to government, special interests or plutocrat lobbyists, or in the common parlance “spinmeisters”. Also controlled or complacent/lazy media is used to manipulate public opinion. Take special note of the term “rectification”.
Q que aconteceu?: Portuguese for “what is happening?”, or literally “What do you account for?”.
Old Maid Cards: US debt in general, but asset backed securities in particular.
One Trick Pony: Dependence of the US Treasury and states on Bubble and speculative excess generated tax revenues.
Peking Duck: The ability of China to dictate interest rate and monetary policy for the US.
Pig Men: The financial sphere, typically brokers, banks, Fed dealers.
Pinocchio Theory: markets reaction to Ministry of Truth lies.
“If you fake the funk, your nose will grow.” — Bootsy Collins, The Pinocchio Theory
Ponzi finance or units discussion
Riskloves: Often hedge funds, speculative pools, or proprietary trading desks of financial institutions. Leverage or gearing is almost always used. Can also refer to smaller players, such as real estate flippers. Really anyone who gambles largely based on moral hazard and Bubble gains, as opposed to sound economic returns. Example: buying a house for $500,000 using a toxic loan (phoney initial interest rate) and then renting it out at $1250 a month (for capitalization rates half of Treasury bill returns).
Sheeple: the “victims” of the housing Bubble collapse who corporate welfarists claim to want to “save”, along with associated Ponzi finance of course.
Volkssturm: The fight the Russians to the bitter end to defend Berlin mentality among key players and supporters of the Ponzi regime. These Boyz have everything to lose should the market start another big wave down. I also suggest that their vulnerability lies with one or more abandoning ship or going under. This very aspect was discussed by Charles Kindleberger in his classic Manias, Panics and Crashes.
Wildcat Finance
Wiley Coyote: The incentive system for hedge funds and LBO Riskloves to ignore risk and the Prudent Man rule and gamble with other people’s money. The cause of this is their ability to be paid up front for “doin’ the deal”, or their cut of the gains, but not the losses. They have no skin in the game, and have succeeded in conning endowment and pension funds as fall guys.
Winston Wolfe: The problem solver in Pulp Fiction brought in to clean up the brain tissue and blood from a botched hit. In the context of a Winterism means somebody brought in to tighten up credit conditions and get rid of or hide dicey securities.
Wizards: central banks
Wizard of Oz: US Federal Reserve Bank, and US Treasury
Link
Corruption - public corruption entails the use of state power by a government official to benefit himself or herself at the expense of the public. Examples of public corruption include (1) siphoning off public funds (tax revenue or borrowed money) into a private bank account or into other private uses, (2) accepting a bribe or a “kick back” from a rent-seeker in return for the unwarranted special privileges, (3) demanding bribes or “kick backs” from individuals for the performance of normal job functions such as granting a building permits or performing inspections. Private corruption occurs when an individual takes advantage of an information advantage in an illegal or immoral manner. Examples of private corruption include (1) insider trading where corporate insiders buy or sell stock based on information not available to the investing public, (2) companies withhold information regarding poor financial performance from their investors, (3) companies sell products or services based on fraudulent information
Transparency - a condition where the activities and the financial condition of public and private organizations are open to public scrutiny. Examples of transparency include: (1) a bank (or business firm) that regularly makes its financial condition known its investors, its creditors and its depositors (2) a government agency that makes its rules and procedures clear and known to all those who use its services (3) government agencies that make available regular reports on their revenues and expenditures.
Moral hazard - the propensity to engage in risky behavior when insurance or other guarantees protect the actor from the natural consequences of that risky behavior. Examples of moral hazard include (1) an individual fails to lock his car routinely after he buys insurance that will cover the loss of the car if stolen, (2) a bank loan officer loans out depositors’ money to a high-risk project at a high interest rate knowing the bank’s depositors are covered by a government-sponsored deposit insurance program, and (3) foreign investors, assuming the host government will “bail out” failing banks, loan money to a bank the financial condition of which is suspect due to a lack of transparency.
B&B: Berserkers and Bubblelonians: discussed in side bar here
Bully or Bullies, Bully Wannabees : This a metaphoric reference to Von Mises theory on inflationary boom and Bubble economic winners and losers, which he defined as earlier receivers, late receivers, and non-receivers. Typical of all plutocracies, this has led to large wealth and income gaps and disparities or Gini coefficient.
Flat Earther: One, typically a Keynesian, who believes the solution to any economic weakness is printing money or providing easy credit. The chief flat earther in the world today is the Bank of Japan, who allows Riskloves and Pig Men to feed at the free Ponzi finance money trough, and with barely an interruption. The resulting carry trade is the genesis for creating a vast array of overpriced and economically unjustified securities and assets, maladjusted economic activity, and inflation.
a Gente: Portuguese for people, folks, the people. I use it over the English word as it imparts a global scene, rather than monocentric American.
Godfather Protection Racket: a system which encourages, fools, bribes, or intimidates foreigners into “investing” in Old Maid Cards on a massive scale.
Joe Soccer Mom: An individual (little gender distinction, in fact a new rather blended gender), almost always American, whose life revolves around automobiles (usually several, including at least one SUVie, example of “rent seeking” , see above), long commutes, and debt based consumption using housing as a financial and Risklove speculative vehicle and ATM. As described here ad nauseam JSMs are usually “in over their heads”, and well on their way to serfdom. James Kunstler has fully developed this concept in his Clusterfuck Nation writings.
JULS: Joe Ultra Light Sixpack, buyer of housing near or at the peak in Bubble or Map Of Misery locales, often with little or no money down, no or low documentation. “Victimizied” and lured by the financial sphere into a myriad of scam and toxic financial mortgages including exploding ARMS, interest only, pay options, negative ams, subprime cannonballs and other notice arrives in the mail “surprises”.
Land of Oz, the Matrix, or Alice in Wonderland: market participants who actually believe or pretend to believe the Ministry of Truth, and trade accordingly..
Mad Max: Road Warrior economics where there is so much economic distortion that the basic means and material of production outstrips the output price.
Map of Misery: Visable on this map, the red or reddish area where JULS was particularly aggressive in the market.
The Milky Way: Subterfuge, lies, hiding things, failure to account for losses, but from the private or corporate sector, as opposed to official (Ministry of Truth). Example would the subprime transactions conducted in March, 2007.
Ministry of Truth: From George Orwell, refers to government, special interests or plutocrat lobbyists, or in the common parlance “spinmeisters”. Also controlled or complacent/lazy media is used to manipulate public opinion. Take special note of the term “rectification”.
Q que aconteceu?: Portuguese for “what is happening?”, or literally “What do you account for?”.
Old Maid Cards: US debt in general, but asset backed securities in particular.
One Trick Pony: Dependence of the US Treasury and states on Bubble and speculative excess generated tax revenues.
Peking Duck: The ability of China to dictate interest rate and monetary policy for the US.
Pig Men: The financial sphere, typically brokers, banks, Fed dealers.
Pinocchio Theory: markets reaction to Ministry of Truth lies.
“If you fake the funk, your nose will grow.” — Bootsy Collins, The Pinocchio Theory
Ponzi finance or units discussion
Riskloves: Often hedge funds, speculative pools, or proprietary trading desks of financial institutions. Leverage or gearing is almost always used. Can also refer to smaller players, such as real estate flippers. Really anyone who gambles largely based on moral hazard and Bubble gains, as opposed to sound economic returns. Example: buying a house for $500,000 using a toxic loan (phoney initial interest rate) and then renting it out at $1250 a month (for capitalization rates half of Treasury bill returns).
Sheeple: the “victims” of the housing Bubble collapse who corporate welfarists claim to want to “save”, along with associated Ponzi finance of course.
Volkssturm: The fight the Russians to the bitter end to defend Berlin mentality among key players and supporters of the Ponzi regime. These Boyz have everything to lose should the market start another big wave down. I also suggest that their vulnerability lies with one or more abandoning ship or going under. This very aspect was discussed by Charles Kindleberger in his classic Manias, Panics and Crashes.
Wildcat Finance
Wiley Coyote: The incentive system for hedge funds and LBO Riskloves to ignore risk and the Prudent Man rule and gamble with other people’s money. The cause of this is their ability to be paid up front for “doin’ the deal”, or their cut of the gains, but not the losses. They have no skin in the game, and have succeeded in conning endowment and pension funds as fall guys.
Winston Wolfe: The problem solver in Pulp Fiction brought in to clean up the brain tissue and blood from a botched hit. In the context of a Winterism means somebody brought in to tighten up credit conditions and get rid of or hide dicey securities.
Wizards: central banks
Wizard of Oz: US Federal Reserve Bank, and US Treasury
Link
14 February 2009
World Press Photo of Year
A U.S. photographer won the top prize in the World Press Photo competition Friday with an image of a police officer searching a debris-strewn home in Cleveland, Ohio to ensure evicted residents had left after a mortgage foreclosure.
Anthony Suau's winning photo for Time magazine shows the officer, handgun drawn, peering into an open doorway inside the house, which is filled with overturned furniture and boxes.
The image, shot on March 26, illustrates the economic crisis that began with the U.S. housing market and spread around the globe.
"The strength of the picture is in its opposites. It's a double entendre," said jury chairwoman MaryAnne Golon. "Now war in its classic sense is coming into people's houses because they can't pay their mortgages."
She said that the photo was both excellent and addressed what the jury saw as the most important global issue of 2008.
12 February 2009
29 October 2008
Bailout won't work: Shakespeare
Bailout won't work: Shakespeare aussiebear NEW 10/28/2008 6:43:12 PM
I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse: borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease is incurable.
2 Henry IV (1.2.74)
RE: Bailout won''t work: Shakespeare holdgold NEW 10/28/2008 6:53:23 PM
Polonius to his son Laertes -
Polonius:
Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
Hamlet Act 1, scene 3, 75–77
RE: Thanx for elevating the discourse. nm cyberbear NEW 10/28/2008 7:50:44 PM
I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse: borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease is incurable.
2 Henry IV (1.2.74)
RE: Bailout won''t work: Shakespeare holdgold NEW 10/28/2008 6:53:23 PM
Polonius to his son Laertes -
Polonius:
Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
Hamlet Act 1, scene 3, 75–77
RE: Thanx for elevating the discourse. nm cyberbear NEW 10/28/2008 7:50:44 PM
19 October 2008
How to become an epicurian hacker philosopher zen master.
Hat tip to Divided By Zer0. thx ace.
1. The world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved.
Being a hacker is lots of fun, but it's a kind of fun that takes lots of effort. The effort takes motivation. Successful athletes get their motivation from a kind of physical delight in making their bodies perform, in pushing themselves past their own physical limits. Similarly, to be a hacker you have to get a basic thrill from solving problems, sharpening your skills, and exercising your intelligence.
If you aren't the kind of person that feels this way naturally, you'll need to become one in order to make it as a hacker. Otherwise you'll find your hacking energy is sapped by distractions like sex, money, and social approval.
(You also have to develop a kind of faith in your own learning capacity — a belief that even though you may not know all of what you need to solve a problem, if you tackle just a piece of it and learn from that, you'll learn enough to solve the next piece — and so on, until you're done.)
2. No problem should ever have to be solved twice.
Creative brains are a valuable, limited resource. They shouldn't be wasted on re-inventing the wheel when there are so many fascinating new problems waiting out there.
To behave like a hacker, you have to believe that the thinking time of other hackers is precious — so much so that it's almost a moral duty for you to share information, solve problems and then give the solutions away just so other hackers can solve new problems instead of having to perpetually re-address old ones.
Note, however, that "No problem should ever have to be solved twice." does not imply that you have to consider all existing solutions sacred, or that there is only one right solution to any given problem. Often, we learn a lot about the problem that we didn't know before by studying the first cut at a solution. It's OK, and often necessary, to decide that we can do better. What's not OK is artificial technical, legal, or institutional barriers (like closed-source code) that prevent a good solution from being re-used and force people to re-invent wheels.
(You don't have to believe that you're obligated to give all your creative product away, though the hackers that do are the ones that get most respect from other hackers. It's consistent with hacker values to sell enough of it to keep you in food and rent and computers. It's fine to use your hacking skills to support a family or even get rich, as long as you don't forget your loyalty to your art and your fellow hackers while doing it.)
3. Boredom and drudgery are evil.
Hackers (and creative people in general) should never be bored or have to drudge at stupid repetitive work, because when this happens it means they aren't doing what only they can do — solve new problems. This wastefulness hurts everybody. Therefore boredom and drudgery are not just unpleasant but actually evil.
To behave like a hacker, you have to believe this enough to want to automate away the boring bits as much as possible, not just for yourself but for everybody else (especially other hackers).
(There is one apparent exception to this. Hackers will sometimes do things that may seem repetitive or boring to an observer as a mind-clearing exercise, or in order to acquire a skill or have some particular kind of experience you can't have otherwise. But this is by choice — nobody who can think should ever be forced into a situation that bores them.)
4. Freedom is good.
Hackers are naturally anti-authoritarian. Anyone who can give you orders can stop you from solving whatever problem you're being fascinated by — and, given the way authoritarian minds work, will generally find some appallingly stupid reason to do so. So the authoritarian attitude has to be fought wherever you find it, lest it smother you and other hackers.
(This isn't the same as fighting all authority. Children need to be guided and criminals restrained. A hacker may agree to accept some kinds of authority in order to get something he wants more than the time he spends following orders. But that's a limited, conscious bargain; the kind of personal surrender authoritarians want is not on offer.)
Authoritarians thrive on censorship and secrecy. And they distrust voluntary cooperation and information-sharing — they only like ‘cooperation’ that they control. So to behave like a hacker, you have to develop an instinctive hostility to censorship, secrecy, and the use of force or deception to compel responsible adults. And you have to be willing to act on that belief.
5. Attitude is no substitute for competence.
To be a hacker, you have to develop some of these attitudes. But copping an attitude alone won't make you a hacker, any more than it will make you a champion athlete or a rock star. Becoming a hacker will take intelligence, practice, dedication, and hard work.
Therefore, you have to learn to distrust attitude and respect competence of every kind. Hackers won't let posers waste their time, but they worship competence — especially competence at hacking, but competence at anything is valued. Competence at demanding skills that few can master is especially good, and competence at demanding skills that involve mental acuteness, craft, and concentration is best.
If you revere competence, you'll enjoy developing it in yourself — the hard work and dedication will become a kind of intense play rather than drudgery. That attitude is vital to becoming a hacker.
more
1. The world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved.
Being a hacker is lots of fun, but it's a kind of fun that takes lots of effort. The effort takes motivation. Successful athletes get their motivation from a kind of physical delight in making their bodies perform, in pushing themselves past their own physical limits. Similarly, to be a hacker you have to get a basic thrill from solving problems, sharpening your skills, and exercising your intelligence.
If you aren't the kind of person that feels this way naturally, you'll need to become one in order to make it as a hacker. Otherwise you'll find your hacking energy is sapped by distractions like sex, money, and social approval.
(You also have to develop a kind of faith in your own learning capacity — a belief that even though you may not know all of what you need to solve a problem, if you tackle just a piece of it and learn from that, you'll learn enough to solve the next piece — and so on, until you're done.)
2. No problem should ever have to be solved twice.
Creative brains are a valuable, limited resource. They shouldn't be wasted on re-inventing the wheel when there are so many fascinating new problems waiting out there.
To behave like a hacker, you have to believe that the thinking time of other hackers is precious — so much so that it's almost a moral duty for you to share information, solve problems and then give the solutions away just so other hackers can solve new problems instead of having to perpetually re-address old ones.
Note, however, that "No problem should ever have to be solved twice." does not imply that you have to consider all existing solutions sacred, or that there is only one right solution to any given problem. Often, we learn a lot about the problem that we didn't know before by studying the first cut at a solution. It's OK, and often necessary, to decide that we can do better. What's not OK is artificial technical, legal, or institutional barriers (like closed-source code) that prevent a good solution from being re-used and force people to re-invent wheels.
(You don't have to believe that you're obligated to give all your creative product away, though the hackers that do are the ones that get most respect from other hackers. It's consistent with hacker values to sell enough of it to keep you in food and rent and computers. It's fine to use your hacking skills to support a family or even get rich, as long as you don't forget your loyalty to your art and your fellow hackers while doing it.)
3. Boredom and drudgery are evil.
Hackers (and creative people in general) should never be bored or have to drudge at stupid repetitive work, because when this happens it means they aren't doing what only they can do — solve new problems. This wastefulness hurts everybody. Therefore boredom and drudgery are not just unpleasant but actually evil.
To behave like a hacker, you have to believe this enough to want to automate away the boring bits as much as possible, not just for yourself but for everybody else (especially other hackers).
(There is one apparent exception to this. Hackers will sometimes do things that may seem repetitive or boring to an observer as a mind-clearing exercise, or in order to acquire a skill or have some particular kind of experience you can't have otherwise. But this is by choice — nobody who can think should ever be forced into a situation that bores them.)
4. Freedom is good.
Hackers are naturally anti-authoritarian. Anyone who can give you orders can stop you from solving whatever problem you're being fascinated by — and, given the way authoritarian minds work, will generally find some appallingly stupid reason to do so. So the authoritarian attitude has to be fought wherever you find it, lest it smother you and other hackers.
(This isn't the same as fighting all authority. Children need to be guided and criminals restrained. A hacker may agree to accept some kinds of authority in order to get something he wants more than the time he spends following orders. But that's a limited, conscious bargain; the kind of personal surrender authoritarians want is not on offer.)
Authoritarians thrive on censorship and secrecy. And they distrust voluntary cooperation and information-sharing — they only like ‘cooperation’ that they control. So to behave like a hacker, you have to develop an instinctive hostility to censorship, secrecy, and the use of force or deception to compel responsible adults. And you have to be willing to act on that belief.
5. Attitude is no substitute for competence.
To be a hacker, you have to develop some of these attitudes. But copping an attitude alone won't make you a hacker, any more than it will make you a champion athlete or a rock star. Becoming a hacker will take intelligence, practice, dedication, and hard work.
Therefore, you have to learn to distrust attitude and respect competence of every kind. Hackers won't let posers waste their time, but they worship competence — especially competence at hacking, but competence at anything is valued. Competence at demanding skills that few can master is especially good, and competence at demanding skills that involve mental acuteness, craft, and concentration is best.
If you revere competence, you'll enjoy developing it in yourself — the hard work and dedication will become a kind of intense play rather than drudgery. That attitude is vital to becoming a hacker.
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16 October 2008
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