The Hacker Ethic

The mountain and the man

There is a mountain between you and your work. You look up, gazing beyond it to where you want to be, and you give up. It’s too far. Too difficult. Too steep. Too much.

You look back. The path is easy, known, and downhill.

Then you look at your immediate surroundings. It’s warm and comfortable. There are many things to do.

Do you stay? Do you go back? Or, do you approach the mountain?

It doesn’t matter. It’s all an illusion. The mountain doesn’t exist: it’s your fear, your sloth, and your bruised ego.

The past wasn’t easy. It’s just a memory, distorted by hubris and wishful thinking. And the present? If you stay there long enough, you’ll be swimming in your own waste.

So take on that mountain and go build something interesting.

It’s out there

Something have you stumped? Can’t figure it out? Ready to walk away? Then you’ve failed. You’ve quit. Not because it’s impossible, but because you’re lazy and you don’t believe you can do it. Are you really that person?

Everything is simple, given understanding. Understanding is easy to find, given time and effort. All problems are soluble. Every single one. So don’t be so fucking lazy.

It’s out there, waiting for you to find it.

Most problems are already solved, or there is enough knowledge to get you there. Google it. Visit the library. Think about it. Sketch it out. Talk it out. Theorize. Test. Be methodical. Be metaphorical. Try a tangent. Assume you’re wrong. Try again. And keep trying until you figure it out.

Pushing through it

You hit a wall. Not just any wall, the wall. You’re deflated and your productivity is shit.

So what happened? What tripped you up? A bad day? A bad play? A tough problem? A tough break?

Well, suck it up. You’ll get over it eventually, so make it now.

Think about what you’re not doing. About what’s not getting done. About how trivial the problem is. About how the thing itself is meaningless. Get moving. Get your mind off of it. Do something. Do anything. Just do.

And when you get doing, keep doing it. When you’re done, look back at the problem that tripped you up and learn from it. Suck it dry. And when you’re done, put it in the past and move on.

The joy of doing

Don’t just do it, enjoy it. Every last line and dot: take pleasure in the parts.

You get lost in chaos of the project. The chase takes it out of you. You are tired, and you sleep through what seems like the mundane parts. Except that they’re not. You’re missing the real joy of doing. You’re missing life.

Each step is interesting. Each breath is new. The dishes. The prep. The sizzle. The flip. Every smell, every sound, and every taste is the joy of life. Enjoy the rush of sensory input, notice every moment.

The first step is doing. After that, cherish the parts and find the interesting bits in each one.

Failure is optional

You tried. You failed. You gave up. It’s done; you’ve given up.

Loser.

Failure is all you. It’s the simple choice to stop trying, forever.

It isn’t in the trying. It isn’t in the sucking at it. It isn’t even in the not winning at something. It’s the giving up and never ever trying again. It’s a choice to fail. It’s your choice to fail. And it’s a choice that’s easy to make because something is hard, because you’re lazy, and because it hurts your fucking ego too much to work through the suck.

It’s a bad choice.

You will fail most of the time. But anything can be mastered, even if most things are difficult. And if you understand that anything can be learned, you can continue trying. It’s that continuing that staves off the death of failure.