OnHacking

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Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.KarlMarx

BillSeitz:ForHackers has an idea for a series of books which could be interesting. I wonder if OReilly are already getting into this game, eg. ExtremeDemocracy = "Politics for Hackers". (And I guess this shows http://make.oreilly.com/ shows they are going for this market.)

But the real question here is whether these should be books teaching TheHackerEthic to non-hackers, albeit applied to law or economics or yoga etc. Or whether these are books teaching to hackers, the ideas (and maybe the ethic) that are already developed in other fields?

For example, "Semiotics for Hackers" clearly should explain to hackers both what the model of semiotics tries to address, and also the semiotics way of thinking. Ideally there needs to be dialogue (and critical argument) between the fields.

Someone who I think is doing very interesting stuff here is PhilAgre. Look at his papers (like the one linked from ComputerScience) which talk about how computer science needs to import ideas and value systems from the humanities and cultural theory.

OTOH how do you pitch a book that tries to explain both sides to each other? Who do you pitch it to?

BillSeitz says: I was thinking in terms of applying the hacker mindset to other fields. But I'm using a wide/fuzzy/nontechie model of that mindset, one that encapsulates active engagement, relevance/applicability, iterative experimentation, lateral thinking, etc. Which I think are attributes we should encourage in all non-insect humans. AnyoneCanBeCreative, AnyoneCanBeAHacker (WouldntYouLikeToBeAHackerToo?), etc. So, while already-self-outed hackers are one audience, another spin says these books should be of interest to anyone who wants to think, and therefore will help spread the hacker goggles. But you're right, there's a marketing challenge there. But then who would have thought that millions of people would, by their purchasing habits, declare themselves as Dummies?

One way I've described hackers : smart, autodidactic, technically minded people. Compare SmartDisorganizedIndividuals. Who probably share many qualities but might also differ in some ways.

Compare :

Bookmarked 2021-05-26T12:38:39.963088: https://researchvalues2018.wordpress.com/2017/12/18/unlocking-proprietorial-systems/