Re: most artists are hackers, whereas hackers are godlike

> > noble reasons. I am sorry, but I refuse to see hacking as a pursuit we
> > should be putting on the same pedestal (or higher, in one person's view)
> > as artistic creation. It just ain't so!
>
> You can't ``try'' hacking any more than you can ``try'' theoretical
> physics. … As for artistic creation, ugh, when I survey the
> non-economic arts it is difficult to see anything but ineffectual
> wankers desperate for poorly concealed self-aggrandizement, pissing
> from the tops of their self-errected pedestals, endlessly turning,
> trying to keep the latest political wind at their backs.
>
> On a good day with a brolly I'm more generous and see them as a
> mostly harmless, if parasitic, marketing arm for the people who
> do the real work.
>
> –
> Julian Assange

OK, fair enough, good swipe at artists. And nicely done, to get hacking on a
par with theoretical physics.
But remind me, why do hackers hack then?

Surely hackers hack in the world, but from a self justified theoretical
position. Generally they are only acknowledged within the hacker community
itself. If _success_ and reward comes, it tends to come by abandoning to
some degree the initial theoretical position and jumping in bed with a non
hacker community. At which point, this success will be derided by those who
remain _pure_. The craft itself will move endlessly on. There will be heroes
and villains, and new generations of hackers coming along to scale new
heights. And all the time, the outside world just thinks they are a bunch of
self justifying wankers.
Bit like the art world, really.

Cheers,
Ivan