Steven Levy focuses on the idea that obstacles to learning are one of the greatest frustrations of a hacker's life. Part 1 focuses on how Peter Samson and other members of the TMRC pursued knowledge with reckless abandon. It's inspiring (and hilarious) to read about their struggles as some of the first programmers and compare them to our own. Some challenges are apparently timeless:
The metaphor from the book that speaks the most to me is the TX-0 as a music device. The author points out that the first programmers took to the machine like a musician takes to their chosen instrument. I love the idea of coding as composing. Very few musicians play because it makes good money; instead, music comes the soul. With the power of digital god at our fingertips, the act of creation is a powerful experience. Every piano provides the same basic function, but the beauty of passionate pianist cannot be denied by any onlooked. Similarly, I believe that the creations of true hackers stand out (even if the onlooker must have a bit more of a technical eye). We can only speculate as to what Samson felt when the computer sang to him for the first time, but I hypothesis it is what a modern computer science feels when they discover a clever solution to a weeks-long problem. The edges of the digital sphere are where we thrive, as that's where the challenge (and music) is richest. Even though the TX-0 was such a constrained system, the students of MIT in the 50s and 60s were drawn to its power to create art.
I also enjoyed Levy's description of the "machine brain" that programmers enter. While not entirely healthy, I believe that an obsession with problems is an indicator of a passionate hacker. We may not have to memorize the state of an entire computer like the programmers of old did, but many moving parts of modern applications pose their own challenges to conceptualize. This is certainly something I've struggled with; my mind will pore over a good problem while walking to class, eating dinner, and sleeping. It's immensely satisfying to wake up and know that you've cracked it, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't concern me. Especially while entering professional life, it poses a challenge to a good work-life balance. This is certainly an area where a hacker's mindset can be a double edged sword. There is nothing better than tackling a good problem, but the problem can just as easily tackle you if caution is not employed.
The idea of a logic-coded brain brings me to my next point about the social aspect of hacking. In my experiences, the MIT communities described in Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution are accurate to this day. Passionate people are drawn to each other, but such a community can also lack social aptitude. Levy seems to celebrate the socially outcast and asinine aspects of hacker communities, but I seek to refute them. I believe that we're better when we act more like humans and less like computers.