Before reading this book, I didn't fully appreciate just how disruptive early tech leaders were. Lee Felsenstein is an example of a true hacker who embodied his ideals in all aspects of his life. His passionate dislike for bureaucracy shocked me; unlike a typical CS person who might complain about Agile or their work's abundance of red tape, Lee was willing to actually rage against the machine. He seemed to be a leading figure in what we'd call "hacktivism" nowadays. He was willing to disregard his government, his club, and any other organization who denied freedom. I agree with the author that such bravado does require a certain amount of delusion. I'm not sure if it's possible to form a group like Community Memory (an unstructured group of geniuses seeking to liberate the masses) without an exaggerated sense of grandeur. However, this sense of righteousness was exactly what the world needed. His passion was respectable, but it was his actions that made him remarkable. There are certainly ways in which I fail to live this ethic of action in my own life. I love to gripe about various topics in privacy or AI whenever they come up, but my dossier of action is minimal. This doesn't concern me too much at the moment (making the most out of school is a worthy-enough goal); however, this interpretation of what it means to be a true hacker will stick with as I move into my professional life.
Altair's story reminded me of how lucky we are to be able to acquire hardware. Lee's review cracked me up:
“The Altair 8800 has two things (at least) going for it: it's here and it works. These facts alone will guarantee that it is THE amateur computer for at least the next year...”
Although mostly a dumb box with 256 bytes of memory, input in the form of switches (which sound worse than punch cards in my opinion), and blinking LEDs instead of a screen, people needed to get their hands on one. It reminds me of my boss from a couple years ago--on my first day, he handed me a recommissioned laptop (circa ~2005) and told me to get cracking. He said not to worry if I bricked it, as he had 200 (!) more from a bulk sale. Why waste company money on the latest tech when the old stuff works just fine? It wasn't the fastest tinkering I've ever done, but it was more than sufficient for the research I was doing. I believe the value of a single computer is often taken for granted. In 1975, Lee correctly identified the value of shitty, widespread hardware.
This also reminds me of the fact that microprocessors are criminally underrated. You can get an ESP32 with WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities for like $10 nowadays. That's a deal that would put the Homebrew Club in a frenzy.
The Homebrew Club represents the best parts of the tech community in my eyes. Passion projects are infinitely more fun when built with like-minded individuals. The best reason to spread the hacker ethic is it's power to create community. The flame of shared interest that the author describes in these early hacker clubs is alive and well, and I've been fortunate enough to experience it myself. I was never passionate about satellites until I joined IrishSat, but the club has since become one of my favorite thing about Notre Dame. By opening up our technology (and more importantly, knowledge) to new members, the club has consistently grown and hit new achievements. Synergy is the beating heart of the hacker ethic.