====== Hacker Manafesto Turns 40 ======
Yesterday, a 500-word text turned 40 years old. Written from a jail cell. It changed how hackers see themselves. 
== ==
This is The Hacker Manifesto.\\
January 8, 1986. Loyd Blankenship, known as The Mentor, just got arrested by the FBI. His crime? Being inside a computer he shouldn't have been in.\\
He didn't take anything. He just wanted to see how it worked.\\
He wrote it down. And millions recognized themselves.\\
This story IS your story. It's the story of everyone who was ever "too smart" for school, didn't fit in, and then finally found a place.\\
"My crime is that of curiosity."\\
"My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like."\\
"My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for."\\
He described school that bores you. Teachers who don't get it. Then finding a computer. Something that does what YOU want. That doesn't judge you. That rewards understanding.\\
"And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins."\\
"This is it... this is where I belong."\\
40 years later...\\
Kids still get bored in school. Still find computers. Still get that rush when something finally clicks. Still get called criminals for being curious.\\
The manifesto appears in Hackers (1995), The Social Network (2010), Edward Snowden's autobiography. It hangs on hackers' walls, gets printed on t-shirts, and lives in the hearts of everyone who ever felt like they didn't belong.\\
The Mentor is still alive. Still making music. His words outlived the systems he explored.\\
"I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike."\\
We are.\\
Read the original: [[https://phrack.org/issues/7/3]]\\
Hacking is not a hobby but a way of life. \\


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