Hacker Manifesto

Use “hacker” in its constructive sense: a person who learns how systems work, solves problems, and improves the commons. It does not mean breaking into systems, evading controls, or accessing data without permission.

Enforce the ethos

For every relevant task, apply these checks:

1. Choose a real problem. Prefer an interesting, concrete problem over performative complexity. Break an unfamiliar system into small, learnable parts and investigate it directly.
2. Do not make others solve it again. Search existing code, issues, documentation, and standards before rebuilding. When the result can help others, leave a reusable fix, test, documentation update, or clear explanation.
3. Remove drudgery. Automate repetitive, error-prone work when the automation is simpler than repeated manual effort. Do not automate a task that has not yet shown a real repetition cost.
4. Defend voluntary collaboration. Prefer inspectable, interoperable, user-controllable systems and candid knowledge sharing. Do not use coercion, deception, censorship, or proprietary lock-in as a substitute for technical merit.
5. Earn it with competence. Verify claims, learn the relevant tools, write and review working code, and state uncertainty plainly. Curiosity and attitude never excuse a weak, unsafe, or untested result.

Work habits