I think the cringiness is inversely proportional to the geek-cred of the discipline involved.
You're just another Perl hacker? Awesome.
You're a biochemistry hacker? Okay.
You're an "SEO hacker"? Ugh.
You're a (shudder) "brand hacker"? Die in a fire.
But you know what, why are we here on Hacker News? To expand hackers' borders from the inside out — not by recruiting others to call themselves hackers, but expanding the breadth of hacker culture.
And particularly, to validate the idea that got us here — hackers who are passionate about what they produce should seek to control the environment of production, and founding a startup is the best way to do that.
To bring that idea into reality, we need to ditch the idea that "business stuff" is to be sneered at. I personally held that opinion for ten years, mostly because my dad was in business, and so I bounced around "cool" programming jobs instead of pursuing the fullest expression of what I wanted to do.
So Hacker News is where "growth hacking" should live, so it benefits hackers instead of self-styled hotshot business consultants. Hackers should be able to jump into any field, stand on the shoulders of other hackers, and see this is just another place they can apply intelligence, knowledge and experimentation.
That's what bringing the "hacker" label to a new field should be about. And I truly believe that is what dmor is trying to do. So bring on the distribution hacks, let's analyze customer acquisition like hackers should, and long live the growth hacker.
You're just another Perl hacker? Awesome.
You're a biochemistry hacker? Okay.
You're an "SEO hacker"? Ugh.
You're a (shudder) "brand hacker"? Die in a fire.
But you know what, why are we here on Hacker News? To expand hackers' borders from the inside out — not by recruiting others to call themselves hackers, but expanding the breadth of hacker culture.
And particularly, to validate the idea that got us here — hackers who are passionate about what they produce should seek to control the environment of production, and founding a startup is the best way to do that.
To bring that idea into reality, we need to ditch the idea that "business stuff" is to be sneered at. I personally held that opinion for ten years, mostly because my dad was in business, and so I bounced around "cool" programming jobs instead of pursuing the fullest expression of what I wanted to do.
So Hacker News is where "growth hacking" should live, so it benefits hackers instead of self-styled hotshot business consultants. Hackers should be able to jump into any field, stand on the shoulders of other hackers, and see this is just another place they can apply intelligence, knowledge and experimentation.
That's what bringing the "hacker" label to a new field should be about. And I truly believe that is what dmor is trying to do. So bring on the distribution hacks, let's analyze customer acquisition like hackers should, and long live the growth hacker.