I've been at the Jargon File again, but this time I wandered over to an appendix, A Portrait of J. Random Hacker. This is really fascinating. If I'd had this thing to show my mother as I was growing up, imagine the level of understanding that might have developed. Alas. This thing, for the most part, describes me.

Let me readily point out that I am not a hacker, and possibly never will be. I do aspire to geekdom, and wish to follow the path of hackerness, but as mentioned before, I'm not even larval yet.

Plus, this part of the Personality Characteristics page gives me pause:

Although high general intelligence is common among hackers, it is not the sine qua non one might expect. Another trait is probably even more important: the ability to mentally absorb, retain, and reference large amounts of `meaningless' detail, trusting to later experience to give it context and meaning. A person of merely average analytical intelligence who has this trait can become an effective hacker, but a creative genius who lacks it will swiftly find himself outdistanced by people who routinely upload the contents of thick reference manuals into their brains. [During the production of the first book version of this document, for example, I learned most of the rather complex typesetting language TeX over about four working days, mainly by inhaling Knuth's 477-page manual. My editor's flabbergasted reaction to this genuinely surprised me, because years of associating with hackers have conditioned me to consider such performances routine and to be expected. --ESR]

There are more trivial ways I differ from the stereotypical hacker. I do smoke and I do dye my hair. However, like the Smurf-loving ubergeek I happen to know, I could be one of the exceptions that prove the rule. IF I grow up to be a hacker, that is.  

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