How to Become a Hacker
An introductory, long-term and hands-on program
for ages 13 and beyond.
Who is a hacker?
A hacker is someone who loves “playful cleverness” and figuring things out. Hackers are “doers” – they care about doing things.
Hackers delight in having an intimate and deep understanding (as opposed to what might be minimum necessary) of the internal workings of a system – especially computers, hardware, software and networks.
Most importantly, hackers care about unrestricted access to information and possessing the freedom to share it.
Why should I care?
You should care if you don’t just want to use things built by others (or be used by others). You should care if you have started to feel that the world around us wants to limit and control what we can learn, how we can learn and what we can use that learning for.
Do you feel that very often you don’t have sufficient freedom to do what you need to? Or that others control what you can or can not do with something you “own”?
Well then – you should care about the “hacker movement” and ethic. It might offer you a way to live a free life.
What is it about?
This program is about three things broadly:
a) reclaiming, rebuilding and popularising hackerdom and the hacker-ethic,
b) encouraging children and young adults to learn everything by doing things things themselves, and
c) creating a culture for sharing, accessing and using knowledge freely.
In the long run, having such freedom to study, learn, access, do, share, fix, remix, modify, organise and contribute might lead to the creation of a free society.
The earlier we start, the deeper our roots.
Building Blocks
GNU/Linux and
Free/Libre Software:
Software that you can use freely, learn from, modify / change and share with others.
Hardware & Electronics that you can freely build, repair and extend
yourself
Sharing Knowledge & Helping Others – because our access to tools, skills, knowledge and opportunity depends upon others having equitable access to these as well
Hacker - 101
Step 1:
Learn to install and use a GNU/Linux operating system such as Debian or Ubuntu for day-to-day use.
Understand how the operating system works and learn to administer it proficiently.
Take away skills:
Ability to understand systems, basic knowledge of how computers, networks and operating systems work, learning to program and write code, learn how to break down software (and services) and understand how they work
Step 2:
Are you curious about how “things” work? Learn about “how” they work by assembling and building them.
Starting with the basics of electronics to building and programming simple hardware, we learn to build common “things” of daily use.
Take away skills:
Elementary knowledge of circuits, programming with electronics, figuring out how to learn about hacking hardware, learn how to take things apart and put them back, learn how to assemble computers and other hardware
Step 3:
Its not sufficient that we just learn and build “things”.
Let us also learn how to write about them, share them, communicate effectively, collaborate with others and become participants of various communities.
Take away skills:
Learning to write & publish, using de-centralised tools to communicate freely, discovering and participating in online communities, learning to share our creations and collaborate with and help others
Register for the hacker.how Program
About The Organisers
This “hacker.how” program is conceived and lead by Abhas Abhinav –
a hacker, entrepreneur and free software activist.
Abhas started his journey with computers in the early 90s and has been using GNU/Linux and Free Software exclusively since 1998. He only uses hardware that allows him to run free software and he refuses to use software and services that don’t provide him the freedom and respect he deserves.
You read more about him and his writing at:
abhas.io.
Visit the Libre Tech Shop to check out hackable and ethical products that also offer convenience.
Check out the Mostly Harmless and DeepRoot GNU/Linux websites.
Please email guide@mostlyharmless.io for any queries, discussions or details.