9 to 5 [RE: The Fall of Hacker Groups]

9-to-5.txt

So this happened: phrack changed it's format and posted a nice analysis of the 
(nowadays missing) hacker community and societal behaviour of hackers in 
general: http://phrack.org/papers/fall_of_groups.html
 
This article reflects a lot of thoughts I've had over the last couple of 
months. In a very positive way.
 
 
Yea sure, the scene we grew up in changed to what has now become a bullshit 
business like any other. Originality is scarce and every time I see SQLi or 
XSS on a full-disclosure list I want to puke. 

We all know this. The scene is dead. That's beside the point. Whatever.
 
 
For the last couple of years I've been either employed or self-employed as an 
engineer for everything basically. So I mainly do IT-infrastructure stuff like 
a lot of other people. I read up on security related topics and hack on stuff 
I'm interested in in my spare time. I'm usually late for work because I stay up 
half of the night to do this kind of things. I work long hours. I don't sleep as 
much as I'd like to. I still love the work I do, it's challenging, it's extremely 
interesting and I always learn new things. Does this sound familiar? Right.
 
We choose challenges because we like to solve puzzles. We like to have nice 
toys to play with and to make them perform really well or to do tasks they're 
not supposed to do. People actively /working/ in the security business like to 
exploit things, have fun, get fame and all that. But once it's your job and not 
your hobby anymore, it somehow loses it's spark, it's magic and is filled with 
bullshit reports, annoying customers and meetings you'd rather ignore completely.
 
Those of us who can choose their employers or customers base their choices of those
on possible opportunities to hack on creative things and work on projects we could 
not afford to work on privately. 
 
The thing is: we don't have to.
 
Not so long ago, in my early twenties, I used to live off a very small amount of 
money every month, did not take business flights to the states, did not go out 
to eat every day, did not buy all the unnecessary gadgets that I'm not spending 
enough time with anyways, didn't buy expensive single malts, did not smoke 
cigarettes all day, did not work most of the time. It wasn't as comfortable, 
but it sure was more fun. I used to backpack all over the world, read a lot, 
cook regularly, hack on stuff I was genuinely interested in. I was very 
limited by the resources I had, so I had to be creative with time, energy and 
hardware. You get to meet a lot of people and grasp ideas you wouldn't have 
come across otherwise. 
 
So what changed? 
Nothing, right? 
Nope.
 
You get comfortable. You get accustomed to toys, money and lifestyle. You get 
the idea, that somehow, the company or customer you work for and their business 
interests directly reflect to your own interests. This might sometimes even be 
true, but it's mostly not. You end up in a bond of necessity for creative 
input, compensation and recognition by your peers. That's not a bond you have 
with your own interests, it's a bond you have with your work life. People end 
up committing their entire life and health to it. They depend on it.
 
The question you have to ask yourself is: for how long will I be doing this? 
What will I achieve at the end of the day (or your life) and does it even 
matter if I achieve at all? Most of us won't end up with a Wikipedia entry, 
most of us won't become silicon valley millionaires and even so - do you even 
want that? It's not something substantial that has any value or matters at all. 
It'll be forgotten and you will end up having built a physical or mental empire 
for yourself that, in the end, did not satisfy you because you've missed out on 
your own fucking life.
 
This is something _I_ have forgotten. But that article reminded me of myself a 
few years back.
 
So how do we break the circle? Do we even want to anymore,.. now that we're that 
far? It's up for you to decide.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftgjf-fRqL0

azet