H2K2 (2002): "The Conscience of a Hacker"
Why Hacker News recommends it
Linked in Hacker Manifesto threads as the author's own account of the essay's origin and meaning.
What it is
The Mentor (Loyd Blankenship) reads his 1986 essay "The Conscience of a Hacker" at H2K2 in 2002 and adds his own insight about its backstory.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2016 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends uola · 2016-08 · on “The Hacker's Manifesto (1986)”
It's slightly anticlimactic when the comment being responded to is a casual dismissal completely missing the context of the text. I've seen plenty of stories on HN where there's some random flamewar on top and the authors insightful comments are at the bottom. For the backstory by the author you're better off with the talk given at HOPE in 2002. [this video]
Cites catpea · 2022-02 · on “DaVinci's Gallery of Photoshop Graphics and Tutorials”
DaVinci's website is 25+ years old now. In some way the art is from the beginning of the earliest more creative websites. 1024x760, for some, is a statement that demands a decent computer. A lot of people had 800x600 resolution. And DaVinci Ice made it clear that his art required more. I hate to say, but by internet standards the website is an archaeological artifact. The web.archive.org link shows the last time the site was up. It is gone now. Goggle returns nothing. The subdomain return DNS errors. As to the UX. Back then we used to put up these dumb a$$ door pages, before you entered a website. It is like a splash screen, in many ways. And this was right after 9/11 so DaVinci Ice passiona
Cites catpea · 2022-02 · on “DaVinci's Gallery of Photoshop Graphics and Tutorials”
Maybe this imperfect selection of mostly off topic videos can help a tiny bit: Here is Eric's Freedom Downtime: [LINK] Captain Crunch, and Woz: [LINK] Evil Society Whose Plot Was To Control The Word: [LINK] Spot a fed 14: [LINK] And Loyd: [this video] (Wasn't there a huge documentary about Legion Of Doom, or was that a book?)
Cites basilikum · 2025-11 · on “The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)”
Loyd Blankenship (The Mentor) about the "Conscious of a Hacker" 16 years later in 2002 at H2K2: [this video]