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Hacking is inherently social. This is contrary to stereotypes, but stereotypes are inaccurate misrepresentations of the noblest of pursuits. A hacker does not tinker and poke and prod for himself. He does it to say to others, “Look what I did!” There is no small measure of hubris in a hacker, but the best hackers temper this with a desire to share and collaborate.

Hacking is the noblest of pursuits because it is a desire to make something better and share it with the world, and this holds no small measure of dignity. It is a meta-pursuit, encompassing all jobs, hobbies, and walks of life. Everything around you can and will be hacked to improve it. If this were not true, we’d still be in the Stone Age, content to let technology flounder.

Hacking saved my life. On top of the usual growing pains that come with adolescence, I fought off depression and suicidal urges all through my teenage years. I could have easily turned to drugs or petty crime to express my outrage at the imagined inequalities of the world. Instead, I turned my self-righteous fury into determination. Suddenly, every puzzle was a challenge. With a tenacity that served me well later in life, I attacked each challenge until I mastered it.

I now know that a great many people go through adolescences similar to my own. Unlike many, in hacking I found an advantage and an outlet that most teenagers don’t have. If it wasn’t for that outlet, I would have imploded years ago.

When the self-centered despair of youth became overwhelming, I retreated into the quiet of my mind. I shut off the outside world and lost myself in pursuit of knowledge. The logic and order of a well-engineered system always helped me to become centered. I spent most of a shift at my first job attempting to fix a three-hole punch with a drywall screw and a power drill, during one particularly trying day. What really irks me is that I know if I had had another half an hour, I could have done it.

The hours I spent tracing the workings of various machines became a kind of meditation, with “why” being the mantra that continues to set me free. Every hacker meditates in a similar fashion. Every time you lose yourself in a project for hours on end, you’re meditating. There’s nothing New Age or mystical about it. All that happens is the outside world gets shut out, allowing your brain to focus squarely on the task at hand. People pay a great deal of money to learn how to do this, and for many hackers it is inherent.

In the end, what I gained was an appreciation for what matters, and a few skills that have served me well. Perhaps not surprisingly, I found myself employed in the IT field right out of university. What was unexpected was the level of success I found almost immediately, because I was used to solving problems and coming up with solutions.

I have created a future for myself that is brighter than I would have dared to dream, all because I let my imagination run wild, and never stopped to wonder if I was stranger for it. Engage, envision, and above all else enjoy what you're doing, or you're no further ahead.

The skills a good hacker has are skills that all in-demand employees possess. Troubleshooting, ability to work independently, and attention to detail are skills that pay the bills, no matter the industry you find yourself in.

To future and current hackers alike, I urge you above all else to find balance in your life. Learn to appreciate the time you have to tinker and experiment. With age comes responsibility, and those responsibilities will take precedence. Though I’d love to be ears-deep in new toys, the last thing I hacked was my kitchen sink. Unglamorous, perhaps. Messy, certainly. But I fixed it by myself, using the same skills I would have used to hack anything else. Logic, reason, and intuition are the greatest tools at my disposal.

Never stop exploring. Read everything you can get your hands on, actively engage in the world around you, and never stop asking “why.” The “why” will often echo for lack of takers, but ask it anyway. Shout it, if you