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I always thought that instead of these lamentations about lost knowledge, people should just put together resource guides to maintain these skills. Hackers used to know these things? If they're still useful to know, how can I learn about them today? Otherwise, it just sounds like the worst combination of geek posturing and "kids these days."



It is more complex than that.

Even if it isn't (and cannot) be literally true, I think Eliezer Yudkowski was on to something when he invented the "Merlin Interdict" in his fantasy work: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.

Every highly systemized art form requires a living tradition to pass its most advanced achievements. Documentation, no matter how extensive, cannot convey all the subtleties, mostly because the experts are not 100% aware of all the little details that set them appart from the merely competent.

Some human endevours are best learned as a long process of deliverate practice under a wise mentor, who can help you steer the path and point your attention back to one apparently irrelevant detail or another. Self study is posible and effective, but it will only take you so far. And to rediscover some lost art from first principles requires a level of geniality on par with the first creators of the art in the first place.


> If they're still useful to know, how can I learn about them today?

By reading the article instead of lamenting lamentations ;)


Yeah, no, I read it :)

Some of that stuff piques my interest, but then it can be difficult to get started understanding it relative to other stuff that's more widely covered on the web. I guess I am just a little pampered when it's comparatively much easier to learn about a web framework. But that's probably part of the old school hacker ethos as well.


I was actually pleasantly surprised by how little lamenting esr did in this piece. I'd sort of expected it to be "Things Every Hacker Once Knew [But Kids Today Don't Learn Them And That's Awful And So Are The Kids]."




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