Field notes
The Blog
Essays, explainers, and arguments about hacker culture, with links back into the collection.
- ListJune 20, 2026
The Best Hacker Movies, Ranked by What They Got Right
Most hacker movies are nonsense, and a few are quietly brilliant. A museum's ranking of the films that shaped how the world pictures hacking, by how close they came to the truth.
- ExplainerJune 19, 2026
Free Software vs Open Source: What's the Difference?
They build the same software and argue about why. The real difference between free software and open source is a difference of motive: freedom as a right, or openness as a better method.
- ExplainerJune 18, 2026
What Is Hacktivism? A Short Guide to Hacking as Protest
Hacktivism is the use of hacking for political or social ends. Here is where the word came from, the tactics it covers, and the line it keeps blurring between protest and crime.
- ExplainerJune 16, 2026
What Does 1337 Mean? Leetspeak and the Number in Hacker Culture
1337 means leet, short for elite. Here is where the number came from, how leetspeak works, and why it still signals belonging in hacker and gaming culture.
- EssayJune 15, 2026
Is Hacker Culture Dying?
The hackers got hired, the rebellion got a logo, and the magic supposedly died. We make the case for and against, and land somewhere more interesting than the headline.
- EssayJune 9, 2026
The Hacker Ethic, 40 Years On: Does It Still Hold?
Steven Levy named the hacker ethic in 1984. Four decades later, we test each of its six tenets against the world it helped build, from open source to surveillance capitalism.
- ListJune 2, 2026
The Hacks That Changed Everything
Not the people, the turning points. A guided tour of the hacks, worms, and releases that bent the course of computing, and the exhibits that hold them.
- Field GuideMay 26, 2026
White Hat, Black Hat, Grey Hat: A Field Guide to the Hacker Hats
White hat, black hat, grey hat, and the newer colors too. What the hacker hats actually mean, where the terms came from, and why the culture needed them at all.
- ExplainerMay 12, 2026
What Is Hacker Culture? A Short, Honest History
Hacker culture is not crime and it is not a hoodie. It is a way of treating systems as things to be understood, shared, and improved. Here is where it came from and what it actually believes.