But if Michael Jackson was a hacker, he was a nearly ideal one. He was recognized as a musical prodigy when he was 5. After that, because of his domineering, exploitative, and probably abusive father, music was basically all he thought about [1]. These are the same childhood circumstances that produced Mozart and Beethoven.
The experts all seem to agree that he was an absolute master musician and dancer. At the very least, he made some of the most popular albums of all time. It's hard to imagine anyone achieving that kind of success without a lifetime of dedicated practice. I can definitely see the shoe thing as the product of someone who spent a lot of mental energy thinking about new ways to push the envelope in a song-and-dance act.
So, to sum up, if Michael Jackson was a hacker, he was a great one. And the trouble is, if Michael Jackson was a Great Hacker [3], he's the only one I know [4]. I happen to agree with Paul Graham's take on Greatness:
So if you ask a great hacker how good he is, he's almost certain to reply, I don't know. He's not just being modest. He really doesn't know.
And none of us know, except about people we've actually worked with. Which puts us in a weird situation: WE DON'T KNOW WHO OUR HEROES SHOULD BE. (emphasis is mine)
I'm really not comfortable with this conclusion, because I'd like to be a Great Hacker myself someday, and it's pretty obvious that Michael Jackson's troubles were partly caused by his success.
Of course, I'd love to find a way to escape this line of reasoning...
[1] Obviously, this isn't something anyone would want to live through, but it did have the effect of making Jackson focus on music the way a great hacker would. If music was the only way for him to earn his father's love when he was five years old, then he definitely would have wound up loving music [2].
[2] Yes, this is pretty twisted. Hard to believe. Most of the reporting I've read about the Jacksons says something to similar effect, though. I'm inclined to believe it's true just because it would be such obvious libel otherwise.
I'm not sure if I understand exactly what you're saying. Are you asking how one can become a great hacker without having troubles similar to Michael Jackson's? It's obvious you've put a lot of thought into this post, so I'm just trying to understand...
But if Michael Jackson was a hacker, he was a nearly ideal one. He was recognized as a musical prodigy when he was 5. After that, because of his domineering, exploitative, and probably abusive father, music was basically all he thought about [1]. These are the same childhood circumstances that produced Mozart and Beethoven.
The experts all seem to agree that he was an absolute master musician and dancer. At the very least, he made some of the most popular albums of all time. It's hard to imagine anyone achieving that kind of success without a lifetime of dedicated practice. I can definitely see the shoe thing as the product of someone who spent a lot of mental energy thinking about new ways to push the envelope in a song-and-dance act.
So, to sum up, if Michael Jackson was a hacker, he was a great one. And the trouble is, if Michael Jackson was a Great Hacker [3], he's the only one I know [4]. I happen to agree with Paul Graham's take on Greatness:
So if you ask a great hacker how good he is, he's almost certain to reply, I don't know. He's not just being modest. He really doesn't know.
And none of us know, except about people we've actually worked with. Which puts us in a weird situation: WE DON'T KNOW WHO OUR HEROES SHOULD BE. (emphasis is mine)
I'm really not comfortable with this conclusion, because I'd like to be a Great Hacker myself someday, and it's pretty obvious that Michael Jackson's troubles were partly caused by his success.
Of course, I'd love to find a way to escape this line of reasoning...
[1] Obviously, this isn't something anyone would want to live through, but it did have the effect of making Jackson focus on music the way a great hacker would. If music was the only way for him to earn his father's love when he was five years old, then he definitely would have wound up loving music [2].
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1059324...
[2] Yes, this is pretty twisted. Hard to believe. Most of the reporting I've read about the Jacksons says something to similar effect, though. I'm inclined to believe it's true just because it would be such obvious libel otherwise.
[3] http://www.paulgraham.com/gh.html
[4] Or more precisely, if we're going to call MJ a hacker, I have more evidence that he's a great hacker than I do for anyone else.