“A hacker is someone who enjoys playful cleverness — not necessarily with computers.”

—  Richard Stallman

Words to Avoid (or Use with Care) Because They Are Loaded or Confusing (1996) http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html
1990s
Context: A hacker is someone who enjoys playful cleverness — not necessarily with computers. The programmers in the old MIT free software community of the 60s and 70s referred to themselves as hackers. Around 1980, journalists who discovered the hacker community mistakenly took the term to mean “security breaker.”

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American software freedom activist, short story writer and … 1953

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