the.com/hack
The art of making a system do what you want, not what it intended.
means A clever shortcut or workaround that gets something done faster or differently than the intended method — or, in its older sense, a mediocre piece of work or a person who produces it.
from Originally 'hack' meant to chop roughly, from Old English 'haccian,' related to the Germanic root behind 'hatchet.' From that chopping sense came 'hack writer' — someone who chops out work crudely, for hire, without craft. The computing sense emerged separately in mid-20th-century tech culture (notably around MIT), where a 'hack' meant an ingenious, elegant, or mischievous technical trick — admired rather than sloppy. The two senses — crude chopping and clever ingenuity — now live side by side, which is why 'hack' can insult a writer and praise a programmer in the same breath.
- origin
- MIT railroad club slang for clever rewiring, 1950s
- life hack
- a shortcut that often creates a new problem
- security sense
- breaking in is just reading the rules too carefully
- dual meaning
- can mean genius fix or lazy botch job