Hacker Culture: The Key To Future Prosperity?
One of the most exciting trends of the early 21st century has been the explosion of hacker culture around the world. By hackers, I don’t mean people who pose security threats to computer networks. I’m referring simply to people who use technology to create useful products. For a number of reasons, the next few decades will see more hackers added to the global population than at any time in history. Because of their skills, hackers are uniquely positioned to become entrepreneurs and start companies. While not all hackers want to become entrepreneurs, those who do need much greater access to training and capital in most places around the world. If we can streamline the path from hacker to entrepreneur, the world can unlock immense innovation and prosperity.
Just a few short years ago, we would have been amazed by any story in which a small team of developers created a service rapidly adopted by millions of users worldwide. Today, we have what seems like a multitude of examples to point to: Facebook, Skype, Dropbox, and many more. The truth is, we haven’t seen anything yet. The striking thing is no longer the existence of such successful hackers — it’s the fact that the sheer number of hackers is expanding so rapidly.
It is becoming less expensive to create web-based services due to the cloud and prevalence of open source technologies. Social media allows well-liked services to spread quickly, and inspires new innovators to jump into the game. As the global middle class grows, increasingly large numbers of engineers are being trained. China alone graduates 600,000 engineers per year. Plus, free educational resources like Codeacademy and Kahn Academy abound for people to learn new technologies.
