Are You Élite?

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23 Jul 2005, 4:20 pm

The word élite has come to take on many connotations and is especially significant among computer and network enthusiasts. The élite are an acknowledged group of people with prized skills in this instance. They are a sort of chosen, or often self-chosen, set of technology experts. A mythos surrounds them; and many people, particularly adolescent male computer fanatics, want to count themselves among these few.

First I would like to discuss the origin of this word. The word itself comes from French, and it is a form of the verb élire (infinitive mood, active voice, present tense), élisant (present participle), élu (past participle), électif (adjective), élection (noun). This word comes from the Latin electum, elegere (infinitive mood, active voice, present tense), elego (indicative mood, active voice, present tense). They are the few chosen out of the many.

The Jargon File offers us another definition:

Quote:

elite: adj.

Clueful. Plugged-in. One of the cognoscenti. Also used as a general positive adjective. This term is not actually native hacker slang; it is used primarily by crackers and warez d00dz, for which reason hackers use it only with heavy irony. The term used to refer to the folks allowed in to the “hidden” or “privileged” sections of BBSes in the early 1980s (which, typically, contained pirated software). Frequently, early boards would only let you post, or even see, a certain subset of the sections (or ‘boards’) on a BBS. Those who got to the frequently legendary ‘triple super secret’ boards were elite. Misspellings of this term in warez d00dz style abound; the forms l337 eleet, and 31337 (among others) have been sighted.

A true hacker would be more likely to use ‘wizardly’. Oppose lamer.

Source: Raymond, Eric S. "elite," The Jargon File, version 4.4.7, 29 December 2003. <http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/E/elite.html>.

Computer skills are quite common for people with Asperger's syndrome, so I hypothesize that a larger proportion of the aspie population is élite (in the computer sense) than the greater population. The question then is what precisely does it take to be élite? It must be more than a self-proclamation that one is an élite hacker, or a l33t h4x0r. I propose a set of criteria to operationalize this construct:

Élite Hacker

Technical Skill
Has proficiency in three or more programming languages
Is familiar with two or more operating systems
Can build own computer from components
Solves computer problems
Contributes code or finds security vulnerabilities
Intelligence
Possesses above-average intelligence
Has good analytical ability
Solves problems creatively
Has a rich vocabulary

Ideology
Believes in self-reliance
Believes in contributing to the community
Believes information should be free
Believes in less government regulation of the Internet and other technology

seethaki
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23 Jul 2005, 4:53 pm

No, I am not éilte; I am the scum of the earth.

jman
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23 Jul 2005, 4:57 pm

I meet pretty much all the criteria except I can't program worth s**t

nirrti_rachelle
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23 Jul 2005, 6:05 pm

I took one BASIC computer programming class in high school and forgot everything after 11 years. My computer repairing skills amount to turning it off then turning it back on when it freezes and replacing the disk drives. Other than that, I call my great-uncle who is one of the elite. He has a degree in engineering and were it not for his good-paying job as a supervisor at FedEx, he would be running his own computer repair business.

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Prometheus
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23 Jul 2005, 6:18 pm

I am most clearly not elite, but women want me and men want to be me. . . . .(kidding!)

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anbuend
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23 Jul 2005, 6:37 pm

NeantHumain wrote:

Has proficiency in three or more programming languages

No.

Quote:

Is familiar with two or more operating systems

Yes.

Quote:

Can build own computer from components

Not without assistance.

Quote:

Solves computer problems

Yes.

Quote:

Contributes code or finds security vulnerabilities

No.

Quote:

Possesses above-average intelligence

In some areas probably, in some areas the opposite.

Quote:

Has good analytical ability

Sometimes.

Quote:

Solves problems creatively

Sometimes.

Quote:

Has a rich vocabulary

Maybe.

Quote:

Believes in self-reliance

I think self-reliance is an illusion.

Quote:

Believes in contributing to the community

Yes, I also believe there's not really such a thing as a "non-contributing person".

Quote:

Believes information should be free

That sounds like a slogan, and one I don't understand.

Quote:

Believes in less government regulation of the Internet and other technology

Probably.

...so I guess I'm not 1337.

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hale_bopp
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23 Jul 2005, 7:33 pm

I voted Yes and then read the thread.

No.

adversarial
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23 Jul 2005, 8:46 pm

I voted no, then read the thread and scored on *some* of it.

When you say 'proficient in at least two programming languages', I have to assume that at least one of the is C/C++, since knowing, for example, Perl and JavaScript would not give you the prerequesite techinical insight for 'cracking' certain software.

I can buld a machine from scratch. I know three or more O/S's, I can use a few scripting languages, etc. I can often solve problems (tend to do so during those stages of actually being employed). This does not, I think, make me 'elite' in any meaningful sense.

Although I have a kind of interest in 'elitism' (often projected through my Cats), in reality I think that there are few on my level of the computer knowledge spectrum who could truthfully claim to be 'Elite'.

Sean
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24 Jul 2005, 4:21 am

seethaki wrote:

No, I am not éilte; I am the scum of the earth.

What???

I'm fairly 1337 myself.

Sanityisoverrated
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24 Jul 2005, 5:50 am

I have ninja l337ness, not h@x0r l337ness.

Well, I can pretend...

Quote:

Contributes code or finds security vulnerabilities

I can't code, but I'm good at finding security vulnerabilities... or in laymans terms- breaking stuff. :twisted:

hale_bopp
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24 Jul 2005, 6:07 am

I cannot believe you people.

We've established here that everyone is elite.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php? ... light=1337

Hopefully some of you might get the joke now. :roll:

Fogman
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24 Jul 2005, 7:44 am

[*] Has proficiency in three or more programming languages

Not really, though I did do a "Hello World" in C. I've also manually edited (Kludged) Javascript, but I would NOT consider myself skillful at this at all, as I have no formal training in it.

[*] Is familiar with two or more operating systems

Several flavors of windows, Several Distro's of Linux, BeOS, MacOS 8-9.x,Limited use of MacOS X.

[*] Can build own computer from components

Yes

[*] Solves computer problems

Yes

[*] Contributes code or finds security vulnerabilities

No

[*] Possesses above-average intelligence

Yes

[*] Has good analytical ability

Yes

[*] Solves problems creatively

Yes

[*] Has a rich vocabulary

Yes

[*] Believes in self-reliance

Yes

[*] Believes in contributing to the community

Yes

[*] Believes information should be free

Yes

[*] Believes in less government regulation of the Internet and other technology

Absolutely