[Wizoss]

You can learn the basics and fundamentals in courses... but it's the deep diving self eagerness in understanding how and why things work that will bring you to enlightment.

100% Book and course learning will only take you so far. To truly understand something in a comprehensive way, you need to have that drive, passion and desire to fully engage the subject. I believe the best hackers are likely born with an innate curiosity for how things work, a tendency to think outside the box and a drive to keep working until a problem is solved.

Yes, that's it. It's kind of sad seeing people here in the forum with questions that shows that they didn't even had the curiosity to explore a little how things work (and I mean people asking about credits)... they just want to be spoonfed and will never even get near of being a hacker.

In chatting with hackers, a few have referred to 'real' hackers. In your opinion what makes someone a 'real' hacker?

You will know a hacker when people refer the person as being one. One can never state himself/herself as being a hacker... it invalidates the concept of becoming a hacker.

[xtvjxk]

Most is about logic and know about bug metodology and how to exploit them and GPT

[CaptechPhD]

You can learn the basics and fundamentals in courses... but it's the deep diving self eagerness in understanding how and why things work that will bring you to enlightment.

100% Book and course learning will only take you so far. To truly understand something in a comprehensive way, you need to have that drive, passion and desire to fully engage the subject. I believe the best hackers are likely born with an innate curiosity for how things work, a tendency to think outside the box and a drive to keep working until a problem is solved.

Yes, that's it. It's kind of sad seeing people here in the forum with questions that shows that they didn't even had the curiosity to explore a little how things work (and I mean people asking about credits)... they just want to be spoonfed and will never even get near of being a hacker.

In chatting with hackers, a few have referred to 'real' hackers. In your opinion what makes someone a 'real' hacker?

You will know a hacker when people refer the person as being one. One can never state himself/herself as being a hacker... it invalidates the concept of becoming a hacker.

Good point. You seem to uphold principles of the original hacker ethic. Very OG.

---

I'm not sure that hackers actually learn to hack. You can learn techniques, tools, etc, but hacking is really more of a type of understanding than a skillset.

Very interesting. So you don't define hacking as the activity but rather as a concept? Am I interpreting you correctly?

[omegatiger57]

The best way to learn is by doing. Online courses are good to start but many people get stuck there and never practice what they learn.

[PlayBoy]

you need to try different methods, find the one that suits you best

[alph4byt33]

watching videos, reading books and downloading kali

[H4rDw4Y]

It seems to me that many hackers learn their technical skills through self-learning. Sure some may go on to take courses or pursue degrees in computer science or cyber security. But initial learning seems to be done through a self-taught method.

There is also research that suggest that many hackers learn their skills by communicating with other hackers. What has your experience been? Has hacking been self-taught, learned through discussion with others, or a bit of both?

- Read books
- Learning path (exemple for newbies : https://tryhackme.com/path/outline/jrpenetrationtester)
- Practice
- Screw up
- Try again
- Understand why you screwed up 
- Learn again and again
- Hack

[burgundy]

Get a job in cyber security. Preferably in a young company, they tend to have less restrictions and are more bold and not so uptight in terms of what you are allowed to do, learn.

[utugatu]

this might come as a surprise to you but you learn hacking by hacking.
maybe start with ctfs

[MURSHAD]

I want to learn, too