What makes a great programmer/hacker

[voyager]

Wikipedia states that the famous "homeless hacker" Adrian Lamo once gained access to NBC's entire internal network in less than 5 minutes. This is a perfect example of what I'm curious about. I'm sure other people know how to do what he did, but what is it about someone like Adrian Lamo that makes him and others like him so good? What makes them excel so rapidly? Is it sheer programming skill? Is he the kind of person who can solve logic puzzles like Sudoku in under a minute with ease? Is it math skill?

Not being a programmer/hacker myself, it's hard for me to understand what seperates people like Adrian Lamo from "average" hackers. I can understand brilliance from another perspective, like music. I'm a musician, and I know what makes someone "get it" or not. Things like natural rhythm, a good ear with either relative or perfect pitch, ect. So what would the translation be in the hacking world? What makes someone "have it" or not? Are hacking and programming skill one in the same? What about security engineers/consultants? Are they experts in a certain field or simply knowledgable in many interconnecting ones?

Sorry for the lengthy post and thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

[tokenuser]

What makes a great programer/hacker?
If they were truly great, you wouldn't know their name.

Great programmers are not hackers.

[ericjosepi]

Think of it this way. Some people can just look at a guitar and pull off riff that, to the average listener are insane, and often times to other musicians is out of there league, but no unattainable. Everyone has a certain skill set and skill level and can build upon it. Some people though are born naturals, though. I know people who can just look at an amorphos blob of Perl and can decipher what it does. Personally, I'm not that good, but I am working to become better.

What did that guy say? 90% persperation, 10% inspiration? Persistance is key. Working at it, and loving what you're doing is a huge part of it. If you don't enjoy it, there's no point.

[phatlip12]

A good programmer? Practice makes perfect.

A good hacker? A non existent social life and zero chance of ever seeing female genitalia other then your massive pornography collection.

:D

[ryudo]

A non existent social life and zero chance of ever seeing female genitalia other then your massive pornography collection.

:D

And Sadly all cartoon porn aka Hentia.

[lsman11]

hah, very true. we are in the WRONG industry


A good programmer? Practice makes perfect.

A good hacker? A non existent social life and zero chance of ever seeing female genitalia other then your massive pornography collection.

:D

[adrian-lamo]

Wikipedia states that the famous "homeless hacker" Adrian Lamo once gained access to NBC's entire internal network in less than 5 minutes. This is a perfect example of what I'm curious about [...] what is it about someone like Adrian Lamo that makes him and others like him so good? What makes them excel so rapidly? Is it sheer programming skill? [...]

Not being a programmer/hacker myself, it's hard for me to understand what seperates people like Adrian Lamo from "average" hackers [...]

Sorry for the lengthy post and thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

I've never posted here before and will probably never post here again. I'm here now, and not all that hard to find anyway. I also like the idea of a universe where I end up addressing this question here.

I apologize in advance for the cliché reply, Voyager, but no one can answer that question for you.

It's probably anticlimactic, I know, but these things often are.

Do me a favor though, and keep in mind that it's not a matter of "these people" and how "they" do it. I'm sitting at a console writing this now, and you will probably be sitting at a console reading it.

The gap is shorter than you think.

A

P.S. I don't program, and am a total failure at math.