Hot Rods and Hackers

We went for a drive on Saturday. I knew there was a car show at the Orange County Fair Grounds, but I didn’t want to spend the money or the time walking around in the hot sun. We ended up close to it anyway, so we drove around the area. We found where the exit to the car show was and since it was later in the afternoon, cars were streaming out. We parked right across the street and watched our own private parade of cool cars.

I saw my first Corvette ZR-1, too many deuce coupes, 55 Nomads, and outrageous cars. I saw a 65 Chevelle that looked identical to the one I street raced in the summer of 1974. That brought back a flood of memories of growing up in the 60′s and 70′s, working on cars. I wondered how I got from there to where I am today, building web sites and doing Internet Marketing.

Those “high boys” got to be so common because the guys that built them were trying to take a stock car and make it better. They took what they had, a cheap, plentiful, easy to get car, and make it drive faster, handle better, and look cooler.

That’s essentially the definition of a hacker. Some one who can take what is easily available and make it better. It’s the mind set of the DIY movement. Take what you have and make it better. Don’t wait for someone to do it for you. Don’t wait for next year’s model. Take last year’s model and make it better than anything that any company will ever sell.

Early hot rodders were outside the law. Some hackers are outside the law. It doesn’t matter. They both do whatever they want to make whatever they have better, according to their own rules, their own goals.

Building a web site is like building a hot rod. Have an idea of what you want. Take the tools and materials at hand, and just build it.

Some people have the ideas, but not the skills. There are hot rod shops that can build you the hot rod that you want. There are development shops that can build you the web site you want.

Take control. Do it yourself. Don’t take what they give you. Make it your own. Make it what you want. Be a control freak. I am.