That kind of attitude is why we have people denying global warming. Terms have meaning, allowing idiots to try to muddy the waters hurts all of mankind. It has nothing to do with "Lisp nerds from MIT".

The whole argument of what "hacker" means in tech circles versus what it means to the mainstream is beyond a dead horse. That's like trying to make the word "gay" mean "happy" again.

It still does mean happy!

Nothing has changed there. We've just added homosexual to the list of things associated with the word "gay."

When "gay" is used in the "happy" sense, context is what differentiates it from the more recent homosexual sense.

"hacker" is no different.

Really then, it's about more effective writing, insuring the context of "hacker" is clear from the surrounding context.

What we lost in both instances was easy, utilitarian use of the word as more words are now required to convey information accurately.

To be honest, I never knew that "gay" meant "happy" until I watched The Three Caballeros in English

You and a whole lot of other people, until they see something presenting it.

I had to explain the shift to my kids once. It was sort of interesting after that time. We notice it, and they will often comment on something picking up a new meaning now.

That suggests to me a lot of people remain unaware of "overloading" words in that way.

> Lisp nerds from MIT

I think this may be a slight on the this site being called "hacker news" and while PG is a "lisp nerd", he never attended MIT.

It's not a slight, I think lisp nerds at MIT were the very first people to use the word.