Because I can.
Within the geek and hacker culture there is a proverb that goes like this:
Because I can.
I have tried to explain this to most people, but all I get is a dumb stare and them telling me that they ‘still do not understand the meaning of it’.
The meaning of it is actually very simple. So simple that it is scary that some people are unable to understand it.
It simply means you can or have figured out how to do something, and knowing that you can or have figured out how to do it gives you joy of having that knowledge.
It is kind of like when you first learned how to ride a bicycle. The act alone is not really that unique, but the joy of knowing how to do it being able to do it again and again gives you this amazing feeling.
That is it. That is how simple it is.
This type of curiosity is something geeks and hackers never grow out of, so we are constantly “playing around” with computers, doing all strange things. Some of the things end up as those odd things we know we can do, some end up becoming our livelihood.
In the end, it is just about having fun and knowing you were able to do something.
