[W/K] :: wannabee

  wannabee
       n : an ambitious and aspiring young person; "a lofty aspirant";
           "two executive hopefuls joined the firm"; "the audience
           was full of Madonna wannabes" [syn: aspirant, aspirer,
            hopeful, wannabe]

  wannabee /won'*-bee/ n. (also, more plausibly, spelled `wannabe') [from
     a term recently used to describe Madonna fans who dress, talk, and act
     like their idol; prob. originally from biker slang] A would-be hacker.
     The connotations of this term differ sharply depending on the age and
     exposure of the subject. Used of a person who is in or might be entering
     larval stage, it is semi-approving; such wannabees can be annoying but
     most hackers remember that they, too, were once such creatures. When
     used of any professional programmer, CS academic, writer, or suit, it
     is derogatory, implying that said person is trying to cuddle up to the
     hacker mystique but doesn't, fundamentally, have a prayer of
     understanding what it is all about. Overuse of terms from this lexicon
     is often an indication of the wannabee nature. Compare newbie.
  
     Historical note: The wannabee phenomenon has a slightly different
     flavor now (1993) than it did ten or fifteen years ago. When the people
     who are now hackerdom's tribal elders were in larval stage, the
     process of becoming a hacker was largely unconscious and unaffected by
     models known in popular culture -- communities formed spontaneously
     around people who, _as individuals_, felt irresistibly drawn to do
     hackerly things, and what wannabees experienced was a fairly pure,
     skill-focused desire to become similarly wizardly. Those days of
     innocence are gone forever; society's adaptation to the advent of the
     microcomputer after 1980 included the elevation of the hacker as a new
     kind of folk hero, and the result is that some people semi-consciously
     set out to _be hackers_ and borrow hackish prestige by fitting the
     popular image of hackers. Fortunately, to do this really well, one has
     to actually become a wizard. Nevertheless, old-time hackers tend to
     share a poorly articulated disquiet about the change; among other
     things, it gives them mixed feelings about the effects of public
     compendia of lore like this one.
  
  

  wannabee
       
          /won'*-bee/ (Or, more plausibly, spelled "wannabe") [Madonna
          fans who dress, talk, and act like their idol; probably
          originally from biker slang] A would-be hacker.  The
          connotations of this term differ sharply depending on the age
          and exposure of the subject.  Used of a person who is in or
          might be entering larval stage, it is semi-approving; such
          wannabees can be annoying but most hackers remember that they,
          too, were once such creatures.  When used of any professional
          programmer, CS academic, writer, or suit, it is derogatory,
          implying that said person is trying to cuddle up to the hacker
          mystique but doesn't, fundamentally, have a prayer of
          understanding what it is all about.  Overuse of hacker terms
          is often an indication of the wannabee nature.  Compare
          newbie.
       
          Historical note: The wannabee phenomenon has a slightly
          different flavour now (1993) than it did ten or fifteen years
          ago.  When the people who are now hackerdom's tribal elders
          were in larval stage, the process of becoming a hacker was
          largely unconscious and unaffected by models known in popular
          culture - communities formed spontaneously around people who,
          *as individuals*, felt irresistibly drawn to do hackerly
          things, and what wannabees experienced was a fairly pure,
          skill-focussed desire to become similarly wizardly.  Those
          days of innocence are gone forever; society's adaptation to
          the advent of the microcomputer after 1980 included the
          elevation of the hacker as a new kind of folk hero, and the
          result is that some people semi-consciously set out to *be
          hackers* and borrow hackish prestige by fitting the popular
          image of hackers.  Fortunately, to do this really well, one
          has to actually become a wizard.  Nevertheless, old-time
          hackers tend to share a poorly articulated disquiet about the
          change; among other things, it gives them mixed feelings about
          the effects of public compendia of lore like this one.
       
          [{Jargon File]