the future is hacking

"tomorrow's entrepreneurs are playing #minecraft today" read the title of a recent article that blazed through my circle of homeschooling buddies on facebook.  i didn't read it (yet) because i live it. i already believe it without a doubt. 

minecraft consumes my boy and his friends.  not a day goes by that i don't hear the words "budder" (aka "gold" for those of you without ten year old boys), "creeper", or "steve".

let me tell you something else tomorrow's entrepreneurs are doing thanks to minecraft:  they're hacking.  watching tutorials, downloading mods, and learning more about computers in one afternoon than i'll ever know. 

but they're doing more than hacking computers.  they're hacking the system.  tomorrow's entrepreneurs are finding a way around the powers that be to get what they want today.  they're looking behind the curtain and seeing how the gears work . . . and how to make the gears work for them. 

and not just the gears on the computer.  my son took a break from minecraft today to rescue a bike from the dumpster, take it apart, and make it work again.  this, too, is hacking.  taking something apart and making it his own, the very same way he'll build his future.

recently, an accidentally deleted account and an afternoon of tears resulted in a call to 1-800-xbox.  while the representative could do nothing to fix our problem, we were told not to worry, they wouldn't be pressing charges for the "illegal use" of their product (read: hacking).  and thank goodness for that  - our court system would be overwhelmed with microsoft vs. pre-pubescent boy cases. 

a few days of thinking, brainstorming, and experimenting later , the boy restored his account, all on his own.  i need not worry.  his future is budder.