From here you can return to the Jargon File overview , or to my home page . Except in some relatively minor respects such as slang vocabulary, hackers don't get to be the way they are by imitating each other.
Tans are rare.
Long hair, beards, and moustaches are common. Female hackers almost never wear visible makeup, and many use none at all. Omnivorous, but usually includes lots of science and science fiction. Hackers often have a reading range that astonishes liberal arts people but tend not to talk about it as much. Many hackers spend as much of their spare time reading as the average American burns up watching TV, and often keep shelves and shelves of well-thumbed books in their homes.