WHAT’S A HACK?

Photo by Ilya Pavlov via Unsplash

Once a week I get an email with a title like, “Six Great Hacks to Organize Your Kitchen!”  I’m embarrassed to say that I get drawn in nearly every time by the word “hack” and open the email.  But what on earth does a word usually defined as breaking into a computer have to do with how to store frying pans?  The answer, I believe, is nothing.  

My original understanding was that a hack was person who was mediocre at her/his job but somehow managed to hold on to it anyway.  Ex:  “Ignore him.  He’s just a political hack.”  I nosed around the internet to see what has changed and discovered that Merriam Webster lists dozens of meanings for HACK, including nouns, verbs and adjectives.  

I realize that most people don’t brood about stuff like this.  As a writer, I do. I get so worked up about words that my spouse says that if there is ever an emergency announcement like, “Tornado!  People should go to their basement,” I would stick around upstairs until I’d clarified that the proper word is “basements” because the subject is more than one neighbor’s  basement.  It’s kind of like a grammatical OCD.

What I have learned from researching “hack” is that the ones that inevitably draw me in are called “life hacks.”  Just for fun, I’ll close with an inane example (eye roll, please):

We bet at least once in your life you have struggled to find the end of the tape.  This hack will stop this agony.  Take a hairpin or a paper clip and fix it on the end of the tape.  Now your life has become a little bit easier.

HAVE A GOOD WEEK!