This document provides lessons on how to become a hacker. It discusses preparing for a long journey, finding mentors, distinguishing yourself, going interactive, holding your hands, playing instead of just commenting, starting now and restarting often. It also discusses getting a computing and free software culture through writing and reading. The document encourages fixing your email, marrying your text editor, mastering version control and TODO lists, learning to make bug reports, scratching your own and others' itches, learning a programming language, understanding users' environments, and learning to test and write English. It concludes by discussing getting involved in a free software community.