Henry David Thoreau the Hacker

As I have just finished reading a clip of Walden by Henery David Thoreau I have found him to be what, according to Daniel Zappala, MIT would consider a hacker.  He is someone who doesn't like society so he goes off and creates or lives in his own little world.  He builds up his biases and arguments against society until he has in one form or another isolated himself, for better and worse, from humanity.

The downside of isolation and denial of established norms is that you are less able to build up the synergies of established norms and customs.  But on the positive side their is a lot of room for self innovation and novel ideas.  Unsettle and unestablished by conservative values, one may go off and tackles the challenges of the world.