Why hacking?
Hackig manifests a deep understanding of a system. Such ability is often acquired as a side product when one studies into the core of something. Being a person who likes to explore underlying mechanisms, naturally I learn implicit rules/assumptions behind a structure and exploit these system vulnerabilities as proofs of concepts.
WhiteHat or BlackHat?
In brief, a blackhat hacker is a bad guy, whereas a whitehat hacker is a good guy. I used to think of myself as a good guy in all senses. At some point, I even considered to become a certified ethical hacker. However, following my mom's ethical standards of being a honest person at all times, I have to claim my membership in the grayhat category.
Why not hacking?
After graduating from college, I realized that hacking is no different from masturbation, which is such an evanescent personal entertainment. The best hackers, such as Richard Stallman, build rather than break stuff. I decided to grow up! Since then, I did build couple programs as alternative personal entertainments. Significantly, I gave birth to Boston-NeuroTalks Calendar and CNSO email tagging system, both of which are still used daily by the local communities. To me, providing social services is very satisfying, and I'd love to run large-scale social enterprises in the near future, presumably via the help of technologies.
Machines vs. Humans
Machines and computers are my good friends, but they can be stubborn from time to time. Although there are some principles for cracking into a system (e.g., stack overflow), security analyses and penetration tests without any prior knowledge are often quite time-consuming. As my overall interests transition from machines to humans, nowadays I prefer low-/no-tech hacking or old-school approaches against human factors. To gain new ideas and insights along this direction, I study cognitive neuroscience, mental magic, and confidence games. Having said that, however, I find that pure social engineering requires outstanding showmanship and hybrid machine+human solutions are easier in practice, both inside and outside cyberspace.