You and I share the same exact journey as to how we got there. I've had random conversations over the years with other developers in my age bracket and many of them cite Hackers as the reason that piqued their interest in computing. What this movie lacks in authenticity it makes up for it with an amazing cast, good score and lots of fun.
Religious fasting has little to do with the therapeutic ones. For a start, they are too short and are not even 24h. Second, the idea is usually to binge on cakes everyday at sunset.
Imagine not being able to single out fasting and doing it without getting yourself into a religion. What other things can you not single out and need to delegate the thinking to religion for I wonder?
I think a semi collaborative site for design principles across multiple disciplines. Kind of a nice idea in principle, just don't know how useful it is in its current form.