I’ve given this a bit of thought. Hackers are roughly the “Starving Artist” equivelent of the IT world.

Although not always starving. “Art” and inovation in the world of computers tends to pay off even if you’re not driven to make money off it. I think that’s a bit of a difference in the medium rather than a difference of the individual.

Hackers tend to be driven to do interesting, innovative stuff rather than doing it principly for gain.. which is similar to artists that create work because they feal it needs to be done, rather than for any financial reasons. Everything else about the piece is secondary to it’s production.

Pushing the envelope, seeing what you can do, it’s a similar theme in both worlds. There’s even some crossover with 3D artists and mathematicians that do graphical design. I know that might sound a bit weird, but think of the skill set necessary to hack on X.org. Very cross-genre stuff.