: 
: or the biggest killer (IMO)
: 
:    6) one's dreams are (sadly) shattered on the hard rocks of society's
:       version of reality.  Without the dream the motivation dies, without
:       the motivation the effort seems useless.
: 

Actually there are more possibilities -- one is that with practice the
hacker has become so good and powerful in manipulating data streams
that s/he goes simply underground...

Possessing true power perhaps there is no need to impress anyone with it.
