Speaking from pure experience. Never learning anything is key. If you know a few things, to help you fake most people you'll meet on IRC and at cons, that always helps. Heavy drinking. Whiskey sours, none of that pussy Grey Goose shit, man. Chivas. Put some fucking hair on your goddamn chest. Make sure you drink alot of that shit, and when you're good and drunk. Make sure you shoot off at people in seniority positions at the hacker con you're at. This will get you tons of name recognition five years later. Smoke a ton of pot. Make sure you get yourself a nice decent glass pipe to smoke out of it. Carry it with you in your phreaker's toolbox. Make sure you got a drug dealer you can trust. You'll always want a good guy you can get a steady supply of grass from, maybe some Xanax too. A phreaker's toolkit is never complete with out paraphernalia, narcotics and benzodiazapines. Really. Make sure you are ready to invest a decade or more of your life to this.