I'm not sure where that urban legend came from... old-timers acting like Brandon when it comes to technology.
'Hacking' seemed natural to a lot of us. Following something to a conclusion or destination, as a way of killing time while discovering the internet.
I remember getting-onto the Norsk Hydro power-grid by following a series of links from a Russian dating-site. Then I found a way into the Enrico Fermi particle-accelerator works in-progress 'network'. Another time, I typed the word 'tunguska' backwards (The Tunguska Explosion) and ended-up on a complex signal-monitoring page of some sort.
I think analytical-proclivities are biologically present in all the generations.
It's true that "analytical proclivities are biologically present" in all generations, but I'd posit that it's the degree and the direction in which those proclivities are present. Let me throw out a couple of anecdotal examples - the image of grandpa with a flip phone are synonymous with today. He (like me) isn't interested in the idea of all that information seemingly crammed into a tiny little box called a smart phone in which he has to access that information with fingers and thumbs that have the dexterity of a lidocaine-laden appendage.
Going back a few years, I'm sure we all have or had a family member (with me it was my step-dad) who was a mechanical genius. There wasn't anything he couldn't repair or get working again. His curiosity about how machines worked led to an unbelievable assortment of labor-saving gadgets he built into our home. (At one point we had 12 hard-wired phones in the house, including in the tiny little bathroom.)
A little more currently, I got my first computer in 1988 - an XT clone. I hung with it and got into some of the DOS architecture/kernels until Windows 95 came along, and I just realized things were moving a lot faster than I was.
Some people appear to be unfazed by more and faster technology - you seem to be one of them. But I'd argue you're not typical.
I keep my curiosity - which is healthy and considerable - to things I can reasonably access. Accessing a network that probably ain't for me just ain't in my cards, but your basic premise is true. Just perhaps not as prevalent with technology as it might be for younger generations who grew up with computers.
And who have a lot more dexterity in their fingers than I do with my ham fists.
