Sci-Hub founder Elbakyan's legendary bio goes viral: hacked MIT at 16, freed millions of papers
rgblong · x · 2026-10-03
A greentext-style post recaps Alexandra Elbakyan's path: born in Kazakhstan in 1988, coding at 12, hacking her ISP at 14 and MIT Press at 16. Noting papers cost $30 each while reviewers, editors and funding were public/free, she built Sci-Hub in 2011, opening nearly every paywalled paper for free — then got sued by publishers. Reposters joke they "can barely make it past step one."
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