Hacking is a process, not just a one-off act. Hackers have been known to take their time to first study their targets. They do observations of how the system they are targeting operates, how secure it is, the humans that use it, and the times that it is active. Once they have done reconnaissance, they scan the system and identify its technical specifications, as well as the vulnerabilities it may be having. Only when sure of the vulnerabilities, will the hackers try to breach the system to steal data and money, or to compromise it. These stages can be replicated on other targets, such as networks or users. It is evident that each stage takes time, and this is why hackers have to be patient. If they attack without knowing the security systems in place, the attack could flop and the organization could be triggered to secure the system even more. In addition to this, hackers are also patient when learning how to hack. Veteran hackers have studied programming languages in order to be able to read code or reverse engineer programs to find out where vulnerabilities exist. To become such an expert that you can analyze code written in different languages, one definitely has to spend a lot of time learning how to code. Hackers invest their time in this to prepare for their cybercrime activities.