MindComet

To boldly go

Being geeky used to have a much bigger stigma attached to it than it does now. Generation X was just really coming to accept computer geeks as the home computer began to take off. Now, the Millenials and Gen-Y are fully ensconced in geekiness such that we’ve seen geek shows hit the mainstream, the Internet become vogue such that TV is basically a regurgitation of information online, and the Geek has risen to power.

I knew I was geeky when I went and saw The Matrix seven times in the theatre. It was my Star Wars, it opened new doors in technology and it followed a computer programmer as he descended into this unique world complete alien to his world. It was Through the Looking Glass and Star Wars combined.

I knew I was geeky when I spent more than 100 hours on the family’s dial-up connection chatting on IRC and learning HTML rather than go outside and play with the other kids in the neighborhood. I had found my friends, and they were names in an IRC chat room. Sure I had friends in real life, but they didn’t live close and I couldn’t drive so online was the place to be. The idea of someone spending that much time online shocked my parents and was a constant point of friction between us, but now I do a job I love because of the seeds I planted back in those formative years.

I knew I was geeky when I got online and confirmed that yes, I have seen every Star Trek: The Next Generation episode ever. And yes, I firmly hold that Jean Luc-Picard is the greatest captain Starfleet ever had, James Tiberius Kirk be damned (though I may change my opinion once I see the new movie.)

I knew I was geeky when I spent more money on my computer than on my first car. I bought my first car in college for $500, however I had dropped over $1000 on a laptop just a few months before. The car was a deal I got from a roommate, and turns out he thought he was selling me a lemon and unloading a car that was going to die soon. It’s been five years and it still runs, I gave it to my grandmom and she loves it for getting around.

I was at a wedding this past weekend and while sitting with a group of friends who are very close we turned to discussing Macs and the rampant fan-boyism that we all suffer from. I’m a lesser Mac fanboy but I still keep abreast of news and such, and we got into the discussion of AppleTV vs Mac mini. I’ll forgo the explanation of the pros and cons, but rather point out that the discussion was had while people around us danced, laughed and talked about topics directly relating to the couple who tied the knot. Not us computer geeks, we had a debate to wage.

The point is that geekiness is no longer a sin. It’s more mainstream and acceptable. This blog is celebrating that our group’s entire profession revolves around this facet of our personality.

Geeks desire to build, and see things they built put to use, though we don’t necessarily do it with wood or brick or a forge for metals, coding is no less an act of engineering and creativity. Many have mistakenly described the driving point of programmers to make things that allow us to be lazier and lazier, but that’s not true - we simply like to build stuff. Legos, Tinkertoys, Lincoln Logs, and Erector Sets all filled this need and provided a point of fascination for me growing up, but when the computer was set before me I was instantly enthralled by the endless possibilities. And when I first began exploring the near infinite web, I was drawn further in by the vision of this endless landscape not unlike the first settlers going West. This was my new frontier.

View Comments

Posted by Admin on May. 20, 2009