Geekdom? Bah!

Yes, this is me, picking a fight with someone else for no reason. Don't like? Go away. I promise to give you something better some other time.

It's about this particular blog entry, really.

Man, talk about shallow understanding. Being a geek is nothing about the shit you read, the crap you do and the stuff you know, it's an attitude.

And before you start:

1. Slashdot is bullshit.

   The stereotypical slashdot activist is someone who thinks they are the hot shit because they have a Linux box and know how to use it properly.

   It's the same attitude that spawned kuro5hin, and it's the same attitude that'll spawn people sick of kuro5hin and split off to form their own geek mecca.

   Know how to use it? Fine. Know how it works? Great. Read it once in a while? Okay. Read it everyday? You sad bastard.

   And yes, I've been banned from it's RSS feed at least once, for updating it too often. Cemented my attitude towards that piece of trash faster than anything else.

2. I think. A lot.

   I'm not as delusional to think that I think logically and rationally all the time. Logical thinking happens naturally to some people — sometimes you don't notice it, but you've already split the problem, categorized its components, and worked out a solution. That happens 50% of the time for me.

   Mind you, it makes it hard for you to learn salsa.

3. I can't honestly program a “Hello World” program in 10 programming languages.

   Not without actually getting another four programming language specifications and spending 15 minutes each on reading each one up.

   It's something I can do, but don't bother to.

4. No, I don't use l33t, sTUdLYcAPs, or txt.

   But I know when to use it, often as a satirical weapon. It's part of geek and fen culture; you use it when you need to use it, to drive a point. There's no point saying “zOMG! u f4g!!!1111one” every time some dweeb misplaces a vowel and drops a 3.

   Yes, that was a point.

5. I don't have a real blog

   This is Blogger. It's nice, easy, relatively free and effort-cheap. I like it for that reason. And if you don't like it you can use shit like nucleus.

   I tried it. Got tired of it. There's a reason why we're all using GUIs, you know, it's not because we're shallow stupid fucks. Mostly.

6. I don't boast. Usually. Possibly.

   Instead I talk about incomprehensible shit that no one outside of my geekdom can grasp.

   And yes, I'm on LiveJournal. So is everyone else who would like to blather on about stuff without having everyone reading behind his fucking shoulder.

7. Yes, I am lazy.

   Being lazy has nothing to do with thinking. Mind you, I'm lazy and inefficient, unlike Hani, who is lazy and efficient.

Being a geek means your intellect isn't yours to control — you cannot bring it to focus, unlike other well-adjusted people, on the important things in your life. So you'll fill your life full of extrenous crap — Computing. Science. Mechanical Toys. Comics. Tarot. Role Playing Games. Miniature Wargaming. Typography. Anime. sf. Fantasy. Accessibility.

It's not about toys. Toys are commercially available, and cost very little, nonmaterially, to obtain. Toys anyone can get if they got money.

It's not about dedication. Ultimate dedication is monomania — geeks are almost never monomaniacal. It's about being omnivorous and adaptable, at least in the most limited of ways. That's why Steve Jobs is a geek, and that loser who collected stamps and did nothing else in class was just a dork.

It's not about being Elite and showing off. Dorks in slashdot do that. Sure they're geeks. They're dorks too, though, because it's not about the recognition, it's not about being listened, it's all about doing something and speaking out. Who cares if no one listens? You're doing what you like and that's all that matters. That same attitude that got you through high school will get you through life, while everyone else does what you won't — probably breed and have well-adjusted, ordered lives.

It's about having a dozen or more projects in the back burner, a baroque life and a mind that isn't just omnivorous, it eats the weirdest things.

And I dare anyone to find a way to quantify that in some goddamn checklist. Mind you, people will try.