Geek Cred. I Haz It!
Somehow I got worried about my ‘geek cred’. I suspect this had to do with reading tech blogs and not knowing about a lot of the things the people mention off-hand. It is probably unintentional, but the nature of the comment generally assumes everyone who is interested in topic X must know about video game Z, movie Q, and book Y.
Holy cow, who has time to read/watch/play all of those?! OK, I used to … heck, I used to sit down in front of a terminal (yes, a terminal … this was in the early days of the Internet when only students, scientists, and military folks knew what the heck it was) and code for 2-3 days straight (with the occasional bathroom break and soda / snack food grab to break the typing up).
I may not enjoy making things (I find the maker faire interesting to read about, but I don’t plan on building anything any time soon), I am not a science nerd any more (not enough hours in the day to get to it any more … I hope this changes when my daughter gets older—I’d love to revisit scientific topics alongside her), I only watch a bit of TV, and my video game play time is way down. Heck, I am not even a grammar nerd any more … just look at that last sentence I wrote. What a run-on! I ain’t changing it, though!
So, yeah … I don’t do everything a ‘typical’ geek is ‘supposed’ to do. Pfff.
BUT … I read a ton, especially about economics and technology. I manage to get some video games in, I love my sci-fi and fantasy movies, and hoo-boy do I ever get to play around with computers at work.
Yep, I have geek cred in spades. It may be different than another geek’s cred, but who cares? Certainly not me …
(By the way, bonus points if you read about my coding blitzes and said to yourself ‘well duh, of course he has geek cred … only a geek will stare at a text terminal for 2 or 3 days straight.)
