Gibbs celebrates you, the computer geek!
You, my computer geek friend, are fantastic! You are amazing! You can coax electrons to do things that don’t just matter to people, they have transformed our world! And that’s what I want to talk about this week: the glory of computer geekery.
Here in Backspin last week I ranted over the re-re-revived trend of blaming computer technology products such as cell phones, iPods and game consoles for all sorts of social ills, particularly where teenagers are concerned. If you believe the common wisdom, too much use of [insert product name here] causes depression, dysphoria, anger, isolation, antisocial tendencies, or [other symptom of your choosing].
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Following that column, the deluge of reader comments generally supported the notion that the problem wasn’t, in fact, caused by technology. Most thought it to be an issue of poor parenting.
Of course, as you might quite reasonably argue, the feedback from Network World readers would most likely be just a little biased in favor of technology.
Why might this be? Because we are, as common parlance would have it, computer geeks, and in the minds of many, we’re somewhat biased and, it is thought by some (well, maybe quite a few), not completely in our right minds.
It’s interesting when you start to examine what our culture thinks of as “the world of computer geeks” as opposed to, say, model rocket geeks or ham radio geeks or automobile geeks. The latter groups are generally seen as hobbyists and, forgive me, they’re seen as kind of charmingly dorky.
On the other hand, while computer geeks are also seen as somewhat dorky, there’s a certain groovy cachet to what we do; a sneaky recognition that even though most people don’t really know what computer geeks do, in some magical way, it’s important.
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And the non-geeks actually know that they don’t get it. They ask us to fix the mess they got their computers into because they can’t be bothered to learn how to fix their own problems (though many claim they just don’t have the time — Ha!).
The trouble is that, because what their computer does is almost a complete mystery to them, they find it hard to attach a value to the labor. Sure, they’re grateful, but not like they’d be if you rescued them from, say, a pack of ravenous wolves. It’s more like they’d be if you unclogged their sink.
But with that somewhat tangential gratitude comes a certain disdain for what are perceived to be the attributes of computer geeks.
Computer geeks, particularly programmers, are usually characterized as antisocial. They are thought to be obsessed, having a narrow world view, eating little else but take-out Chinese food and packaged goods from vending machines, drinking nothing but coffee and Jolt Cola, sleeping under their desks, and behaving in ways that are obnoxious and hard for regular folks to understand. It is assumed they don’t bathe often enough, are a little sketchy in the rest of their personal grooming, and have the sex appeal of a brick.
Movies such as “The Social Network” reinforce these stereotypes and that’s not to say there isn’t some truth in this pigeonholing. I’ve read that Mark Zuckerberg really is, shall we say, as “difficult” socially as the film portrays (I’m reliably informed that he really did have a business card that read “I’m CEO, bitch”), but what’s missing is the bigger picture of what computer geeks are relative to the rest of our culture.
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But to understand computer geeks, even if you don’t really grok what they actually achieve, you have to at least appreciate the lure of computer technology.
Imagine finding yourself wrestling with a problem that totally absorbs you and is as intellectually “pure” … no distractions, just the problem at hand. And you’re getting paid! And that’s just the software engineering part of computer geekery!
Other parts of the world of computer geekery have you running mind-bogglingly huge machines, finessing the delivery of staggering amounts of enormously valuable data wrapped up into packets that are represented by pulses of electrons zooming around at insane speeds.
Much of this geekery involves a kind of focus and artistry that rivals that of playing a fine musical instrument; it’s tricky enough to do at all but it’s even harder to do well, and as for becoming a virtuoso … well, many aspire but few actually achieve anything like that!
Are the computer geeks any more outside of a conventional notion of the modern American than, say, a skilled medical industry worker? Or someone working in the legal profession? Or someone in the financial world? Of course not! Everyone who enjoys their work can get lost in it. It’s just that what computer geeks do encompasses all of those areas of human activity and more, making what they do seem, to quote Arthur C. Clarke, “indistinguishable from magic.”
Eventually, say 10 or 20 years from now (or maybe a little longer), computers will be so much part of the culture that everyone will have a touch of the computer geek in them if they are part of the modern world. Or, more likely, hardly anyone will need to be a computer geek because we’ll have perfected how we work with digital devices to the point where their complexities will have become invisible, much as the complexities of cars have become today.
Until then, you, my friend, are a wizard who achieves amazing things that most people just don’t understand. Who cares if you don’t shower?
Gibbs is a bit geeky in Ventura, Calif. ‘Fess up your leanings to backspin@gibbs.com.
