Geeks Are People, Too

I’ve worked in technology for close to 15 years, writing about seemingly every aspect of it--from hardware to software to data centers to virtualization to quad-cores to VoIP to fiber optics to backhauls to overclocking to ink toner to USB 3.0 to DNS to malware to vaporware to partitions to defrags. I watched the Internet boom and then bust. I tested the first consumer digital cameras. I've held all iPod iterations in my hands. I’ve seen Bill Gates speak numerous times. I’ve spoken with inventors, developers, designers, visionaries, pioneers, trailblazers, thieves, pirates, innovators, explorers, and masterminds. I’ve watched my kids become part of a world I never imagined possible in my own youth. But by far the best aspect of working in technology all these years is the utter and endless appreciation, respect, and admiration I’ve grown to hold for “geeks.” Geek was a dirty word when I was walking the playground. It was a sign of weakness. It tainted you. It was a scar you couldn’t hide. Once you were labeled, it was your cross to bear through graduation. Turns out the morons, the weaklings, the scorned were the non-geeks, the ones without vision, without foresight, without a sense of bigger possibilities. I wasn't smart enough to be a geek. I’m smart enough to call many my friends now, however. I love their passion. I love their enthusiasm. I love their work ethic. I love their determination to break down walls. Wish I was half the geek.