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A Walk on the Geek Side

Have you ever wondered about geeky kids? Geeky kids, here, need not be nerdy kids. Geeks, specifically, at least the way I define them, are basically just people who are good with computers. They're the sort of people who get the pun, "If you pile up Coke bottles, are you stacking the pop?" Basically, they're the guys who make computers  do the things that computers do (which is a lot of things, by the way, including letting you read this blog post.) So all you kids out there who think you can join geek club out there because you know a lot of Klingon, shoo.

Personally, I've always been kind of proud to be a geek, perhaps largely because my classmates are OK with my being a geek. It's also a lot of fun. Being able to program (a near-necessity to be considered a geek) is actually pretty cool. You have the ability to solve so many problems, not just for other geeks, but also for other people as well. It isn't even that hard to do (whatever the non-geek bully community may tell you).

Being a geek also gives you the ability to make jokes that are a lot worse than most people would dare make. I mean, seriously, what non-geek could say, when asked how an induction motor starts, "vroom vroom, vroom vrooooooom!"? No one, that's who. Not without losing face. This is probably my favourite thing about  being a geek, because my jokes are, admittedly, pretty terrible.

There's also a community of geeks that all geeks, irrespective of age, size, shape or planet of residence belong to and all non-geeks try not to deal with if at all avoidable. The geeks are very nice people, but they often have a lot of trouble expressing themselves in anything vaguely resembling English. This is most evident in communities like StackOverflow where the answers seem to be designed to confound those without practical experience in geekery.

That's not to say, however, that geeks are inherently smarter than non-geeks. Sure, many geeks are smart, but so are many non-geeks. Geeks just express their smartness differently. The good thing about being a geek is that the reverse is also true. If you say something in a conversation with a non-geek that seems excessively stupid, you can cover it up with excessive volumes of geek jargon (like the man said, if you can't convince them, throw new java.lang.StackOverflowError()).

I'd like to end this post by asking you to come over to the geek side, because after all, the geeks shall inherit the earth (even if we have to take it by force. Muhahaha, mwaaaahahahah... sorry, moving on). You'll be welcomed with open arms. Also, our web browsers have cookies.


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