Posts tagged “geek culture”

I explore what it means to be a geek: someone with an intense intellectual obsession, once a social outcast but increasingly cool since the dot-com era proved geeks could outearn athletes. The internet has helped us find each other. Simple rule: you're a geek if you say you are.

I always assumed my geekiness came from my chemical engineer dad, but looking closer, he's the people person. Mom switched from P.E. to teaching chemistry, never met a gadget she didn't upgrade twice, and yesterday sat giggling over her new Palm Pilot. The geekiness is absolutely from her.

Right after I asked why geeks instinctively favor freedom of information, ESR published his hacker ethos confirming exactly that. Convenient. His proposed hacker logo leaves me cold though -- we need a cute, malleable mascot, not a corporate emblem. The glider pattern is clever but soulless.

I got Jean-Luc Picard in a sci-fi character quiz. His associated quote about censorship and freedom feels deeply true to me, and I'm curious about its origins -- attributed to Picard, who quotes a fictional judge. Why do geeks find this sentiment so self-evident? More on that later.

Planet Timmy is brilliant sad-git comedy gold. Watch the PrettyBoyTim video for some fantastically random geek humour.