It’s something I’ve said on many occasions: it’s good to be a geek. It’s good to be comfortable with and somewhat knowledgeable about technology. It opens doors, makes classes of problems not problems at all, and just generally makes my life more interesting and fun.
It’s also what allows me to help others; from Ask Leo! to select friends and neighbors, my comfort with technology serves me well and allows me to serve others.
Though I do wish more people weren’t quite so timid when it comes to technology — it could serve them better as well.
Honestly I’m not sure exactly what it is that makes me so comfortable with computers and technology, but I can hypothesize a path.
My dad was an engineer, and my mom was simply smart; an engineer in her own right. I’m pretty sure that a lot of who I am comes via my genetics.
Random chance led me to a TV repair man who, at an early age, helped foster my curiosity in electronics and the like.
That, of course, let me to college and my discovery of computing and the career I would ultimately have.
But, I think there’s more to it than that path. I’ve often said there’s a way of thinking involved in technology — and computing specifically — that I think I come to naturally. I guess I’d call it “practical logic”, though that doesn’t really capture it completely. Most might just call it “thinking like a computer”, but that’s too restrictive and even somewhat demeaning. It’s a practical way of thinking logically and pragmatically, not just about technology, but about life itself, with a healthy dose of skepticism and scientific method thrown into the mix.
I believe more people would benefit from being exposed to it early, and encouraged to grow in throughout their lives.
Regardless of how I got here, I’m grateful that I did. Being setting up or fixing a computer or three, to dealing with the plethora of today’s gadgets, it is, indeed, good to be a geek.