You know you are a geek when...

You know you are a geek when

• You miss coding like a fisherman misses fishing.
• You give up an evening of online gaming to write code instead.
• You wake up in the middle of the night with an idea that is so good you have to try it...right now.

Yes my friend... these are the signs that you are a full-fledged member of geekdom. These are things that have all happened to me in the last three weeks. And to tell you the truth, it makes me feel good to know that I have still got it. The danger of career evolution (or development if you prefer) is that the longer you are in this business, the more responsibility you end up taking on. As you become more and more responsible your job inevitably moves farther and farther away from coding to talking about coding, planning for coding work to be done (by others), making sure the budget is on target, or fighting political battles.

Sure the money and prestige is better, but sometimes you long for the simplicity of a well factored interface and elegant object design. These are things that are concrete and reliable, like the sun in the sky or rain in Seattle.

The truth is, if you just talk about code but never write any, sooner or later you are going to sound pretty stupid. So here I am back at the code mill, cranking it out in the evenings once again, just like the old days....just like a fisherman at that favorite fishing hole.

Comments

• Anonymous
  February 17, 2004
  Well said. I'm 23 now, been "coding" professionally for about 6 years...can't imagine (well I can but you know what I mean) what life w/out coding would be like.

• Anonymous
  February 17, 2004
  Sad

• Anonymous
  February 17, 2004
  You are wasting your life if you are just gona spend it coding. Save yourself before its too late.

• Anonymous
  February 17, 2004
  Studies by people such as Prof. Robert Winston have shown that brain excercise decreases the risk of senility and mental degradation over time. Good excercises include crossword puzzles, word play and programming - so it may indeed come to pass that the geek shall inherit the earth.

• Anonymous
  February 17, 2004
  If you ever take a break or get stressed out, the absolute worst thing you can do is just "nothing". I did that after a burnout, drove me mad. Hasnt affected me much tho twitches.

• Anonymous
  February 17, 2004
  wow, it sounds like somewhere along the lines I turned into a geek also. Why didn't anyone mention it to me?

• Anonymous
  February 17, 2004
  Im going the opposite way, give if a few more years and you will see a computer is just that, a peice of plastic and not worth any more time than you need to.
  
  I used to be an uber geek but thesedays I really dont give a toss. More important things in life, maybe if you get burnt out you will see that :D
  
  

• Anonymous
  February 17, 2004
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 17, 2004
  Right. Becoming a geek when you do serious coding is inevitable. Although I don't plan to spend my whole life coding, I consider it necessary to keep my brain lucid as much as possible.

• Anonymous
  February 17, 2004
  "You give up an evening of online gaming to write code instead" -
  better still, coding a game.. :-)
  

• Anonymous
  February 17, 2004
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  June 08, 2009
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• Anonymous
  June 08, 2009
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