Geeks: Nobody Else Cares

I seem to have been born equipped with a “nerdar”. Like a radar but for detecting nerds.

You see, whenever I am out and about with my wife, I seem to pick up snatches of conversation between geeks that my wife will miss. I then relay the conversations to my wife who confirms the nerd-convo-status.

Superman would have a hard time competing with my bat-like ability to pick up the phrases “Star Wars”, “D10″,  “Arnold Rimmer” or “Vic-20″. Unfortunately I haven’t yet been able to build on this remarkable ability to earn fame and fortune.

We were at the mall the other day when I heard the phrase “Microsoft Yahoo! takeover”. Expecting to see two geeks debating the issue, instead I saw one guy red in the face trying to explain to his yawning girl friend (associate of the female persuasion, not sure of their relationship status. This was a geek after all). She wasn’t really picking up on the key points of his argument. Evidence being he kept re-iterating them in the hope that repetition would magically bring understanding.

I shook my head sadly. My wife asked what the problem was. Let me share with you what I told my wife.

It saddens me that geeks never learn. We try to educate the world only to be slapped down. Why is it geeks (and I include myself) feel the need to explain to the rest of humanity the issues that only matter to us?

For normal people it wouldn’t matter one iota if Yahoo! was owned by Microsoft, Google or News Corp. Most of them think that Google = The Interweb.

The same with the iPhone. I have seen a few times now a geek trying to “show off” his treasured device only for the wow-factor to be somehow missing. Here is a clue; the iPhone does not impress non-geeks.

You are not going to be able to persuade anyone else because non-geeks are wired differently to ourselves. It’s just how things are.

Don’t get me started on “Who would win between Godzilla and Darth Vader in a fight” (the answer is Darth Vader, clearly).

Geeks, nobody else is interested. Let’s keep this stuff to ourselves, eh? :)

Posted on February 21, 2008 by Chris Garrett 
Filed Under Funny

Comments

12 Responses to “Geeks: Nobody Else Cares”

  1. Damien Guard on February 21st, 2008 4:12 pm

    The iPhone non-geek status only applies while they don’t have it in their hand and start playing with the UI.

    I guess we try to educate the world because we believe we can and that things will be better for it.

    Which is why so many of us are engineers and developers doing just that.

    Non-geeks do love it, just only when it can deliver things for them. I’m sure TCP/IP and HTTP didn’t capture the imagination of non-geeks but adding HTML on top of that sure did.

    [)amien

  2. Chris Garrett on February 21st, 2008 6:13 pm

    I see what you mean but I don’t think it was HTML that got them interested, it was selling junk, sexy pics, free music, finding old class mates … and so on :)

  3. doug m on February 22nd, 2008 12:20 am

    Godzilla would obviously win, unless it was the one from Godzilla 2000, then Vader would run a train on him.

    I have had a few arguments that left me stressed that my point wasn’t taken. after seeing how i felt after that, i’ve since stopped trying to explain things and just go about my business unless someone asks specifically what my point is

  4. Chris Garrett on February 22nd, 2008 1:41 am

    See I think with Darth being a master of the dark side and having a star destroyer and all, Mr Zilla has no chance ;)

    Yup, if people are not listening best to let them be in ignorance, sooner or later they will come back to you for a clue :)

  5. Pete Bollini on February 22nd, 2008 4:18 am

    Our brains are marvellous machines but they were built a long time ago when we used them to track and kill animals in order to survive. Or, on the other hand, to defend ourselves by inventing cunning tricks to keep from being eaten. Today we have a constantly growing information overload which might eventually lead to a short circuit which in turn might cause an explosion. Maybe geeks are the future of mankind. They are the only ones to handle this sort of thing.

  6. Chris Garrett on February 22nd, 2008 1:24 pm

    Yup, “the geek shall inherit the earth” :)

  7. Why I Don’t Check Rankings : The Blog Herald on February 22nd, 2008 1:43 pm

    [...] a look at this article I wrote yesterday. What do you think I was aiming to do [...]

  8. Ambrosiality on February 22nd, 2008 8:54 pm

    um isnt Darth Vader human?? u can compare him to maybe spider man. then again I never watched Godzilla, and he might be slow.

    anyways back to u’re post. i think the iphone has mass appeal in America. other countries are like “been there, done that.” Plus money talks. The iphone is crazy expensive, so if a college hottie sees the phone, she knows how much it costs, and it might improve his chances of gettin her number.

    [sigh] cmon i know girls in the club who say, they cant talk to a guy with a shittier phone.

  9. doug m on February 24th, 2008 11:02 pm

    i was going to make the point that Vader is human, and compared to a giant monster that thrashes through Japanese villages with no remorse, i still go with Godzilla

    @Ambrosiality, i can’t stand girls who act like dudes’ phones determine if they are talked to or not. stuck up snobby little brats.
    what has society become

  10. Chris Garrett on February 25th, 2008 3:51 pm

    @Doug – If it wasn’t the phone it would be the clothes, tan, muscles, watch, wallet, car keys … those kinds of people are those kinds of people regardless :)

  11. doug m on February 25th, 2008 8:19 pm

    you’re right chris, and it’s sad.

  12. Written Journal Writers Guild America on September 2nd, 2008 4:18 pm

    Written Journal Writers Guild America…

    TIME 1 year…

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