A geek, as I define it, is a person who lives and breathes computers. Geeks have no outside loves (outside of the computer or outside of their room). Once in a while I will get in a conversation with a geek who expects me to be like him since I work on computers all day. Alas, I he quickly discovers that I am not a geek and he is thoroughly confused.
Here are five reasons that I am not a geek:
1. I have always been social. I love talking with people. Even if I have nothing in common them, I prefer to work around people. I think of my computer fixing job as helping people with understanding their computers, not fixing computers to work for people.
2. I have had a steady stream of girlfriends since the first grade; until I got married that is. My first girlfriend was Melissa, then Janellle, then Pilar, then in second grade it was Kim, I could go on, but I think I have proved my point.
3. I don’t care much for computers. As I said in #1, helping people is the most rewarding part of my job. The fact that I am helping them with their computer is just the niche I have found.
4. My family comes first. I will drop whatever I am doing to help my wife with the kids or help the kids with homework. We have already been on two short trips this summer and have a few more planned. The time I spend on the computer is work time. Playtime and hobbies have little to do with the computer.
5. I always opt to speak in analogies and layman’s terms. I don’t like techno-jargon. I prefer to call RAM temporary memory or thinking memory. I don’t ask people questions like, "What version of Windows are you using?" I just ask, "What does the screen look like when you first turn on your computer?" I don’t want people to be afraid of their computers. They are a wondeful tool but nothing about a computer is intuitive. Simple, yet incomplete explainations are always better than complete definitions and tech words.
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