As this series has gone on, frankly it’s been a bit surprising. I explored areas I didn’t expect, found a few areas (like experimentation) that needed more depth, and think this may be a permanent column on “geek citizenry.” But most of it has been just plain fun, as I think of the issue of geek as citizen.
I love being a geek, being both an enthusiast and a tinker. Of course that’s what I’m inclined to do through whatever forces shaped me. But I have a blast doing it.
However, there’s also less pleasant sides of geekery, that I think come to the fore in using our inclinations to be good citizens. I’m going to cover what I consider one of the core ones.
Namely, we’re the ones who need to raise the red flag when stuff goes wrong.
My basic theory, which I’ve gone on add nauseum, is most geeks fit the “applied” category here at Muse Hack; we have a body of knowledge we’re interested in that in turn we apply and experiment with in a personal way. We thus stand in the middle of both academic and activity, and we in turn often see a lot of information, even if it may be rather narrow due to our inclinations.
Thus, informed and active, passionate about information, connected, we’re also going to be the people to see when there are problems or that problems are on the way. We’re people who stand on the crossroads – in some cases we design the crossroads – so we just see a lot.
We’ve got to shoot our mouths off. Lives may even depend on it.