Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
You go to cons and there is a cosplay competition.
Online there's art competitions.
Wargaming conventions have endless battles.
Fandom, for all its friendly nature, likes a good bit of competition. it's fun, it's challenging, it's exciting, it gets people going.
So I've been speculating – could this friendly competition be used towards the cause of progeekery? Could we channel friendly fannish compettion to help people in their careers?
I was looking over the news of the day, thinking over our podcasts as of late, and noticed that Bonnie and I talk and write a lot about technology companies. What's Apple up to? What about streaming video? What about this or that . . . it's always streams and circuits, chips, and screens, and technology.
We talk about tech a lot.
Here on the blog we're all about geeky things – Tech of course. Video games. Also books, comics, television and more. We're not exactly a tech career blog, and that's intentional – we want to cover a lot of progeekery.
One thing I find strengthens my efforts, as an unrepentant geek, is to look back at history of all the geeks, nerds, fanboys, fangirls, etc. that came before me. A quick review of history reveals just how much was done by people like, well, us.
History is filled with examples of people making great achievements in their own area of interest or outright obsession. Our world is pretty much build on their efforts, knowledge, wisdom, and odd habits turned into virtues and creations.
How many of us were inspired by language-and-lit-geek JRR Tolken? A man who loved language so much he ended up making his own.
Chinese history is filled with tales of philosophers, musicians, and sages who were joyfully odballs and geeks – many remembered to this day.
The computer you're using to read this is a product of huge amount of nerd-hours – from hardware to software. You can only read this because of people that are likely FAR geekeir than you or I doing what they love to make technology.
Just take a LOOK at Einstein, Bill Gates, and . . . well most artists.
Guess what? History is filled with people just like you.
Look back over history and look for fellow nerds, geeks, and fans. You'll be surprised what you find.
You'll also be inspired. If they succeeded, you can too.
– Steven Savage