Professional Geekery

A Reminder Of Why You Geeks, Nerds, Otaku, and Fanpeople are Important.

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Let me note that SOPA is a reminder of why you, the geek, the fan, the otaku, are important.

SOPA was and is  a grand illustration of ignorance, greed, and stupidity.  It would  destroy a great deal of freedom, was a legal and technical nightmare, and contained so much wrong it'd be hard to describe (fortunately others have done this for me).

Of course we geeks knew this.  Tech geeks could see where this was dangerous technically and security wise.  Culture geeks saw how this could destroy sites and communities.  Artistic geeks could see their livelihood curtailed or destroyed.  We knew in short it was REALLY BAD.

An awful lot of geeks rallied to give congress what-for, and are continuing to do so.  They do this because they get how things work – and know what's happening.

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Promoting Professional Geekery #16: Pass On The Books!

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if you're any kind of professional, you have a lot of books that you read to assist you and improve your lot.  If you're any kind of geek, you have a lot of books in various formats.

So if you want to keep promoting professional geekiness, it's time to start passing the books around.

Of you don't have to give them away permanently (though it might be nice to buy some as gifts, hint, hint).  Just make sure that those amazing, life-altering, career-building books get read by the right people – in short, people like you.  If you don't want to give them away for awhile, then recommend them forcefully.

I'm big on recommending and lending (OK, pushing) books to people, as you can kind of tell here with my reviews.  There's reasons:

  • There's a lot of books out there for careers and related subjects, and filtering them is hard.  You can sort through the dross.
  • There's also the case of finding the right books out of all the good ones – you know which ones fit your friends and fellow fans.
  • If you do lend out books, it's a good way to save friends, family, and fellows money.  In fact you save money just helping them sort through the wastes of money.
  • You can find what won't bore or confuse people – which is a big issue in career books.  What excites one person may bore others.
  • It helps keep people reading and improving their careers.  Always good.

And best of all?  Once you start doing it, other people start doing it.  They'll help others, they'll pass books on to you.

– Steven Savage

P.S. Don't forget book-lending for eBooks like Amazon, or just posting good reviews for books.  Anything that gets the word out!