I’m a 40-something year old “Professional Geek.” “Geek 2.0” I call myself, and rather shamelessly at that. I’m a geek professionally, a geek for money.
I also to not intend to “get old.” I’d also recommend you, my professional geeks, do not either.
Oh, I intend to mature. Maturity is how I turned my interests into a career. Maturity is how I realized this blog is needed. Maturity is why I value each contributor here. Maturity is like a good wine or cheese, it’s where things age into a delightful form.
So please, by all means you pro geeks, mature. Mature and grow.
Just don’t get old.
When you get old you become worn out. When you get old you become stagnant as opposed to mature. When you get old you become out of date. When you get old your age becomes the first and perhaps only thing to matter.
So by all means grow. Mature. Grow up. Just stop before you get old. Keep enough of the useful enthusiasm that got you here to stay energized. Keep enough of the energy that drove you so you keep developing, and keep maturing.
As you tell people about your fannish, geeky, and otaku ambitions, they’ll tell you to grow up. What they really mean is to give up and get old, stagnant, and boring. What they mean is being like an ideal norm that isn’t normal because it’s all statistical averages and doesn’t exist. It means pre-aging yourself into ossification.
So don’t grow up and get old. Mature enough until you’re ideal for what you want, and go on being the person you are, the professional you are.
In fact, shout this to the heavens, because if you’re the best you, the mature you, then you’ll have one hell of a career edge over people who gave up, “grew up,” and grew old no matter what their age.
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.