Culture

Geek As Citizen: To Warn

by

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.

Read more

Geek As Citizen: To Advocate

by

In my ongoing analysis of the role of a “geek as citizen”, I determined geeks were experts at knowing (indeed it’s instinct), driven to apply their knowledge (which is part of our enthusiasm), and thus good at experimenting (as in inclined). Indeed my term “Applied Geek” is a bit like Sahara Desert as all geeks to some case are about “application.”

We know, we use, and in a few cases we go crazy in a (possibly) productive way.

So really my take is that Geeks are a kind of “middleman/middlewoman” in a culture, mixing both academic and hands-on approaches together to get things done and to innovate. I’m not saying geeks are superior, I’m merely noting where they fit into the great scheme of civilization – and being a geek I’m all too aware of my limitations (like the faffing about, occasional obsessiveness, odd perspectives, etc.)

However, as I noted we are kind of “people in the middle” and that provides some further guidance on the social roles we can and indeed should take as geeks. We’ve got information coming in on all sides, we get our hands dirty, we kind of see and do a lot.

Sure we may not be as “face to face” on some things, or as academic, or our hands may not be as dirty as some (which is a terrible metaphor but you get the idea). We may also be limited by our own obsessions to being “in the middle” of a pretty limited area of expertise. But in the middle we are.

That leads to one of our important roles, as advocates and evangelizers for important causes and information. It may be the value of education, or knowing a given programming language, or climate change, or Applied Geek careers like yours truly. But because we’re in the middle of so much, we can in turn advocate for what is important.

Read more

Geek As Citizen: To Play, Dream, and Experiment

by

As I previously explored, analyzing where we Geeks fit in as citizens, we’re passionate retainers of information that also apply that knowledge. We aren’t so much pure academics (though many of us are professional academics), nor are we just about doing things and being active.  Instead we’re about the interplay of that knowledge and doing something with it. That’s what we’re inclined to do, frankly, and thus it is also something we can contribute as citizens.

We’re information and application bundled together. Actually considering the whole “passion” part it’s pretty hard to separate them anyway from geeks. Passion is often about getting your hands dirty.

There is however, a flip side to our role of “Applied Knowledge” that is also something we can do in society. Geeks also like to get wild and crazy with our applied knowledge, imagining and trying out all sorts of crazy stuff because it’s fun. In short, the flip side to or applied knowledge is toplay, to dream, to experiment and in short, to at times get stark raving bonkers in what we do.

Read more