psychology

Turning Hated Expertise Around

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You ever get a call from a family member to help you with a computer problem that they could have figured out with some research?

You ever have a friend doing an interview who called you to ask you what the person he was interviewing was talking about?

You ever find yourself cornered at a party or get-together to explain something about your job or industry to someone, and wondered how they didn't know something that simple?

Yeah.  Me too.  When we do something for a living, when we're truly into it – in short, when we're progeeks or would-be-progeeks – everyone uses us as a source of information.  It gets annoying.

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Geek News Is News You Can Use

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If you were on an interview for your ideal job, would you have mentioned the most recent Comic-Con?  The latest game releases?  The recent travails of smartphones or tablets?

Maybe you should have.

One of the things about being, well, the geeks and fans and otaku we are, is we're often painfully well informed about news issues, at least with stuff we like.  We know about conventions and releases, games and manga, shipping issues and scandals.  We know a lot of stuff.

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Your Greatness Is Your Own

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As I've always noted, it's important to have role models.  We need people to look up to, to be like, to remind us of what we can do, and to give us ideas of how to be better than we are.  We're social animals, we humans, and we work well with other people as references.

One of the great things about being a fanboy, fangirl, geek, otaku, etc. is that we usually have a lot of great role models and access to them.  Media fans have the actors, writers, editors, and so on to look up to.  Game fans have the programmers and producers to learn from.  Comic geeks have artists and writers and publishers.  When your geekery and your professional ambitions come together, you find yourself surrounded by people you can – and may want to – be like.

There is one thing you have to keep in mind however: You're never going to be successful like your role models.

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