technology

Let Me Bore You: Geek Your Budget

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It's time to geek your budget.

Financial planning is always important (if recent events haven't made that abundantly clear).  That's why you have to make sure that you have budget set aside for the "importantly" geeky things that make you both a geek/fan, AND a progeek.

Consider:

  • Are you setting aside money for the technology you use – a new cell phone, computer, etc.?  You're going to use those in the job search, in running your own business, to keep in touch, etc.
  • Are you setting aside money for conventions and events that are important to you both as a fan and as a networking tool?
  • re you making sure you have your assorted enjoyable pointless spending worked into your budget – so it doesn't sneak up on you?

I actually set aside money once a week for such things, and keep track of it.  That way I'm always prepared for my pro-geek and general fan needs.

For a lot of us our fannishness, geekyness, etc. doesn't fall too far away from our personal and professional ambitions.  Go on and geek your budget ahead of time – you'll be glad.

– Steven Savage

Technology, Speculation, and Failure

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I've talked a lot about technology in this blog – it's both a geeky subject, and something we're all interested in and dependent on.  Technology is changing fast and that changes jobs for ALL of us.

I want to address how technology is changing the nature of speculation and of failure in our careers.

For many of us progeeks and fan-to-pro types, technology is making some or all of our career ambitions easier.  If you want to be a writer, you can self-publish the first edition of your novel, comic, or book.  If you want to do a webcomic, the tools are there – including publicity tools.  If you want recognition as a history teacher you can edit wikis, write for blogs and websites, etc.  If you're a musician or an aspiring one I don't even HAVE to talk about what technology has done for you.

We all look at what technology lets us do from a positive side.  I'd like to call out another advantage that the onslaught of new technologies has done for us that we may not be looking at – speculation and failure.

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Fandom, Software, Technology

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You're probably amazingly literate in computer software and the internet.

To some of you reading this, you wonder if I've had my morning Red Bull because you've done a lot of boneheaded things on the computer.  You accidentally erased files, you just had your far more tech-savvy neighbor redo your security settings after the virus incident.  You don't feel too competent, and you STILL don't know where your vacation photos went.

But you're a fan.  You're obviously wired enough to be on-line to read this.  I'm betting you've got a lot more software knowledge than you've realized.  You may geek out more over bishounen than technology, but if you're your average online fan, you have a lot more knowledge than you may realize.

This of course means a few things:
1) you may want to reassess your resume because you have a lot more technical ability than you realized.
2) You may want to rethink some career options as perhaps you like the technology you work with, you just aren't sure you're too good at it – but if you like it, training can make up for ignorance.
3) You may want to reassess what you're doing in your current career as you may be able to do more than you thought, or may be able to improve your skills more quickly than you thought.

So ask yourself just what you know?
* DId your fanfic writing help you get to know a Word Processor?
* Did doing the budget for a convention make you better at Spreadsheets?
* Were you able to use visio to chart out how to get that cosplay done?
* You were editing a fan-wiki,learning all the markups and ins and outs.

You probably know more than you think, software-wise thanks to your fandom.

Keep that in mind.  Maybe give your resume or your career a once-over and ask what you know that you've missed.  Also ask how you can improve it.

– Steven Savage