Sky's Blog

Geek: one who is deep into the intricacies of a discipline, study or physical objects. {e.g. “Computer geeks”} A geek usually makes his own world and socializes about his chosen study. Frequently the geek doesn’t care much about the opinions of others about his chosen love-object, leading to their becoming socially ostracized. But, “So what?” A geek participates in geek activities every day, and preferably at least once every hour. The word may derive from European languages where it means fool or crazy.

Fanboy: one who is unreasonably geeky, proud of and proseletyzing about a discipline, study or physical objects. {“Apple fanboy”} Flamewars frequently arise between fanboys and their opponents because of the depth (and unreasonability) of their beliefs surrounding their love-object. A fanboy participates in fanboy activities “as needed” which might be each day, or sometimes only once a month. The word fan is a shortening of the word fanatic.

Ham: one who is showoffingly self-involved in participation in a discipline, study or physical objects. {“Ham” on the stage; “Ham” radio} On the stage, a “ham” usually overdoes it, going beyond what is necessary — and usually because he just loves doing it and gets a charge from his love-object. A ham usually participates in ham activities “when they feel like it” and sometimes in ways that indicate they feel they are invisible, such as ham radio operators talking on the radio when walking down the street. (Umm…that begs the question of whether cellphone street-walker-talkers are ham radio operators.) The word is a shortening of the word amateur.

My life is a series of cycles. One of them in particular has the lyrics “Business; learning; business; learning; business; learning…” I spend a few years building a company or a product, I become successful at it (most of the times), I then leave and cycle back into something I want to “learn.” And that learning period becomes formative in determining what I can productively do in the next business cycle.

Steve Jobs knew about these cycles, and said during his famous Stanford University commencement address of 2005 [7:22 into the video, which you can find on NPR]

“The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again.”

These cycles have nothing to do with whether you get rich or become a bum. They have to do with how you decide to use your precious years. He put the exclamation point on it [12:40 into the same video] by adding

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

I have lots of clients who have great ideas, wonderful vision, and yet have a lot of trouble understanding why I keep asking them for more and more specificity before I sit down and write some HTML or code. I’m afraid they sometimes think I’m a dolt because I keep asking for more detail about exactly what they want me to do. They find it hard to understand why I can’t just take an idea and run with it. Why do I need a detailed specification?

I ran into this passage a week ago, written over 10 years ago (but timeless), and the clarity and insight was so right on that I laughed out loud:

“The programmer, who needs clarity, who must talk all day to a machine that demands declarations, hunkers down into a low-grade annoyance. It is here that the stereotype of the programmer, sitting in a dim room, growling from behind Coke cans, has its origins. The disorder of the desk, the floor; the yellow Post-it notes everywhere; the whiteboards covered with scrawl: all this is the outward manifestation of the messiness of human thought. The messiness cannot go into the program; it piles up around the programmer.

Ullman, Ellen (2012-02-28). Close to the Machine: Technophilia and Its Discontents (Kindle Locations 352-356). Picador. Kindle Edition.

So when the client says, “Make that headline a little more greenish,” I now have something I can point them at so they’ll understand the difficulty of that seemingly simple task. I love it!

It has been my plan to make several trips into the Yosemite wilderness this summer in order to visit some places I’ve never seen before. Most tourists have seen Yosemite “Valley” and many have seen Tuolumne Meadows. Access to the wilderness areas is controlled by a “permitting” process that limits the number of people who may enter on a wilderness trailhead each day. There are a couple dozen trailheads, and they have quotas of one to two dozen camper-hikers per day per trailhead. Once you’re into the wilderness area, you can pretty much go where you desire, as long as you have the energy and the food. (continue reading…)