# On being a geek **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 26, 2001, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565 "2001-05-26T07:03:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565/1 "2001-05-26T07:03:04Z")
> [@](#): > > People with lives scare me. They spend more than they can afford on clothes. They have a lot of friends who they don’t really like. They order five-dollar coffees with Italian names and a spritz of something. Their “lives” tend to end at thirty. > > No thanks. I think I shall remain a geek. I’ll immerse myself in deep conversations with true friends, take pleasure in beauty, fight for social justice, and try to unravel the mysteries of the universe. > > It’s good to be a geek. > > - Hamish Copley There are things in this life that give me joy. I can’t explain any of them. Some things, some concepts and activities, just give me a pulse of joy throughout my body and soul, a fervent stroke of energy and life that says that what I am doing or experiencing is of value, is sacred, is human. Our society often doesn’t respect passion very much. We’re meant to be quite calm and cynical, getting mildly enthused about various things that are popular and shallow and easy for others to grasp. In our formalized lives there is no time for pure spiritual pleasure, and people who admit to rejoicing are, in my experience, often looked at askance. We don’t seem to use the word “rejoice” very much anymore. Perhaps that’s today’s definition of “geek:” one who rejoices. If you talk to a geek about the focus (or foci) of their geekery, you have a sense that it’s not mere interest at play, but something deeper. As an animist, I believe that the divine is everywhere. I can feel a connection to the Gods under whatever circumstances let me do so. I don’t know about others’ experiences. But for me, my obsessions, or the foci of my geekery, could be best described as more direct paths to the divine; in short, for me, my geekery is holy. (Coincidentally, that’s another word we don’t seem to use much anymore.) Who knows? Maybe that little hobby of yours, the little pastime you dabble in when you have a little spare time, that you don’t like to admit to people because it’s kind of embarrassing - maybe you’ll find you share it with another person, and that it’s not just a hobby, but a way to explore yourself. Maybe you, too, are a geek. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565/2 "2001-05-26T16:35:54Z")
Amen, brother, amen! I agree completely. That makes two of us. Anyone else out there willing to admit to being a geek? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565/3 "2001-05-26T16:57:59Z")
Total geek with no apologies. Geeky about more things than I can keep track of as my passions burn quickly but brightly (see the “Gemini” thread). ---
**Author:** ![Drastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565/4 "2001-05-26T17:22:04Z")
The SDMB will of course give a skewed sample of geek population. And “Bob” bless it for that. I do though, I must admit, enjoy the occasional absurdly overpriced quasi-italian coffee beverage. Frappucinos are just very tasty things. Otherwise, safely in full-on geek range. ---
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565/5 "2001-05-26T17:31:05Z")
These are my people. ---
**Author:** ![Lucki\_Chaarms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lucki\_Chaarms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucki_Chaarms)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565/6 "2001-05-26T17:32:33Z")
Right on, Matt. See my [hippie joy thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=72127) in MPSIMS. It’s all about simple pleasures, man. Lucky Charms (Formerly MarxBoy) ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565/7 "2001-05-26T17:59:40Z")
Do they make bumper stickers that say “I’m a GEEK and I’m PROUD!”? I can’t begin to count the ways in which I exhibit my geekiness – although I am tempted to try, because I have always thought that a common geek trait is the desire to form sets, subsets, order, and rearrange things. One of my favorite relaxing hobbies is to rearrange my Star Wars novels – publication, chronological, alpha by author … sometimes even by how much I enjoyed them. What’s the opposite of “geek”? I like the “people with lives” from **matt\_mcl’s** quote, but is there something more precise? I try not to have an “us vs. them” mentality, but sometimes it’s hard. ---
**Author:** ![Orbifold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orbifold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orbifold)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565/8 "2001-05-26T19:46:16Z")
Preach it, brother! (Who’s Hamish Copley?) ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565/9 "2001-05-26T19:58:19Z")
I’m a geek. I like being a geek. I’m envious of those people who got introduced to RPGs when they were younger. I had none of that. I never got to do RenFaires, and I wasn’t exposed to fun math until my freshman year of HS. I never got into debating until junior year because I was afraid of the building it was in my first two years of HS. But then I was also a jock. It’s weird . . . I sat with the debaters and the football team. Very strange experience. I never felt as though I was one of either group because I wasn’t very good at either. But I did spend horrendous amounts of time programming on my calculator, and my senior year we defeated the school’s protections software, so I think that gives me admission. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565/10 "2001-05-27T00:18:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Math Geek \* > \*\*(Who’s Hamish Copley?) \*\* (I think he’s Matt’s, um, friend.) ---
**Author:** ![AndYrAStar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8edcca/32.png) [@AndYrAStar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndYrAStar)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565/11 "2001-05-27T00:25:18Z")
> [@](#): > > (I think he’s Matt’s, um, friend.) dammit… I sent this to a few of my friends thinking it was some well-known quote made by a famous person I’ve just never heard of. if this thing starts circulating around the internet with a message at the bottom instructing you to send it to 20 people in the next 15 seconds or you’ll die a horrible death, it’s not my fault. ---
**Author:** ![AndYrAStar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8edcca/32.png) [@AndYrAStar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndYrAStar)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565/12 "2001-05-27T00:28:08Z")
oh, and I would be a geek too. yay. ---
**Author:** ![Myrnalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Myrnalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrnalene)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565/13 "2001-05-27T00:30:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dropzone \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Math Geek \* > > \*\*(Who’s Hamish Copley?) \*\* > > (I think he’s Matt’s, um, friend.) \*\* I was under the impression that he’s Matt’s friend, not his “um, friend”. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565/14 "2001-05-27T00:37:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AndYrAStar \* > \*\*oh, and I would be a geek too. yay. \*\* Did anyone else read this first as “that I would be a geek, too”, a sort of play on Alanis Morrisette’s “That I Would be Good”? ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565/15 "2001-05-27T00:42:15Z")
There are so very few girl geeks. I am the one my friends call when they need help with their “Puters”. I wear glasses, I enjoy online chat, I kicked butt at ‘fun math’ but I was also a cheerleader and apparently I’m a hottie. The common perception of the ‘geek’ is that they have a pocket protector, taped-at-the-bridge horn-rimmed glasses and get a boner whenever the cheerleader walks by. Not me. And I don’t bite the heads off of chickens, either. My friend Jay says that makes all the difference in the world. Ginger ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565/16 "2001-05-27T01:14:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Myrnalene \* > \*\* I was under the impression that he’s Matt’s friend, not his “um, friend”. \*\* I’ve been wrong before. It’s hard to tell since Matt’s “um, friends” are legion. (Little, but playful, dig at Matt and his remarkable success with guys. Ah, had I been so good with women!) > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AndYrAStar \* > \*\* I sent this to a few of my friends thinking it was some well-known quote made by a famous person \*\* And how does one become famous? By people quoting them. You may have SINGLEHANDEDLY made Hamish Copley a famous aphorist. ---
**Author:** ![Odieman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a87d85/32.png) [@Odieman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odieman)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565/17 "2001-05-27T01:20:33Z")
I guess I must be…after all thats what it says in my profile 😉 Keith ---
**Author:** ![Sterra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Sterra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sterra)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565/18 "2001-05-27T01:24:53Z")
> [@](#): > > And I don’t bite the heads off of chickens, either. My friend Jay says that makes all the difference in the world. It does? Damn. ---
**Author:** ![Erika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/47e85d/32.png) [@Erika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erika)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565/19 "2001-05-27T01:28:12Z")
another (female, even) geek checking in. as an aside, at some point attempting to define “geek” is probably a prereq…or at least a warning sign. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565/20 "2001-05-27T03:43:54Z")
Style is the opposite of substance. Coolness is the opposite of geekiness. Coolness means having style. Therefore: Geekiness means having substance. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-being-a-geek/66565.md?page=2)