My eighteen month old son was playing with the computer yesterday. He was tapping away at the keys and generally enjoying himself even though he does not know what a computer is.
I said "He'll grow up to be a geek."
My EX wife was horrified. "Don't call him that."
"Why? Its not an insult."
"Yes it is." she said.
"Well thats what we call ourselves."
"Then its like the "n" word. An insult appropriated by a minority group as a sign of defiance."
"Er, something like that."
So I'm proud to be a geek but it is a label that I'll only accept from other geeks. If I'm lucky it will be a label that my son will proud to adopt but if his mum gets her own way he'll be a ballet dancer instead.
Posted by chrismatts at August 22, 2004 9:20 AMhttp://tinyurl.com/3q9hy
I will volunteer to act as an intermediary if it would be problematic for you to purchase this yourself... :)
Posted by: Jason Yip at August 22, 2004 11:35 AMOh yeah, and you can get your wife this
http://tinyurl.com/tgxj
to appease her... :)
Posted by: Jason Yip at August 22, 2004 11:40 AMWouldn't it be cool if ThoughtWorks purchased a "Geek in Training" t-shirt for our new parents? And an "I Love My Geek" t-shirt for our newlyweds? I know they're just small tokens, but anything to make us a bit more family-friendly is worth the investment IMHO.
Posted by: Dave Hoover at August 22, 2004 1:04 PM