How much of a Geek are you?

My problem is there is so much to learn, and I have a bad habit of wanting to know it all... So I will spend weeks/months learning something until I know it back/front and then learn something new. I find it normal to sit at home and read "how stuff works" for fun.

Yesterday I was interested in digital cameras because I know very little about them. I went to Barnes and Nobles and picked up a magazine and sat down for an hour and read how cameras today work. I had no idea what CCD was or how it was being used. I just assumed CMOS was todays standards, when in fact it is not. According to the magazine, Sony is one of the first companies to introduce their own cmos version to improve pixel quality. It also sounds like Olympus is on the same track. I feel half way competent about going and selecting a digital camera now...

How many of you sit in front of the computer reading/learning everyday?

It is almost like my equivalant to crack.

I physically cannot go one day without learning something new. Is this a disorder, OCD?

I look at it this way, there are people out there who know every stat, every player etc about a sport because they live and breath it... I am that way with the computer industry.

I was just curious how many more of myself are out there.

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Comments

mrhaun03

I agree with you on the crack thing...it's great...

But seriously, I'm the same way. I find myself wanting to learn something new almost everyday. Maybe I seen something on tv or something happened at work that I'm not too familiar with, so I go learn whatever I can about it.

garv221

Same way. I like to know as much as possible. I read everyday and learn things front to back, if I don't then I always have a question "what if".

royal

I know what you guys mean. I want to know everything about everything but there is a plethora of information out there. When I do learn something, I try to learn every tiny little detail there is to know. If only it was like the Matrix where I can download information into my brain.

bighornsheep

I like to think in the way that true knowledge is universial. I believe that there's no such thing as "I do this, and I know need to know this, the rest I dont need to worry about". Yes, essentially there's specialization, but sometimes generalization is the key to true understanding in a particular specialization.

I like a post recently in another thread about the building blocks of IT, just because you're a network administrator doesnt mean that you dont need to worry about how to add more memory to a PC.

This thinking has being driving me to finish my degree....half of the things I am learning has nothing to do with my field of interest..but I think that they're still important.

It's just sad the manifestation of universial knowledge, because you have people who just expect others to know everything..."oh you work with computers...so you must know all the crazy stuff with photoshop..can you show me how to make animated videos on my computer?"

This is why I still believe in degrees where liberal arts are and should required, I know too many people who can barely write a simple letter without spelling mistakes and/or lack of a central idea.

I've often been asked why I bother with a computer science degree if I want to be in networking systems, my answer is because every major component of a computer networking system has some sort of theoretical computer science application, furthermore a baisc understanding of computers and computing (there is a HUGE difference) is necessary.

Personally, I find it very interesting for computer professionals to not have a general understanding with digital technology (cell phones, cameras...and etc..)

I'm definitely not the one to be pointing fingers...and no directed attacks towards anyone, I personally feel (and strive towards) that basic universial knowledge in things that are fundamentally related to everything else.

sprkymrk

@bighornsheep

You make some good valid points and I wholly agree. The thing is though, at least for me, as I get older (and I'm not the oldest guy on these forums but rather in the oldest 20% or so based on a thread a while back) I find myself constantly gravitating more and more towards specializations and areas of personal interest to the exclusion of other things.

For instance, I started out absolutley fascinated by the internal workings of a computer and thought I would be content to build and upgrade systems (hardware) for years. Well, the love of networking all but made me lose interest in the fastest processors, various video cards and cool cooling components. Once I started to cater to my interests in networking, system administration naturally followed. And who can effectively administer multiple systems without learning about scripting and security? I found that SANS, VM's, Databases, and telecom stuff holds no interest for me and therefore becomes hard to learn. Scripting, security, and networking are still my favorite things and the easiest for me to pick up.

So as far as the cameras, pixels, graphics, scanners, cell phones, ipods, etc you can have 'em. When I need to use one I'll call you to help me out.

TechJunky

I am with sparky on this one. I have no need for a fancy ipod and all the crazy options it has. I have an ipod nano just because I run a lot and I need something light weight. I know how to navigate it and thats about it. I have no interest in learning anything cool about it or have any need.

Though, a general overview or competency of all these fancy devices is a practical expectation when hiring an IT tech.

A good example; I have a programmer within our company that is amazing with scripting abilities, but if you try and explain to her how a raid configuration works, or how to install a processor, etc her eyes glaze over. I think she should atleast have a general knowledge of the basics. It's not like I was asking her to build a Raid 5 array and know how to recover it. I was simply explaining to her how to plug in the drives, and how to make sure the raid 0 or 1 was built correctly.

I understand that this is not in her field of programming, she will more than likely never have to build a raid array, but she does need to understand how disk drives work in order to understand how to keep the TCO low on her SQL databases.

On another note....

I am glad I am not the only one who acts the way I do with my personal life.

I try and explain myself to my wife, but she always says "playing on that computer all the time".

bighornsheep

sprkymrk wrote:

The thing is though, at least for me, as I get older (and I'm not the oldest guy on these forums but rather in the oldest 20% or so based on a thread a while back) I find myself constantly gravitating more and more towards specializations and areas of personal interest to the exclusion of other things.

I believe that neither of what we have said has negated the other. In one of my 1st of liberal arts course

we learnt the Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, in simple terms...we all have different stages of life to go through, for myself, being slightly younger

I'm simply going through my stage of discoveries and exploration, for yourself, I'm sure you've grown-up and developed your way through tons of knowledge and experience that I may never encounter.

However, I do believe that the key is where and how does one feel about their circumstance. If anyone's like my age and feels that they only need to worry about M$ Windows desktop environment, and that other things of higher levels are not of importance or relevance, I believe that those could not be more wrong. I find that things are often forgotten or overlooked not because they're not important or related, but that there's a lack of motivation. To stretch the analogy a little bit, I think if somebody was to really care, they would find that cameras has tons to do with computers...the workings of the ccd lens has fundamental connotations to the workings of a computer monitor!

On the other hand though, for those that do not think learning and the attempt to learn more is important:
if(age == Systems.oldAge)
{
old=true;
okay=true;
}
else{
old=false;
okay=false;

System.out.println("Get of your a$$ and get some characters."); }

sprkymrk

bighornsheep wrote:

sprkymrk wrote:

The thing is though, at least for me, as I get older (and I'm not the oldest guy on these forums but rather in the oldest 20% or so based on a thread a while back) I find myself constantly gravitating more and more towards specializations and areas of personal interest to the exclusion of other things.

I believe that neither of what we have said has negated the other.

I hope I didn't come off as negative, as I mentioned I agreed with what you said for where you are now. I sometimes wish I could get a little of that thrill of discovery back like I used to have it.

The funny thing is that the older I get, the smarter my dad becomes. When I was a teen ager he sure didn't know very much. Go figure...

bighornsheep

sprkymrk wrote:

I sometimes wish I could get a little of that thrill of discovery back like I used to have it.

The funny thing is that the older I get, the smarter my dad becomes. When I was a teen ager he sure didn't know very much. Go figure...

I've said this before and I am willing to repeat it....I have so much respect for you it's hard to demonstrate it on a public forum.

And about wisdom and knowledge...it's like they say about university education. In first year you want to know everything, in second year you dont want to know anything, in third year you think you know everything, in fourth year you dont know nothing.

Now stretch that out a little, I think it explains alot about the urge to learn and also the process of learning.

garv221

"The more you know" Wasn't that the tag line for some cheesy education commercial on PBS in the early 90's?

I am 25, about 3 years ago I simply realized I can learn anything or achieve anything by simply reading and focusing. One day it just clicked, ever since then I approach each day with that mentality. I know how everything I am surrounded by works, my house, bimmer, vitamins, wine, worthless crap like how to remove candle wax from carpet etc.....

Trailerisf

TechJunky wrote:

I try and explain myself to my wife, but she always says "playing on that computer all the time".

Ha Ha. I get the exact same thing.

Plantwiz

TechJunky wrote:

I was just curious how many more of myself are out there.

Your question is like asking a bunch of drunks if it's 'normal' to have another beer...of course there are more of us out there/here who LOVE learning new things. Likely one reason we are all here.

So are you normal? To this group...YES. To others? Depends who you ask

Learning new things never hurt anyone that I've ever read so keep it up. Of all the vices one could have...it's likely the one that won't get you into trouble.

sprkymrk

Plantwiz wrote:

Learning new things never hurt anyone that I've ever read so keep it up. Of all the vices one could have...it's likely the one that won't get you into trouble.

Did anyone tell that to Kevin Mitnik?

Plantwiz

sprkymrk wrote:

Plantwiz wrote:

Learning new things never hurt anyone that I've ever read so keep it up. Of all the vices one could have...it's likely the one that won't get you into trouble.

Did anyone tell that to Kevin Mitnik?

I was thinking of him when I was typing my response, but for most people....it doesn't lead to 'trouble' and in the end....it brought some light to improving security and not shipping captian decoder rings out in cereal

jetdynamics

I agree with everybody here the more we discover new things about computer like depends on our path of learning curve like networking,hardware, programming etc.. the more we crave for knowledge its probably because we accomplish or achieve something I guess thats human nature we will never stop discovering new things.

JDMurray

sprkymrk wrote:

Plantwiz wrote:

Learning new things never hurt anyone that I've ever read so keep it up. Of all the vices one could have...it's likely the one that won't get you into trouble.

Did anyone tell that to Kevin Mitnik?

It's not what you learn, it's how you use that knowledge that gets you into trouble.

sprkymrk

jdmurray wrote:

sprkymrk wrote:

Plantwiz wrote:

Learning new things never hurt anyone that I've ever read so keep it up. Of all the vices one could have...it's likely the one that won't get you into trouble.

Did anyone tell that to Kevin Mitnik?

It's not what you learn, it's how you use that knowledge that gets you into trouble.

Yes, there is a distinct difference I agree. Very well said.