Geek Metamorphosis: Getting Comfortable with Uncomfortable

Geek Metamorphosis
Getting Comfortable with Uncomfortable

Bradley Taylor
bradleytaylor@me.com
twitter: bradleyktaylor

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Or, learning to love...


GEEK
A person with a devotion to
something in a way that places
him or her outside the
mainstream. This could be due
to the intensity, depth, or
subject of their interest.
Wikipedia

Geek Cred
• Programming for 28 years
• Expertise in 100s of acronyms
• Designed and built private compute cloud
• Likes record collecting, single barrel
whiskey, and MMORPG video games.


but, also


EMT

Tree Farmer

Hot Sauce Mogul

Champion Bird Dogs

A human being should
be able to

change a diaper

plan an invasion

butcher a hog

conn a ship

design a building

write a sonnet

balance accounts

set a bone

comfort the dying

take orders

give orders

cooperate

act alone

solve equations

analyze a new problem

pitch manure

program a computer

cook a tasty meal

ﬁght efﬁciently

die gallantly.

Specialization is for
insects.

WHY


1. More useful


2. More interesting


3. More conﬁdent


equals


more fun


more opportunities


more $$$


more prepared


more dates


(although “want to
check out my record
collection?” actually
works)


(if you’re in college)


Stuff your mom can tell
stories about.


Stuff you can talk about
with non-geeks.


(if you don’t want to
talk about politics or
religion)


or Georgia football

GETTING STARTED


(how to be a newb)


You’re going to suck at
ﬁrst.


You’ll live


The good news:


you have an advantage.


1. Work outside your
job description


try sales


or customer support


or biz crap


just do something that’s
“not your job”


2. Work on ﬁtness


Crossﬁt

open source ﬁtness
technology


Fitness in 100 words


Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some
fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to
levels that will support exercise but not body fat.
Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean,
squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master
the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb,
push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand,
pirouettes, ﬂips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim,
row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week
mix these elements in as many combinations and
patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the
enemy. Keep workouts short and intense.
Regularly learn and play new sports.

it’s hard, but rewarding


scalable


lifting heavy crap is cool


re-learn how to learn


olympic lifting is crazy
technical


learn to struggle


daily progress


daily success


learn to dig deep


3. Gather info


what is involved?


money? time?


accessibility of training?


geographically
appropriate?


identify skills


identify barriers


Find the geek angle


and hack it.


CRANK IT UP


when you don't create things, you
become deﬁned by your tastes rather
than ability. your tastes only narrow &
exclude people. so create.


1. Find an expert


passionate


willing to share


and lots of patience


bribe, trade, or hire


you’ll discover the stuff
you didn’t know that
you didn’t know


2. Go for it


Do it-te!

practice, all is coming

get experience


put away the books


stop reading forums


(or twitter, fb, blogs,
whatever)


the more you do, the
less scary


the more conﬁdence


getting more
comfortable


besides, you can lift 2x
your body weight now,
right?


3. Dominate


pick some goals


measurable, acheivable
goals


like


earn a certiﬁcation


(but, don’t “go back to
school”)


win a competition


whatever


something to brag
about


and makes a good story


Make your mama
proud.


DANGERS


1. Expense


you’re a geek, you’ll buy
gadgets and crap


my “free” puppy

another “free” puppy

less pay


2. Fragmentation


Jack of all trades,


Master of none.


Half-ﬁnished projects


(that’s ok)


balance with day job,
family, etc


3.Your spouse may say


“I never thought I’d be
married to a redneck”


“I will not have 10
dogs”


Non-geek Cred


Bird dogs

• Expert: Triple-D

• Skills: train dogs, ride horses, horse husbandry,
quail/pigeon husbandry, atv operation, pull big
trailer, drive tractor, ﬁeld trial handler, AKC ﬁeld
trial judge

• Time: Two years

• Progress: 20+ placements, Dog of the year, 3rd in
National Amateur Championship, AFC/FC, bought
timber farm

• TODO: Raise a litter of pupppies!


EMS/Fire/Rescue

• Expert: EMS school, Local FD

• Skills: Pre-hospital care for sick and injured,
learning: ﬁght ﬁres, rescue skills

• Progress: NREMT-I,Volunteer FD member

• Time: 6 months

• TODO: NREMT-P, Speciality medic, FF, SARTECH,
CHS

• Goals: work P/T locally, work a large-scale disaster


SkullPop!

• Expert: Angel’s BBQ

• Skills: sales, marketing, distribution, fulﬁllment

• Progress: National Fiery Foods Challenge winner,
Sponsored MMA ﬁghter

• Time: One year

• Goals: Sell a ton of hot sauce (or at least 2000
bottles!)


You enter a garden with a festive air.
Music playing loudly. People are dancing.
The libations are flowing.

> look north

A beautiful maiden looks your way gazing
into your eyes.

> n


O hai, what do you do?

Uhhh...

I design and manage data center
infrastructure for database-driven
business applications developed using
Ruby on Rails.


you design web sites?


umm, not exactly


Pick a response:


1. I’m a computer dork.


2. Actually, I’m an EMT.
I try to save lives.


choose your own
adventure


Questions?


• http://www.flickr.com/photos/seandreilinger/343797221/sizes/m/

• Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Heinlein-face.jpg

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman's_March_to_the_Sea

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahl/2897588701/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/moonrising/190347578/sizes/m/29302252/sizes/m/

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Holbein_-_henryhoward01.jpg

Attribution
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronkyle/942720610

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E_Lee

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/dullhunk/359634390/sizes/m/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/awiseman/2710367727/sizes/m

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwichary/2355790455/sizes/m/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/rogersmith/3245248899/sizes/m/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeetzjones/562496275/sizes/m/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/eternalphotography/3713988004/

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Why%27s_self_portrait.png

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kazimierz_Pułaski.PNG

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Uga_vii_wiki.JPG

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinreese/3524110479/sizes/m/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimdollar/2766483122/sizes/o/


Geek Metamorphosis: Getting Comfortable with Uncomfortable

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