You don’t need to be a Geek to be Computer Savvy

Background

I come across two types of people it seems: Geeks, and non-Geeks. Somehow, in the past two decades, it has become to cool to be a Geek. Which is very strange. Because to define a non-Geek, I would typically say, “A cool person”. How can both be cool?

Well, not surprisingly, this has left the rest of America in the lurch, too. Here’s why this has become so damaging to middle-America.

First, middle-America has a fascination with being “cool”. They look back to their heroes, who ‘ere they may be, and remember what cool was: Elvis, James Dean, Eddie Murphy, Nikki Sixx, or whoever you thought, at one time, was cool. And they look to current cool people and think they would like to be a bit more like them: Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, Tony Blair, James Hetfield, whoever.

Mac Users are Dense

I had a Mac user write me and seem surprised that he had to upgrade a piece of expensive software to keep up with his latest install of OSX 10.4. I actually love Macs, but I just hate dealing with Mac users. Here’s why.

No matter what O/S someone runs, there is no substitute for education - for knowing what (exactly) you have under the hood, and learning how hardware and software interface on your machine, editing config files, adjusting parameters, etc. Just like a car, right? You can buy a Toyota at $30,000 and say it is better and never breaks down and blah, blah, blah, and that is just fine. But don’t blame me if the whole world thinks the Toyota person is a moron because he can’t change a flat tire, or change his oil. It is still a car. Spending more doesn’t isolate you from that cold reality.