Unleashing My Inner Geek3 min read
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Last week I was listening to an interview with Wil Wheaton who played Wesley Crusher in Star Trek, The Next Generation. And he was talking about being a geek.
He said, “That thing that we all have in common that makes us geeks or nerds, no matter what it’s about… is that passionate, unself-conscious enthusiasm, that crazy, ‘I want to talk about it and go all-in on it,’ type of mindset!”
And when he said that, I thought, “Wow, that sounds just like me. I must be a geek!”
Being a geek doesn’t mean someone is necessarily interested in computer games, Dungeons and Dragons, or comic books. It can be a passionate interest in almost anything.
So, the definition of a geek is: “Someone who is excited or enthusiastic about a favored subject or activity.”
I’m a geek about a whole lot of things.
First of all, obviously, I’m a self-employed marketing geek. After all, in the first ten years of my business, I read about 500 books on marketing and selling. Pretty geeky, right?
When I wanted to get into the web, I read a book called, “Create a Website in a Week with HTML.” I read it and in a week I had my first website. A week later I was designing them for clients.
But marketing is hardly the only thing I’ve geeked out about over the years.
I’m a jazz music geek. I started listening to and collecting jazz at 18, in 1970, and have amassed a collection of 7,000 jazz albums. And then I’ve assembled that collection into hundreds of playlists on my Mac. I’m currently writing a series of 12 articles called 72 Thrilling Jazz Albums, and Jazz is playing in the background as I write this.
I’m a SciFi geek. This probably started with the first Star Trek series in 1966 at the age of 14. I’ve seen every series, show, and movie since. (The latest one, Strange New Words may be the best of all.)
And then The Twilight Zone, Star Wars, Dr. Who, Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Marvel Movies, streaming fantasy series, you name it. I revel in any entertainment that is magical and expansive.
I’m a politics geek. I watch at least two hours of political shows every evening and devour the Washington Post daily. (This is one I’m trying to cut back on but D.T. doesn’t make it easy!)
I’m a personal growth geek. My most passionate obsession has been the search for self-actualization and enlightenment for the past 55 years. I’ve lived in two spiritual communities, worked with many teachers, and read more books on the topic than I can count.
Anyway…
After listening to that interview with Wil Wheaton, at long last, I had a name for who exactly I am: a Dyed-In-The-Wool Geek!
I’m not a specialist geek, interested in primarily one thing. No, I’m a multi-interest-geek. When I learn about something new, I look it up on Wikipedia and YouTube. I get interested and excited about things and then read and write about them.
And now, as you know, I’m now a ChatGPT Geek. I just wrote a report on how to use it as the Ultimate Thinking Tool. Download it here. (No opt-in.)
So, upon retiring, I have a lot more time and energy to geek out on a whole lot more stuff that I couldn’t fit in before.
Look, there are a trillion zillion things in the world I could geek out about. Who knows what will be next?
But geek out I shall… for the rest of my life.
Are you wildly passionate about something, anything, a lot of things? And do you love to immerse yourself in those things up to your eyebrows, and never get bored?
If so, that makes you a geek. And the geeks shall inherit the earth.
What kind of geek are you? (men and women, and everyone else)
Cheers, Robert
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