Geek squad

For most people, anyone involved in technology is a boring geek, with little or no creativity. And at the top of the geek pyramid rests the IT geek. The stereotypical computer guy in the movies with the thick glasses, who never gets the joke and will never get a date in his life. He's the guy they always interview after a star wars movie releases or after the launch of the new xbox. The one standing in line for 2 days to get his piece of geek paradise.

I've been in the IT consulting industry for about 5 years now and I have to say just as I do about everything else... enough with the stereotypes. While we do have some guys as described in the movies and your mental image, on the other hand the industry employs and nurtures people who are just as creative as a movie director and just as passionate as a music composer. Do you really think Van Gogh could have designed the iPod any better? Mozart probably didn't have as much of an impact on the music field as Napster did and will have in the future (OK maybe it's a slight stretch).

The other misconception about geeks is that they are caught up in their own small world of lines of code, LED displays, wires and all that jazz and couldn't care less about anything outside that world. The fact is, technology from the beginning has been used to solve business problems. And to solve those problems, the industry needs to understand them as well if not better than the actual business owners. So don't be surprised if a techy explains to you how the entire publishing industry works and why print is different from internet.

There are very few aspects of everyday life that are not affected by technical innovation, creativity or just pure genius. When you work from home so you can watch over your kid who's not keeping well... it's because of the geeks. When you send flowers to your girlfriend / boyfriend sitting 5000 miles away with the click of a button it's because of the geeks. When you listen to your favourite music from a choice of 15,000 songs while your'e driving.... yes... you're getting the drift, it's because of the geeks.

So the next time you sit down with your friends for a drink, you may want to raise a toast to the geek as well .. because chances are you looked up the venue and invited your friends over the internet .... which ofcourse once again .. is because of the geek.

The death of mankind

I guess I'm asking for trouble with this post which I dont think will go down well with the feminist types, but .. well it's fun to stir up something once in a while :-)

I was just reading an article on bbc news about the palestinians demanding the release of women and children and I had to ask, why is it that today with everyone campaigning for equality of gender, women are still presumed innocent?

I watch alot of stand-up comedy and I have to admit, I form alot of my opinions (some might call it plagiarism) from there. I don't remember the artist I was watching on feminists but it got me thinking. Women are fighting for every right, from their rights in a family, to rights in the government. From changing mankind to humankind, chairman to chairperson and manhole to personhole.. and hey I have no problems with all that. I believe women should and must stand beside men on equal footing with every right that men have enjoyed for ages. But if you're my wife, and we are on the Titanic, you better be standing next to me when those four old men are playing the violin and singing hymns.

Left Vs. Right

Recently my girlfriend told me I'm a bit too liberal. This conversation started because I told her she was could meet her ex-boyfriend whenever she pleased and I had no problems with it. I'm normally very secure in my relationships even though I get dumped pretty often.

This got me thinking (I do that once in a while). Is mankind so predictable that we can all be dumped in one of two categories? Liberals or Conservatives. Left or Right. I remember watching a show by Chris Rock where he says, no person is any one thing, and I agree with him. So crime, I'm conservative. Alcohol.. I'm liberal. What does that make me? A liberal or a conservative?? Doesn't matter. It just makes me .. me.

Maybe we need to stop getting caught up with stereotypes and start being what we want to be regardless of which group we fit into. What say?

The first time

I created this blog almost 8 months back, but it took me this long to finally get down to posting. After alot of debating with myself on the point of having a blog I decided the only way to figure it out was to give it a try.

The first post is probably the hardest right from figuring out a display name, to a blog name and a description. Then comes the actual post itself. It's quite like a first date. Do you tell her what you would like her to know or do you tell her what she would like to hear... hmm... So this blog will probably be a mix of both.

I'm not really a writer although I do dabble in it once in a while. I've found it's a nice passive way of putting my thoughts out there. Sometimes it's a way to find out about thoughts I never new I had. Opinions I never realised I had formed, other times, I realise I have thoughts but just don't have the words to put them into.

With that said and the introduction to this blog out of the way, hopefully the next post will be easier with thoughts flowing a bit more freely.

Till then, good bye.