Continuing in the vein of my last post…
I was just commenting to a friend yesterday that despite the fact that I am surrounded by programmers and engineers every day at work, few if any of them are actually geeks.
It’s kind of creepy. These people work with technology for a living, but when they go home they watch sports and play golf. They give you a blank look if you make Hitchhiker’s Guide references. Even Monty Python references have a 50/50 chance of going over their heads.
Sometimes I’ll try to have a technical conversation about the finer points of a programming language with one of the engineers here, and his eyes will glaze over and he’ll say something like “that stuff’s way over my head”.
…
What do you even say to that? Hello, you do this for a living! And the worst part is, I can tell they don’t even care. They got their degree, and now they do their job and go to the bar on Friday and don’t even think about code again until Monday morning.
I can’t even comprehend that.
I deal with tools from A/V companies who haven’t a clue about stuff I’ll try discussing with them. These people are the ones who passed exams in school based on memorization, not understanding. These are the people that I pray will never have a real PROBLEM presented to them because they haven’t a clue. They cannot troubleshoot and have no original ideas. Blah.
I can tell you that I, a programmer in my own right, fall under the same boat, but only partially.
Yes, when I get home, I like to watch sports and the like. But most of the time, I watch in the background. And I’m definitely not a hardcore fan like a whole bunch of other people. Don’t find it logical to buy Ravens gear and the like. And I’m not wearing purple.
But yeah – what you’re talking about definitely doesn’t sound logical, now does it? But some of us need to relax… because programming 40-50 hours a week certainly takes a toll with many.
I have a similar situation. The office has some geeks and some non-geeks. Mostly non-geeks. (And yes, lots of people were wearing purple today… no camo, tho.)
In a way, I feel sad for the non-geeks. As I see my job, I get to play with computers and software all day long, and I get paid for it too! I love my job! (mostly.) The non-geeks are having a difficult time because for them, it’s work and they can’t wait to get away.
But now it’s time for the penguin on my television set to explode.