Contrary to popular belief, there are many types of geek. In this series, I’m going to give some basic tips on how to become one! This is the first part in the series, and so I’m covering the ‘General Geek’.
Before I even went to university to get qualifications to become an official “paid” geek, I put a great deal of time and effort into tuning my skills in other areas that would help me excel at my job. Below is a list of things that I did which I believe really helped me achieve my goal, and I would recommend doing the same if you’re looking to become a paid geek yourself!
- Learn to touch-type. When I say touch-type, what I mean is “typing without having to look at the keyboard for any reason”. Fast typing while looking at the keyboard doesn’t count
Get yourself a typing tutor and invest half an hour per day for a few months. Before you know it, you’ll be setting the keyboard on fire. (Hint: if you can’t stop looking at the keys, put a tea-towel over your hands and keyboard!) - Learn an operating system (or two). It doesn’t matter which one it is, but it’s probably a good idea to go for the one that you plan to work with. I’m sure we’ve all had our fair share of meetings with people who consider themselves to be computer literate, and yet they struggle with basic file management tasks. Using a computer during the day does not make you computer literate. Do yourself a favour, get down and dirty with your OS, and learn how to:
- … install the OS from scratch.
- … manage files.
- … manage disks.
- … install/uninstall applications.
- … upgrade and patch your OS.
- … add/remove users.
- … write files to DVD/CD.
- … rip albums to a music player.
- … move around applications in general (ie. get used to common menu items, and where to find them)
- … etc
Getting this kind of knowledge puts you ahead of a surprising amount of people! It’s also a good idea to get an idea of the different operating systems that are avialable, as you’ll never know when you might be thrown in front of one of them!
- Learn your hardware. By this I don’t mean that you need to be able to recite tech specs as they would appear on Tom’s Hardware. What I mean is learn what your computer is made of (motherboard, RAM, CPU, etc). Determine the function of each of the bits, and the affect that they all have on your system. Understand what it means to upgrade something (eg. add more RAM) and how that will affect your computing experience.
- Set up a home network. This will give you the grounding that you’ll need to understand the basics of networking (networking protocols, IP addresses, DHCP, etc). This is particularly handy for anyone who is going to build web applications, or spend a lot of time in a networked environment.
- Learn about the web. Find out what that ‘http‘ thing means, and figure out the difference between that and ‘https‘. Get a basic idea of what happens when you click on a link in your browser. Understand the stages that the whole process goes through from the point you’ve pressed the mouse button to the point where you’ve got a fully loaded page on screen.
- Get familiar with a programming language. This is obviously geared towards the potential coders out there. If you’re going to learn to write software, then you’re better off playing with one or two languages before you start any formal work or training.
- Speak to some geeks. Jump on some online forums. Read some blogs. Communicate with the geek community. Learn from their mistakes!
- Make your own mistakes. This is by far the best way to learn. If things just work first-time/every-time you’ll miss out. There’s no better way to learn how something works than fixing it when it’s broken!
- Stay in touch. Make sure you keep up to speed with tech, by reading news and RSS feeds (such as Engadget and Slashdot).
- Give something back Write a blog yourself. Write a tutorial. Help people on forums on topics that you’ve struggled with. This will force you to make sure you know what it is you’re talking about
It’s also very rewarding.
Do you guys have any other suggestions?
June 15, 2007
Well, Im only missing two. Touch Typing (Properly) and number 10.
Im off to learn how to touch type now. See ya
June 15, 2007
Don’t stop showering.
Staying up all night to create or figure something out is encouraged. But learning something new doesn’t mean you are allowed to forget how to do something else. It doesn’t work that way.
June 15, 2007
Bryce: LOL. Good point mate. Hygiene should always take priority.
Moffmo: Which news feeds do you read?
June 15, 2007
Touch typing is an odd one for me. The many hours, days spent trying to end up wanting to slam the keyboard into the nearest wall. I even got a administrator friend who does nothing but touch type to try and teach me. Touch typing isnt just a skill, it requires a level of patience that only the likes of Mr Miyagi could achieve.
June 16, 2007
I’m not sure if I agree with you there mate
Well, I agree that it can be frustrating, but I feel it’s the same as learning anything: guitar, coding, sport, etc. It’s all down to practice. If you put 30 mins every day aside, and just do the drills, over time you’re going to improve. And within 3 months you’ll be doing 50wpm without looking at the keyboard.
Depending on the day, I can reach up to 100wpm! Other days I struggle to hit 40. But if I can do it, then anyone can!
I can’t tell you how much better my computing life has been since I learned how to do it. Your productivity goes through the roof.
June 18, 2007
ATM just the latest Headlines that comes with Mozilla and the GameDev.Net one, but I’m not a big news reader anyway. I also have one for a forum I’m on but don’t really pay attention to it :P.
My fingers don’t like the touch type position :(. wonder if i should learn the Dvorak one :|, Then i couldn’t look at the keys :o, but then id be stumped when it comes to finding symbols etc?
June 18, 2007
Learning the Dvorak layout isn’t going to change how your hands sit when you’re typing. If you dont like the feel if it then perhaps you’ll need to get yourself an ergonomic keyboard, or something that’s a bit more comfortable. At the end of the day, the home row is the home row, regardless of the layout
If you learn Dvorak you’ll probably end up typing faster than if you’d learned Qwerty, but it means that any machine you want to touch type on you’ll have to reconfigure the keyboard map to Dvorak before you can use it. Or you could learn both
June 18, 2007
I did typing (Keyboarding Skills) as a GCSE in school believe it or not. Got a grade A!!!
Touch typing is great for English (or other natural languages come to think of it), but not so great for code as there are so many symbols that make you move your hands out of position. That said, I can code without looking at the keyboard anyway with a sort of self learnt touch typing hybrid.
June 18, 2007
I partly agree with you there mate, coding does require more emphasis on symbols than normal language. But I do think that touch typing is a HUGE benefit anyway. I’ll bet I can get my thoughts down in code faster than most people (if not all) who can’t touch type.
June 20, 2007
hi OJ, thx for the guide
but i think sometimes it happens naturally, no guide needed 
azmo
June 20, 2007
I partly agree with you Azmo. Some parts of becoming a geek are natural (otherwise noone would be one ;)). The reason I added the guide was because generally the natural geeks only hit about 70% of the list above, and I believe that the extra 30% will help them get ahead of the game. You’d be surprised how few geeks know how to touch type, and even fewer know their way around a home network.
June 21, 2007
Hey mate,
Aren’t you missing a key trait of a geek, maybe this is in part 2 and I am jumping the gun, but most uber geeks I know have a maniacal thirst for new gadgets and gizmos.
Maybe they should own a dark corner or two that they return to develop their code in, that might help with their ‘geek’ status. Maybe that is a bit old school though.
Gidde’ up
June 22, 2007
Let’s not forget that this is the first part in a series
I plan to cover gadget geeks, web geeks, coding geeks, hardware geeks, game geeks, and uber geeks.
I might even cover wannabe geeks (designers)