Mysteries of the Geek Brain we Will Never Explain
Posted by: Rea Maor In: Misc - Sunday, July 15th, 2007Geeks are famous for being socially inept, and in all honesty, it’s not too surprising. How can we expect other people to understand us if we don’t even understand ourselves very well? Did you ever consider…
Why are we such control freaks and such slobs at the same time? A geek will spend hours lining up their CSS style boxes on their websites, yet you usually need a pitchfork to get through their home. Geeks will re-arrange their bookshelves every two weeks, while the refrigerator hasn’t been cleaned out in so long that National Geographic found an endangered species living in it.
Why is our memory so selective? We have things like the periodic table of elements and the formula for determining the volume of a sphere memorized, but it’s a coin-toss whether we remembered to pay the electric bill.
Why are we so conservative and mature and yet so many of us like comic books? You can go into the office of a top MIT artificial intelligence researcher and find a shelf full of well-thumbed manga. What the heck is up with that? Sometimes it seems like the entire comic book industry rests on the geek population alone.
Renaissance Faires? Now, it makes sense that so many geeks would be interested in science fiction conventions. Geeks like technology; science fiction often involves the future of technology. For that matter, today’s science fiction is tomorrow’s tech start-up. But Medievalism? A large percentage of geeks enjoy dressing up in period costume and going to a fair where the whole point is to pretend you live in the 15th century. Why did it have to be knights? Why not cowboy rodeos or caveman conventions instead?
What’s the connection between being a geek and living like a bat? If you see a light on at 2 AM, creep up to the window and you’ll hear fingers typing on a keyboard. I’ve never seen so many night owls in one demographic. Even if you get back onto a normal sleep schedule because of work, you’re likely to blow it on a three-day weekend staying up all night playing World of Warcraft.
Where do these goofy religions keep coming from? The Church of the SubGenius. The Invisible Pink Unicorn. The Flying Spaghetti Monster. Discordianism. While geeks of course come from every real faith and religion, so many more of them seem to hold religion in contempt. That’s OK too, but they can’t just say “I’m an Atheist” like anybody else. No, they have to invent the Church of the Knights who say NI or something smart-alecky and insist with a straight face that it is their one, true faith.
Let’s leave this one open to discussion: commenters, what paradoxes of the geek nature did I leave out?
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July 15th, 2007 at 13:23
Sounds great, except for the role playing. Where do I sign up?
July 15th, 2007 at 13:26
Thank you
July 15th, 2007 at 16:02
it’s true, although i’ve never been to a rennesaince faire, I DO interest myself in medeival-rooted, competetive catapult hurling.
The control freak/slob phenomenon is also described as the duality of geek organization. we exist in a quantum state of cleanliness.
July 15th, 2007 at 19:10
heh its true im a tech and ill spend hours tweaking a windows install till it purrs while running my games but good luck finding anything within my office funny
July 15th, 2007 at 19:17
My theory is that the whacky religions come about because the essence of Atheism — “There is no god” — is simple and boring. The smart-alec religions are used to hold a mirror up to followers of insert-major-religion-here in the hope they (or at least gullible suckers around them) might realize how silly their faith sounds to anyone NOT falling for it. The Invisible Pink Unicorn is a classic example, as the Wikipedia entry explains nicely.
In the case of the Church of the Subgenius, the ambition for the founders to make a few bucks no less dishonest than any other preacher who spouts nonsense was doubtless a further draw. Anyone who’s ever worn a necktie should understand looking ridiculous to get paid. That Subgenii are generally honest, open, good humored, and generally non-litigious about this (aside from objecting to “being silly” getting used as grounds to deny child custody) makes them more appealing than other notable SF-geek related attempts at this sort of enterprise.
The Flying Spaghetti Monster is a bit of inspired political theatre, to insure that if Kansas schoolchildren get taught nonsense mixed in with their biology that they will sort through, they will also learn some unfamiliar nonsense in the process. Think of it as the modern religious crusades running smack into information warfare.
As for Discordianism, it can be blamed on one SF author having a lot of fun writing on drugs (mostly pot and LSD) during the 1960s, and one very talented and independent game writer taking the idea in the early 1980s and running with it. Hopefully, the Secret Service is less confused about all this lately, but they aren’t paid to have a sense of humor. Fnord.
July 16th, 2007 at 10:52
I totally don’t get the ren fair / SCA thing either. The middle ages sucked.
If you actually time traveled back to the middle ages, the first thing you would notice would be the pervasive stench, the feces everywhere, the people with rotting body parts from tertiary syphilis, the flies…
As for religions, that one’s easy to explain. In the USA, people will freak out if you say you’re an atheist, but if you say you’re religious there’s this bizarre belief that your religious beliefs instantly have to be treated with deference and respect. So religions like the Church of the SubGenius take advantage of that (stupid) attitude for the purposes of mockery.
July 16th, 2007 at 14:40
You forgot the church of wintermute
I don’t know where this would fit in, but I see more and more geeks involved in physical activities that require extreme coordination - poi, contact staff, juggling, yo-yo, contact juggling…
and these are people that swear they have no rhythm and can’t dance or play any sports…
July 16th, 2007 at 15:46
This is so true, and I never really thought about the connections between all these things and how it ties together to be geeky. My computer desktop is minimalist: abstract artwork behind two or three icons, where my real desktop … I’m not really sure what color it is under all those bills I’m not sure if I already paid. And the Rennaissance fascination … who knew others shared my fascination of that era who also were into gaming, sleeping during the daytime, and choosing odd little “religions” like me?
Thanks for making me feel like I belong to a subculture.
July 17th, 2007 at 11:29
“Why are we so conservative and mature and yet so many of us like comic books?”
Oh, goody. Another “comics books are for kids” pinhead. I’ll just drop off this load of Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis, etc. books at the local daycare. I’m sure they’ll love reading about serial fetus killers and the adventures of the Antichrist.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:06
Geeks would like to have a hot babe but they don’t dare to speak to women.
BTW, most mangas I read would’nt suit little girls: Berserk, Naruto, Hikaru No Go, Claymore.
Mangas and Anime are not childish !
But it’s striking that non-geeks think they are childish.
It may be linked to a lack of self confidence in geeks.
July 18th, 2007 at 15:10
Wow, Tom. You seem to ridiculously mix up “immature” with “childish.”
Comic books about serial fetus kills and adventures of the antichrist are immature, and you’re goofy if you think differently. They aren’t childish though. Reading comic books is “immature” much like coloring with crayons is. It’s essentially something that you can do with your head held high, but if you’re at a job interview it’s just best left out of conversation.
I read a few comics, and if someone said “what’s the last mature thing you did?” I wouldn’t answer with “read a comic book” but I might say, “Read about the theory of relativity.”
July 20th, 2007 at 10:07
we exist in a quantum state of cleanliness
Genius! I must remember this the next time I am asked why my place is a dump.
July 20th, 2007 at 14:34
Many geeks suffer (if that’s the word) from Asperger’s Syndrome.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome
Frankly, I don’t much love NTs (neuro-typicals). It’s they who are diseased — ill-mannered, overbearing, obnoxious, and just plain noxious.
eye-of-horus
July 27th, 2007 at 20:08
NT’s aren’t that bad. There are a few who can be real jerks about the whole thing, but I don’t have a problem with most of ‘em.
October 31st, 2007 at 22:20
I speak for me. As for others, I know not, but it seems to fit many of my friends.
I tend to strive for counter-balance:
Ren-Fest counter-balances Def-Con
Sci-Fi counter-balances Fantasy
The stronger the control on technology, the greater the disorder in the house.
For me, an absolute certainty in a God is balanced by a total distrust in tradition religions.
The better the memory for technology, the greater the chance the bills get forgot.
The counter-balance expressed in XKCD is profound and yet easy for me to relate. Mathematics and Romance, Hard Science and Wistfulness, Technology and Relationships. It is a quirky counter-balance again.
As for being night-owls, many of us are addicted to Caffeine. Caffeine in the morning, noon, afternoon, and night. That does not promote sleep. Caffeine gives us productive time, our “precious”!
I have a fear of being boring. I can’t be popular so I make up for it by trying to be interesting. If I fail, I’ll be bizarre. Sometimes there is little difference in the two.
Many of us are “aspies”, as eye-of-horus indicates. But I believe it is a normal variation of the human condition, much like being a superjock or such. Frankly, if everyone was alike, and easy to understand, the world would be boring. I wish more “usual” people would realize that.
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:18
The night-owl thing is easy to understand if you understand geeks. When you’re working on a tricky technical problem, you focus in until you’re in the zone, where nothing but the problem and the logic of its solution exist. The zone is associated with peak efficiency, breakthroughs of logic, and elegant solutions.
This state is both pleasurable and habit forming. And once you’re knocked out of it, it can take 20-30 minutes to get back into it, if you get back at all.
If you’re working at 3 AM, there’s less chance of a phone ringing, neighbor kids yelling, etc., and knocking you out of the zone.
It’s not about staying up for its own sake, it’s about working at your most efficient times. Staying up until 3 (or later) coding a program? Been there, done that. Staying up until 3 (or later) taking over the world in Civ? BTDT too. Staying up until 3 watching movies? Not since I was 19.