Today's exercise is in attempting to classify those who are loosely known as techies, or tekkis. Not to be confused with trekkies, who undoubtedly intersect the aforementioned set, but are nevertheless kewl by themselves. For reasons strongly associated with migraines and neck aches, I will exclude what is loosely known as the fine arts and professions. What the heck; I'm restricting myself to keyboard thumpers. Our boundaries of pure confusion having been demarcated, let us boldly proceed..
Dabbler: One who engages in an activity superficially or without serious intent. Sometimes referred to as the Babbler. This is the kind of creature who has installed several OSs on his personal laptop at one time or the other but is resigned to running windowsXP cause he doesn't have the smarts and for the life of him cannot figure out why all the cool tekkies are so ga-ga over all those 'other' OSs. Does a reasonably good job in pretending to go all starry-eyed at the mention of a *nix distribution. Has dipped his finger in everything. Tasted Nothing. But, to his credit he can do a basic installation and fire off a few shell commands. Even though he's a bit of a fraud, his company is desired over a person who just talks about girlfriends, boyfriends, clothes, shopping and having kids and the finer points of diaper changing. His heart is in the right place.
Handyman: Commonly known as the Jack of all trades. Knows how to handle himself in a variety of technical areas. Content with indiana jones type of problem solving and does not have a deep desire to master anything. Takes pride in being practical and being able to easily come up with quick fix solutions. Is not uncomfortable in an area of which he has no strong understanding. The handyman's horizons are small and hence the goals he sets himself are usually attainable. He thrives on this success. Known to go into orgasm-like whoops on accomplishing the most trivial task. Adorable creatures.
Connoisseur: A person with expert knowledge or training. Master of a few chosen areas. Contributor to at least one open source project. Leaves the Dabblers intimidated and the handymen in awe. Is an assiduous churner of eventually elegant code. But mastery limited to quite temporal areas. i.e. The java language as opposed to language design. Is fiercely achievement driven. Quiet. Humble. When not among friends, that is.
Theoretician: One who formulates, studies, or is expert in the theory of a science.... Architectures, Frameworks, Paradigms, and concepts are his playthings. His hope is to gain immortality in the technology he spawns. Pedantic. Reads and studies obscure works. Mastery is important;but the mastery of a whole field. Scorns temporal knowledge. Has the ability to be a code churner but such mundane tasks are considered ennui. A dreamer. A contradiction. Possibly the happiest and the saddest of the lot. The most content in his lofty seat, and the most dejected by virtue of his keen perception. The most stable in mind and yet the most restless at heart. In short, an arrogant pain in the nether regions.
So who are you? And, who would you want to be?
urped by gumz @ 4:12 PM
