John Scalzi, who is swiftly becoming my favorite science fiction writer that I’ve never read, wrote a great slap-down on a poor schmuck who complained about all the cosplaying women who dare to call themselves geeks (to which most of his friends, btw, frantically waved their arms and whispered “DUUUUUUDE! Shut it! Chicks, yo?”).
It’s a great piece, and even if you’re not a geek you ought to read it, just because it’s such a well-done bitch-slap. But this part really caught my eye:
Many people believe geekdom is defined by a love of a thing, but I think — and my experience of geekdom bears on this thinking — that the true sign of a geek is a delight in sharing a thing. It’s the major difference between a geek and a hipster, you know: When a hipster sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say “Oh, crap, now the wrong people like the thing I love.” When a geek sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say “ZOMG YOU LOVE WHAT I LOVE COME WITH ME AND LET US LOVE IT TOGETHER.”
There it is: in one paragraph, there’s the differences in rope (hell, probably in any sub-culture, but I can only speak of my experience with rope folx) between teachers, groups, “clans”, families, you name it.
Check yourself: are you a rope geek? Or a rope hipster?
How about the people you’re learning from?
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Like this distinction between Geek and hipster. Proud to be a Geek regarding all the things I love.