If I Were A Geek, Just For a Day

Frustration and Computers

During the 13 years I’ve been working on computers, designing websites, and studying online marketing, there have been times of frustration. Moments when I knew exactly what I wanted to achieve, but couldn’t quite work out how to do it.

Fortunately, the frustrations of computers and the Internet are balanced out when you finally manage to do something you’ve been struggling with. That success makes it all worth while and keeps you going, and it’s the same with many other challenges in life. But ultimately, it’s constant learning, and the feelings of achievement that come from persevering, then finally succeeding in your goal, that make those challenges interesting.

Working with technology doesn’t come naturally to me, but it’s got to be done, because the Internet is for all of us, not just for the technologically gifted. I’m determined to persevere and play my part on the Internet as well as I can, and I hope you will too.

This article was inspired by:

  • 13 years spent overcoming computer-based challenges to design user-friendly websites;
  • “If I Was A Boy”, as sung by the beautiful, and highly tuneful, Beyoncé.

So, with many thanks to all the geeks who made this possible, here’s a tongue in cheek look at what I’d do if I was a geek for a day:

  • I would add all the cool buttons to my website so that readers could Tweet this, Digg it, email it to their Facebook page, and have it digitally tattooed on their foreheads too if they so desired.
  • I would employ a brilliant writer to come up with inspiring ideas for my website and turn all my geek speak into intelligent sentences which the general public can understand and relate to.
  • I would have an English English spell check on WordPress and Twitter, not US English.
  • I would fiddle with my coding all day long and half the night, giving my site every useful bell and whistle known to mankind and, most importantly, I’d love doing it.
  • I would make sure my site ranked number 1 with Google for the search engine terms: “Hottest Aussie blogger”.
  • I would get one of my brilliant graphic designer friends to make my site look über-cool, so no one ever suspected a geek was behind it.
  • I would write a program that generated short, witty strings of words and automatically added them to my Twitter account every hour or so.
  • I would be best friends with Leo Babauta, John Chow, Darren Rowse, Seth GodinSeth Simonds and Guy Kawasaki plus all the great girl geeks I’d connect with and I’d happily share my brilliant tips with them all.
  • I would set up my computer with perfect voice recognition so that I never have to type again.
  • I would seem shy, but I’d be totally self-confident in the knowledge that, thanks to me and my skills, the future will be a better place.

Now, just imagine what I’d do if I was a geek for a week!

Good luck with your computer and your Internet dreams!

Thanks for reading, please let me know what you’d do if you were a geek for the day by adding a comment below, and don’t forget to subscribe to In the Hot Spot by email now, if you haven’t already, so you don’t miss out.

Related articles

>> In Praise of Geeks
>> The Trouble With Typing


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10 Comments

  1. Teresa July 22, 2009 at 9:03 pm - Reply

    If I was a geek for the day I’d be you….hahahaha only joking…I would set up about 5 websites with cool and trendy names that sell amazing things and give me a subsidiary income…and then I would become rich….RICH Godammit!!!

  2. Internet Strategist @GrowMap July 23, 2009 at 4:58 am - Reply

    I love it! This sounds like something I would have written and I have a solution: collaborating! The thing is not all geeks have the same talents just as not all of us quasi-geeks (me) or non-geeks (most people) do.

    I wish you had numbered those bullet points so I’m going to pretend you did:
    1) My awesome techie geek Derek from DerekSemmler.com adds all the cool buttons and plugins and widgets I want.
    2) Brilliant writer who makes complex subjects understandable by anyone – that is my part to do
    3) I don’t know why but my new PC apparently thinks I’m British because it is using a UK spell checker instead of English. I’d have changed it back if I had any idea where. OS? Browser? User?
    4) Thank goodness Derek knows coding too!
    5) Each of us should know just enough about SEO to rank for at least some phrases we love. Check out my post about selecting keywords for tips on that.
    6) Some of us are WordSmiths; others are artists; others are programmers. If you’re not a Graphic designer why not work with one? I did to get the new logo I absolutely love.
    7) I don’t really want to automate Twitter but I will finally get around to using a Tweet later app so I can schedule personal messages for optimum times.
    8) Being best friends with any of them in a literal sense might take a miracle; may have to settle for exchanging Tweets and retweets.
    9) I don’t mind typing and training voice recognition software used to be a bear; not sure if it still is.
    10) We can all contribute to making the world a better place. All we have to do is support each other’s efforts, consider the effects of where we spend what we earn, stop being brainwashed by multi-national advertising and propaganda, go out of our way to help whenever and wherever we can, make the time to put in some reviews for our favorite businesses, and keep on paying it forward!

  3. Teresa July 24, 2009 at 10:38 pm - Reply

    No, dont think you’re a geek…I was joking! Far from it, actually…but you could be onto something with “If I was a geek/*something else* for the day” idea…. just think of all the things you could do there…funny!

  4. Carolyn Cordon July 29, 2009 at 5:27 pm - Reply

    If I was a wife and mother with too many dogs, spending hours on the internet every day…
    Oh I am.
    Anybody want to buy a dog?

  5. Hesham October 10, 2009 at 10:55 pm - Reply

    i wish you good luck and I hope you can rank number 1 on Google :) keep the good work on your blog!

  6. Mechelle Jelatte November 16, 2009 at 4:39 am - Reply

    Hi – I don’t comment on many sites but had to on yours. It’s very well-done! I really like how you write – very to the point, unlike a lot of other journals. Thanks for having this site. I don’t have time to read all the articles here right now, I found this site when looking for something else on Yahoo, but I’ve bookmarked your homepage and will visit again soon to see what’s new. Beyonce is such an inspiration to me. She is so strong. I love reading what other people think of my favorite {artist|singer|performers, Beyonce. Please check out|visit|bookmark my website! Keep up the great|outstanding|fine work!

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