The Geek "Must Do Before You Die" Checklist
dailycupoftech.com
dailycupoftech.com
Related: I'd rather sweep the streets than work as sysadmin.
I prefer to work on things that no one else is working on. Either because they don't know about it, they don't think it can be done, or they don't know how to do it.
Every time I catch myself doing sys admin work, I think, "There's probably a million other people who could do this, why am I?"
OTOH, analyzing a business problem, then designing, developing, and implementing a software solution that no one else ever has, now that's the kind of stuff this geek must do before he dies.
Aspire to something that can't be done by following an Instructable.
(That's probably why this list is such weak beer: Every entry is an excuse to link to the equivalent of an Instructable. The goal that can be outlined in one page is not the true goal.)
It's not so much a list of things that geeks must do as much as a list of things that people with geeky personalities have already thought about doing or have actually done.
I was really hoping for a list of things that geek types should try to do that they naturally wouldn't.
1) Implement lisp within itself. Implement lisp in ruby.
2) Write your own Webserver.
3) Truly understand Haskell and Monads
4) Write a useful genetic algorithm.
5) Build a working neural net.
6) Finish SICP.
7) Work through and finish On Lisp.
8) Build a highly concurrent server application with erlang.
1. Build a telescope by grinding your own mirror and use it to see Saturn's rings and Jupiter's moons.
2. Make a chain mail shirt
3. Build a Stirling engine and/or steam engine.
...from pop can ring tabs. :)
Upon some thought, the very idea of a "geek checklist" seems misguided to me. I've always tried to do 1 new thing instead of 100 old things, and anyone who succeeds in that gets my respect automatically regardless of their geek points.
The only activity on this list I actually enjoyed was learning how to pick a lock. Not as a means for breaking and entering, but as a skill and an end in itself.
To me, it is all about learning to create something, preferably with a certain artistic value. Over the last few years, I have:
* Designed and built a clock (out of wood, steel and ropes).
* Designed, printed and bound a few notebooks and diaries, and two books.
* Improved my writing skills; both fiction and non-fiction. Wrote several short stories and started a working on a book.
* Bought a fountain pen, re-learned proper penmanship and developed a personal script.
* Learned how to run correctly and started running barefoot (I run 50 miles per week now).
* Borrowed my uncle's SLR camera, learned a lot about photography.
* Wrote, recorded and edited a short movie with some friends.
* Studied music theory and started playing the piano, albeit with to much ambition. I'm just not able to express myself through classical music. These days, I prefer to play blues on my guitar, or jazz standards (1930s-1940s) or stride piano when the mood is right.
2. Compile a Linux kernel
3. Write a web server
4. Finish SICP
5. Work on a major (ok - at least widely appreciated) open-source project
1) Prove P = NP
2) Build a quantum computer
3) Write a program that will pass the Turing test
Seems to me this is a list of stuff that if you are a geek you have probably done most of.
Probably use the subneg instruction.