Stupid Geeks

Over time, I’ve heard many say, “I’m not really smart, but I have common sense.” I completely agree that ‘book-learnin’ does not necessarily assume good decision-making abilities.
But it amazes me when otherwise smart people do something really stupid, especially when the stupid act is done in their own field of study.

For example, I have known of a nurse who smoked while pregnant. Or I hear in the news of techno geeks (others in my field) who don’t think about security when using digital media or communications.

Recently, an MP3 player bought at a thrift shop had Unites States military data on it. Luckily, it was not data that could threaten the security of the country or our service personnel.
But I know exactly how this could happen. You see, geeks love to try stuff—stuff as in apps they have never seen before. When a new app is released, even if the computer geek has no use for it at the moment, she will get the app and give it a run-through.

When controlled, this mentality is good. It ensures the public gets software and gadgets that work as they are supposed to work.

However stupidity enters the equation when the geek finds an app that is supposed to do something that the geek didn’t know it could do. Then that personality of testing the app kicks in. However the geek needs some real world method to test the app. And let’s say the app is, oh I don’t know, the ability to store raw data such as text on an MP3 player.

So the geek, who happens to be working for a branch of the US government, has a few hundred lines of text of service personnel data lying nearby, and he thinks, “hey this will be a good test. Why don’t I drop this text onto the MP3 player data app just to watch it work and get my ‘technology is cool’ fix for the day?”

But I forgot to mention the other part of the geek mindset that is important. Geeks think they do not make mistakes. Non-geeks live with a certain, healthy amount of fear when they are around computers. Geeks do not have this fear. This is a bad thing.

So our government-paid techno geek drops the confidential military info onto the app, knowing full well that he needs to delete it when he is done playing—sorry, testing and debugging.

However, immediately after he watched the app perform, and made a mental note of how he would have done it slightly differently and of course better, he gets a phone call that someone in accounting needs help understanding the difference between webmail and email downloaded to a local computer. He shuts down all of his systems and heads off to once again save the day with his wizardry and guruness, and of course stops to lecture everyone in accounting about using pet names for their passwords.

He gets back to his desk, sees his MP3 player there and wonders why he has not sprung for the nicer one and decides to see what he can get for it at the thrift store and then head home to buy the better one online.

Well, you can see how book-learnin’ does not equate with common sense.