You know you are a geek when...

You know you are a geek when

• You miss coding like a fisherman misses fishing.
• You give up an evening of online gaming to write code instead.
• You wake up in the middle of the night with an idea that is so good you have to try it...right now.

Yes my friend... these are the signs that you are a full-fledged member of geekdom. These are things that have all happened to me in the last three weeks. And to tell you the truth, it makes me feel good to know that I have still got it. The danger of career evolution (or development if you prefer) is that the longer you are in this business, the more responsibility you end up taking on. As you become more and more responsible your job inevitably moves farther and farther away from coding to talking about coding, planning for coding work to be done (by others), making sure the budget is on target, or fighting political battles.

Sure the money and prestige is better, but sometimes you long for the simplicity of a well factored interface and elegant object design. These are things that are concrete and reliable, like the sun in the sky or rain in Seattle.

The truth is, if you just talk about code but never write any, sooner or later you are going to sound pretty stupid. So here I am back at the code mill, cranking it out in the evenings once again, just like the old days....just like a fisherman at that favorite fishing hole.