When geeks feel dumb
February 25, 2008 - 12:26am
Accept the compliment
Matthew,
It sounds like you are working hard to help your church. It seems to me that your friends are truly grateful for your service.
You are downplaying the significance of your work, but for a non-geek to set up drupal site, write shell scripts, or configure a server seems (and probably is) impossible. Just finding what you are looking for in google takes a special skill.
Keep it up, you are doing well!
Just one piece of advice (that I need to apply as well) is to mentor another geek to share the load. Maybe a kid or youth would love to learn some geekness.
Enjoy!
February 25, 2008 - 8:18am
be humble
I think it's great that you are remaining humble. No matter how much you learn and grow don't change that.
This is something that makes me uneasy, too. At my church we don't have quite the same problem. We have some real audio guys, we have real video guys (who even work in TV), we have electrical engineers, and we have programmers. We have been blessed. But, we still run into the problem where some think a geek is a geek and just knows the stuff.
I find the best thing is being honest. If I don't know something and I'm asked about it I'm honest and say I don't know. I think that helps us be humble and lets others know our limits.
At the same time I'm a firm believer that we don't need to know all this stuff but we need to know where to find it. I don't know how to write code in ASP. But, I know where to go learn if I need to. I don't know all the nuances or a church video setup. One that powers a projector, has a camera, and has TVs accepting different feeds. But, I know where to go learn if I need to. Everything except the artistic part.
And remember, one of the things they are praising you for isn't your ability to know all this stuff. It's your ability to learn what you need to and help out the ministry. Just keep praying that God keep using you and thanking him when he does. :-)
Matt Farina
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.innovatingtomorrow.net
www.mattfarina.com
February 25, 2008 - 11:36pm
You are not alone!
You are not the only one doing those things. I too will search google endlessly for that one thing that a true coder may know instantly. My computer skills are from the school of hard knox instead of coursework so it always comes harder it seems.
I think the previous comments are right on. Being humble and accepting the praise is the right things to do. One thing that you do not want to do is get on a high horse. Be sure to seek and accept help in things.
When someone says you moved a mountain keep in mind that you actually did. Because setting up a SAMBA server is not moving a mountain for some. It is impossible for others.
Good luck.
February 26, 2008 - 3:15pm
God has given you the
God has given you the ability he has for His purposes. I can relate to your humility, but honestly, there are people who couldn't even find it on the Internet, let alone interpret it. God gave you this gift and you are an important part of His plan. Praise God that He has seen fit to use you, like He has Matt & Rob, to enrich people's lives and relationships with our Savior. That is such an awesome privilege!
Frankly, with all the things you're doing with technology you can't possibly be a master of most of them. It just takes more than can be expected. Your skill to find information on the Internet is perhaps your greatest tool.
I've struggled for days on SAMBA. I can relate to that.
I think the idea of mentoring others to be able to take over areas is awesome. This way they can learn and excel past you in their areas and you can enrich their ability to serve in the church. Together, you'd form a stronger technological front for your church.
Do you ever feel like people overstate your abilities as a geek? How does it make you feel and what do you do when it happens?
Being the lone technology guy at a small church is sure to draw some attention and compliments, but there's so much these people don't see. They don't see me using the default Drupal theme because cross-browser compatibility makes me uneasy and I don't know any PHP. They don't see me helplessly dependent on EQ and reverb presets as crutches. They don't see how much time I spend Googling for code examples because I barely know how to write shell scripts. They didn't see how many hours I spent trying to set up that Samba server, only to fall horribly short of the simple goal I had. They don't know how much I didn't do or couldn't do or how much better it could or should have been.
Sometimes I feel like I'm being complimented for more than I've actually done and it makes me feel uncomfortable. I'm not sure how to take it when they talk about me like I've moved mountains. I love the drums, but I lack the rhythm. That doesn't make Rob a genius just for being able to play. (Sorry Rob, I'm sure there are other things that do make you a genius.)
I hope I've explained myself clearly and I'd welcome any thoughts or advice a fellow geek might have. Thanks.