Do You Speak Geek? Learning the Language of Technology

 January 11, 2018

This post was first published on my old website in February of 2014. I’ve been thinking about this as I continue to struggle to keep up with all the technology that I know I need to embrace if I’m to make it as an author in this internet/technology age. I now not only know what a plug-in is, I add plug-ins to my website to increase functionality. I have a mailchimp account and recently added an auto-responder message for those who sign-up for my email list. This includes a link to a free book down-load—something I never would have considered doing back in 2014. I also have published on a number of different  platforms besides Amazon and keep learning about SEO and marketing.

There was a time when I thought I would pick up a language when I got “old”. I’ve read that this is one way to keep your brain plastic and active as you age. So, this is my language of choice. I hope you enjoy this post from four years ago. It continues to be relevant.

Do You Speak Geek?

Throughout high school and college I studied languages. I studied French all eight years, plus several years of Russian in college, a semester of Mandarin Chinese, an independent study of ancient Greek, and some Spanish and Latin. With each new language, a new world and new way of thinking opened up before me. I loved this. I could have easily continued taking language classes had I not needed to graduate before my scholarship ran out. That was over thirty years ago.

As I’ve tried to learn more about computers and technology, I have felt frustrated and overwhelmed.

“I hate this stuff,” I would complain as I sat at the computer pulling out my hair lest I give into the temptation to throw my computer at the wall.

“Why can’t they make it so a normal person can understand? It’s like learning a whole new language.” And then it hit me. It is a new language. What was frustrating me was that I expected myself to just know this stuff, to pick it up easily because, after all, it wasn’t in Greek.

Learning the Language of Technology

But it is in Geek. Once I started thinking of learning technology as learning a new language, it didn’t become easy, but I knew I could do it. No-one expects you to pick up a new language overnight, least of all yourself, yet I expected myself to be able to pick up computer overnight. I just had to do what I did back in college when I learned a new language.

So I sat at a WordPress Meet-up and reminded myself that these young men were speaking a new language, one I wasn’t fluent in so I needed to pay extra attention and trust that eventually it will start to make sense if I keep at it. And that is what I’m doing. Instead of getting frustrated by every new concept I run into in the technology world (or at least, not getting as frustrated as I had), I remind myself I am learning a new language.

How do you cope will all of the new, ever changing technology? Any tips for me?