Logan & Amy’s Blog

Written by the infamous, controversial, and somewhat polarizing Jon Katz, Geeks, is a documentary of the lives of two Idaho computer geeks and how they used their technical abilities to ameliorate their lives.  Jon Katz was a writer for Slashdot, Wired Magazine, Rolling Stone, and some other traditional print media. He is largely known in the geek community for his series entitled Voices From The Hellmouth, which explored ominous subculture of Goths and geeks and the hate that bestirs highschoolers to ultimately kill. I honestly think he became strangely obsessed with school shooting phenomenon and for some reason he always desires to put all computer programmers in some sort of defined “Geek” stereotypical box. Proclaimed as a leader of a geek revolution (by some) and also a pretentious wannabe (by others), in Geeks he does a magnificent job of putting a visage on the personalities of the two protagonists Jesse and Eric. I swear I have worked with both personalities in the past; they epitomize the typical Quake jousting social introverts at most software shops and high schools. You can feel Katz’s own personal struggle to keep to the non-emote rules of journalism in the beginning of the story as Jesse and Eric risk much and move to Chicago from the Podunk Idaho town. But then later it appears Katz abandons these journalistic rules and becomes a father figure - especially to Jesse. Besides the fact that I think Jon Katz often at times is a desperate outsider and irritant, especially to the Slashdot community, he did a great job with Geeks. 

 It is really quite amazing, the downright evil, manipulative, disgusting, and perhaps immoral tactics that people use to manipulate a person psychologically to gain power and control. We humans are a very social breed and because of this we’re all suckers to various psychological influences. Either consciously or subconsciously there are social etiquettes, rules, and procedures that we follow when we interact with each other. This book examines why some people are suckers and fall into the clutches of marketing scams, join religious cults, allow social pressure to influence their decisions, and how the Chinese were the best interrogators of the 20th century. Simply put, my eyes were opened to some of the ways that I have been psychologically influenced in my decision-making process. What’s great about this book is that it not only outlines how these various psychological rules work against us, but it also equips us as humans to be aware and overcome the social “jujitsu” forces that surround us. I recommend this book to anyone; it’s a great tool for human living.