Nerd Love, Day 16: Obsession—a.k.a. Nerd Koan
To you, it is a collection of keys (and affinity tags) on a key ring. (Okay—carabiner.)
To me, it represents dozens of man-hours of thought:
One ring or two? Or three? And what diameter?
Fob choice? Fob size?
What is too heavy? What is too light?
What feels good in my hands?
What feels so good I’ll forget about it?
Is that too good?
Is that bad?
What would be useful?
What would be more useful?
Is yesterday’s ‘useful’ no longer so?
Where to forgo elegance for functionality?
What is the nature of elegance, anyway?
The difference between being a baby nerd and a grownup one is that grownup nerds know to enjoy the process or abandon it altogether, because the “goal”—perfection—will continue to recede in the distance as you move toward it.
The key ring of my 20’s is not the key ring of my 30’s is not the key ring of my 40’s.
In my 50’s? There may not be a key ring at all.
And maybe that is what I am working towards.
If, indeed, any of this is a working towards anything…
xxx
c
2 Comments, Comment or Ping
claire
Many people laugh when I lift out my tape measure from my mass of keys, but it and my folding scissors are tremendously handy. The compass, less so because it’s become more inaccurate over time. :)
Feb 9th, 2007
deannie
Why have I not been reading you all along? Oh, could it beeeee that I am a Windows Admin?!? heh.
Loved this post right here. So glad I am not the only one who has actually taken time from the day to conciously review keys, keyrings, how will they be arranged, the decision to move to three keyrings for specific purposes, are the keys arranged the same so the teeth are all facing in the same direction…oh, I am talking too much now, aren’t I? ;)
Feb 13th, 2007