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Just Because You Can Shop Online Doesn't Mean You're a Geek

Thanks to Molly for getting me all steamed about this via Twitter: No Starch Press, a subsidiary of famed technical book publisher O'Reilly, has just published How to Be a Geek Goddess.

Is it a book about how to hone your hacker skills? How to leverage your already-hefty technical knowledge and computer science training to become a respected leader in the tech community? Not if the book's description is anything to go by.

In How to Be a Geek Goddess, author Christina Tynan-Wood shares the expertise she gained while writing for magazines like PC World and PC Magazine but keeps the book light and conversational. Like advice from the geek girlfriends you always wished you had, the book explains topics in a way you'll understand: No patronizing guy bluster, unnecessary jargon, or information you aren't interested in, just the stuff you need to know to get the job done. You'll learn how to use your computer to get more done in less time, shop for gear, fit an ugly computer into a lovely living room, hang out in online communities, and keep yourself and your family safe online. Tynan-Wood covers basic and not-so-basic topics, like how to use VoIP to make inexpensive telephone calls over the Internet and set up a wireless network in your home.

This is not a book about how to become a geek goddess, because being able to shop online or match a laptop to your living room's decor do not make you a geek. They make you a 21st century human or an interior decorator, respectively. You don't need to be an expert in technology to reboot your computer, but you do need to be expert in and passionate about something—preferably something technical—in order to be considered a geek.

Seems to me that the title of the book should have been The Goddess' Guide to Using and Talking Tech, because it's aimed at women who already think of themselves as goddesses. To be a *Geek* Goddess, you have to be a geek first.