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Geek Stars From Atkinson to Zappa
Ian Lamont writes "You probably remember reading about Brian May getting a PhD in Astrophysics, but may not know about the many other celebrities from the music, TV, and film worlds who have studied science and technology in college and grad school, or are simply serious gearheads who like gadgets, games, and other geek pastimes. Computerworld has identified about 50 celebrities who fit the bill, including Dan Grimaldi (Patsy Parisi, The Sopranos) who has a Bachelor of Arts degree in math, a master's in operations research and a Ph.D. in data processing; Rowan Atkinson, who has a master's in electrical engineering from Queen's College, Oxford; and Todd Rundgren, who developed an early paint program called Utopia. Other folks on the list: Dr. Demento, Montel Williams, Natalie Portman, Curt Schilling, and Huey Lewis."
I was considering karma whoring and making a Natalie Portman joke early on in a discussion, almost guaranteeing a +5 Funny...
But I decided to actually read the story. According to the article, and also Wikipedia, shes a Psyc student, published a couple papers. Seriously, thats enough to make the geek list? Am I in a dillusioned world that of the thousands of "stars" out there, there aren't many with more geek cred than this?
Oh and I will karma whore... here's the link to the full article print link:
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic&articleId=9043739
It's kind of like when a baby makes big poopoo and mom & the grandfolk all cheer with elation.. but when I poo no one seems impressed.
What no mention of Asia Carrera? Mensa, gamer, pornstar
Uhm... Not to be a total bitch. But is there any actual reason why we would *not* want to totally forget about Keanu 'Rigor Mortis Is Acting, Really!' Reeves?
I mean, in my admittedly not so humble opinion, he's about the most overrated semi-actor I know. His only good 'performance' was as Johnny Mnemonic, and that pretty much only because he had to play himself.
Coz eternity my friend, is a long *ing time.
isn't this just a list of famous people who also have an academic degree? That's hardly synonymous with "geek" for me..
Are you sure he didn't name her after Zelda Fitzgerald, the famous wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald?
You mean they could be good role models like in: "I couldn't get a proper job despite my academic education(s) but hey, who can complain when you get millions for jumping up and down like a monkey?"
send + more == money?
Danny Kaye once said that in order to do something funny you have to be able to do it well.
If you think about it, anybody who is bad at something might do something funny by accident, but a pro has to get up on stage or on camera and be funny on cue. Kaye taught himself to sing, dance and fence tolerably well. Maybe not well enough to be a singing and dancing star or that you'd put your money on him in a duel, but well enough to be able to execute his idea of what might be funny accurately enough to make people laugh on purpose.
There are lots of people in the world who can be funny opportunistically, but there is an incredible amount of craft even in something as deceptively simple as stand up comedy. What could be more natural than telling a funny story? Practically anything, if that means you have to tell that story five or more days a week, several times a night, to a paying audience that really wants your act to be over so they can see the guy they came to see. Sometimes if you see a comedian on TV who is funny, then look up his website, he'll have posted an earlier version of the exact same routine. Frank Caliendo's Bush impression comes to mind. If you look at the early videos of his routine, they are undeniably funny, but not as funny as the version he did on Letterman. That's unnatural. Most people who tell the same joke over and over again get less and less funny, but a skilled comedian is funny even if you've seen his routine a dozen times.
I think that a mania for craft is an often overlooked element of geekdom. It certainly isn't your schooling that makes you a geek; it isn't an interest in science or math. You've got to be obsessed with doing things that other people can't. Lots of guys work on cars; quite a few are good at it. But the one who spends years trying to redesign his car is a geek, no matter what other trappings his intellectual life sports. Likewise being able to work a math problem that most people can't is not necessarily geeky. Having strongly held opinions about the best way to approach certain kinds of math problems is quintessentially geeky.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Having a PhD does not, of course, preclude nerdiness, but it doesn't guarantee it, either. My old boss Charlie (now retired in Florida) had a PhD and was, in fact, a true geek. OTOH, the fellow now in the next office from mine has a PhD but is dumb as a box of rocks, and has no geek qualifications whatever aside from being a fat dork who wears glasses. It doesn't take a high IQ to obtain a PhD, just stubbornness and a good work ethic. It does require a three digit IQ to be a nerd.
The #1 all time famous nerd was Niel Armstrong, who was an engineer who famously said "I am and always will be a pocket protector wearing nerd". He accomplished the ultimate in nerdiness, being the first man to step foot on another world. That was a nerd's wet dream come true!
-mcgrew
(Linked text is titled "Growing Up With Computers" from 2005, in it is mention of Niel's most famous act of nerdiness. Another of my useless but on-topic scribblings is a two year old blagh titled What is a nerd?)
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Big fan of Elvis Costello, I respect the hell out of him, but I understand that the job was as basic operator, meaning he was mounting and unmountng data reels.
Perhaps is a similar way as "Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics"?
AccountKiller
, probably because a shockingly large percentage of them don't seem to know which end to pick the thing up by. :)
Over ~30 years in electronics, I have met many engineers who are whizzes with SPICE simulations or Fourier transforms, but put them on a bench with a screwdriver and a soldering iron, and you have created a weapon of mass destruction targeted at the most expensive piece of silicon in the vicinity. Some of them know this, and leave the hands-on development/prototyping work to engineering techs, or others with the experience and training for it (most of which is NOT taught in a university EE program anymore).
The few engineers that I have met who can actually BUILD their ideas as well as they could design them got that part of their training outside of an EE program. Some started in TV repair shops, some were techs in the military, and others were ham radio operators, model rocketry geeks, or hardware hackers long before they got out of HS.
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Damn. Now I am going to stay awake at night thinking of Portman. Sexy, Cute, and smart. Oh why why couldn't she be stupid...... :-(
Think Deeply.