Scott Hanselman

Explaining CyberGeek Fame to my Wife

May 21, 2007 Comment on this post [35] Posted in Musings
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DHH, Fowler, HanselmanIt was fun this week to meet Martin Fowler and David Heinemeier Hansson at RailsConf. It's always cool at a conference to meet someone who's done great work, chat with them, and try to figure out how you too, can do great work. If only others appreciated it also...

Wife: How was the conference?

Geek (Me): It was excellent. I got to meet and chat with Martin Fowler and David Heinemeier Hansson, and they were both very cool.

Wife: Ermm...that's nice...

Geek: Ya, David created a Web Application Development Framework called Rails using a rather obscure Japanese gentleman's language called Ruby, and came up with a number of new and synthesized ideas in a way that no one had yet. It's sweeping the 'net and folks are digging it. Martin is one of the pioneers of Object Orientation and agile methodologies, as well as an Extreme Programming Guy.

Wife: I've never heard of these guys, but I'm glad you're glad!

David Heinemeier Hansson, Martin Fowler, and Scott HanselmanGeek: Well, meeting Martin is kind of like meeting Michael Caine, he's a very respected guy, talented actor, he's been around for a long time, done a lot of great work, and you're never disappointed with any thing you see him in. Meeting David is kind of like meeting Tobey Maguire, because Spiderman kicked butt and everyone enjoyed it, but it's unclear if he'll get a lot of work and do great stuff after Spiderman. But, still, he's Spiderman, so he'll always have that.

Wife: Ah, well, that is cool!

Geek: Darn right.

Wife: Some Geek People out there seem to know who you are also...what actor are you in this analogy?

Geek: I'm Bruce Campbell, of course.

Wife: Who?

Geek: Exactly.

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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May 21, 2007 9:47
LOL, nice.
May 21, 2007 10:00
Nice :) Especially since Bruce Campbell was also in spiderman 3.
Me
May 21, 2007 10:06
hahaha, Gimme back my hand... GIMME BACK MY HAND!
May 21, 2007 10:08
Ya, sadly, Michael Caine was in Batman as I couldn't think of an older, respected guy in Spiderman since Peter's Uncle died.
May 21, 2007 10:13
Bruce Campbell! That guy is a god! Haha. When I worked at Todd McFarlane Productions (spawn.com) he came into the office because we made the action figures for the Army of Darkness. The guy is hilarious. We even asked him to do the "gimme some sugar baby" for us, and he did. Then he signed a figure for me! So, that's the question, when do we get to see a hanselman action figure?! Haha! :)
May 21, 2007 10:14
Ah well, Scott you're pretty a big talent in my book. Me, I think I'd be "Cappuccino Waiter #1" in the rolling credits of "The Sopranos"...struggling actor, but my family thinks I'm a pretty big deal ;)
May 21, 2007 10:35
"Good... Bad... I'm the guy with the gun."
May 21, 2007 10:44
Ah, if chins could kill...

I wonder if "Brisco County Jr." is out on DVD yet?
May 21, 2007 11:11
It's interesting. My wife now understands this concept because she hears me talking about them all the time. So when I told her I was going to finally meet Scott Hanselman in person, she was excited for me because we could finally compare foreheads in person.

And she understood how cool it was to meet ScottGU and Miguel de Icaza.
May 21, 2007 14:41
Your fault for not educating your wife to know who Bruce Campbell is :)
Here you go:

May 21, 2007 14:43
Hey, invisible link above!
Adi
May 21, 2007 16:32
Bruce Campbell! ROFLMAO!
May 21, 2007 17:51
Landing a podcast with DHH and Martin Fowler (from comments in prev post) is a pretty big deal. Maybe rather than an actor analogy, you're a high profile hollywood style reporter. Access Hollywood, Hanselman!
May 21, 2007 18:22
I am glad that my wife is not the only one who has no idea about what I am talking about when I go to a computer related event. :-)
May 21, 2007 19:00
LOL! That's an awfully big chin to fill! But in the I.T. world, Scott, you definitely have a Campbell-esque chin-shrub planter.
May 21, 2007 19:09
Got the same reaction from my wife when I met Fowler at CitCon (Geek Autograph Pr0n). Next time I'll have to use your actor analogy...although I think I may have to throw Clint Howard in there. :)
May 21, 2007 20:21
Another Bruce Campbell "quote of note":

Henrietta: I'll swallow your soul! I'll swallow your soul! I'll swallow your soul!
Ash: [Aims shotgun at Henrietta's face] Swallow this.

(Relationship: how programming has taken over my life...)

So if I respect Bruce highly as the B King, what category would Scott be in?

Scott, you just need to start chanting "Join us! Join US!" to your wife. Once you start that I'm sure she'll become possessed and part of our world... Ok, maybe not, it didn't work on my wife.

Here's a preview of his book for all you Bruce fans...
May 21, 2007 20:34
Scott, what did Martin say when you told him your joke about how you don't use patterns, cuz you actually like to get things done?

Ha ha. I bet you had a good laugh about that one.

;-)
May 21, 2007 20:41
Ha,

It is out on DVD, http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Brisco-County-Jr-Complete/dp/B000F7CMPE/, complete series, 27 episodes on 8 discs, also Jack of all Trades is out too.

http://www.amazon.com/Jack-All-Trades-Celia-Nicholson/dp/B000FJH5MC/

You can get both for about $100.
Tempting...
May 21, 2007 20:45
@Mason - Does that make me "The Insider"? I hope not. ;)
@DaveP - Heh, no comment.
May 21, 2007 21:45
According to technorati you have almost as much authority as Martin :-)
May 21, 2007 22:03
Now that whole exchange made me laugh!
Scot, I'll be at TechEd and I spotted your name there too. Maybe we can catch up and I can continue to complain and the spot watch?!

I'd love to hang out with the man with screaming brain for a bit ;-)
Ian
May 21, 2007 22:26
(deep breath)
Bruce Campbell has been in all of the Spider-Man movies because they have, so far, all been directed by Sam Rami. Sam Rami and Bruce grew up together in Detroit and made the Evil Dead series of movies. Ted Rami, Sams brother, also starred in the Xena: Warrior Princess series which also starred Bruce Campbell.

Bruce also played elderly Elvis with penis cancer in the movie "Bubba Ho-Tep".

All hail the chin!

When I tell my wife that I met Scott H. or some other people at some geektogether she says, "Oh, are they one of your little geek blog buddies?" :\
May 21, 2007 23:28
I look forward to seeing you at one of the code camps holding your copy of CodeRush and Refactor! and shouting "this is my BOOM STICK!!"
May 22, 2007 0:58
so, what exactly were David Heinemeier Hansson's amazing revelations taht no one had before? Mapping function procedures to page generation? Integrated object-relational mapping? Sane and useful scaffolding? He did these things really well, but I've always perceived them as just that, really good implementations of existing technologies that people had been playing with for years. I dont understand what is novel about RoR, aside from being an absolutely fantastic compilation of a lot of formerly disparate tooling.

Rereading: "new AND SYNTHESIZED".... well thats certainly a qualifier I missed. Still curious what your percieved newness was.

We need more chin.
May 22, 2007 1:13
Synthesized was the primary thing. He's young, and he's standing on the shoulders of giants, but he's put together a very clean, clever framework. I mean "new" in that he's taken his sense of beauty and DRY to a level not seen since smalltalk, imho.
May 22, 2007 1:39
I don't care who I am as long as I am NOT Sylvester Stallone haha!! No wait can I be Jackie Chan with the kungu moves? hmmmm

May 22, 2007 2:41
The last thing my husband-geek sends me before shutting down and heading home is a link to this entry, saying I'd like this article.

He was right. Nice explanation.

I would like to note that I do know who Bruce Campbell is. And who you are (as my husband enjoys your offerings). But I remain mystified by the two men you mentioned.

I'm a geek-wife, true. But not all of my education has been lacking!
KC
May 22, 2007 5:48
All hail the mighty Bruce Hanselman. Or Scott Campbell or whatever.

Can I be Bill Pullman?
May 22, 2007 10:42
Scott,

That was the funniest thing I think you've ever said... not only that, but let me know if you need to borrow Brisco and I'll bring it over.
May 22, 2007 11:42
Bubba Ho-Tep was a great Bruce Campbell film. As with all great men, he lives in Oregon, you know...
May 22, 2007 17:11
LOL,
I had the same experience the other night (only not in person). The Science Channel was replaying a documentary that must have been made in the late 90s called "Triumph of the Nerds".

There were three episodes of an hour each and in it they interviewed all the big guns (e.g. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Paul Allen, Steve Ballmer, the guy who founded Compaq, IBM execs, etc) on the history of the personal computer.

My wife liked the shows but the only people she recognized was Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Most of it was over her head.
May 23, 2007 17:04
I've never read a post twice this is really awesome.
May 25, 2007 15:32
I'm happy that I'm not the only one who has this problem at home. =) I spend a large amount of time trying to explain these tech-famous people, what they've done and whatnot, but I usually find myself stopping when I realize I can't explain what they have done without resorting to other things I have to explain. Infinite regress.

It was fun to meet and discuss with you, btw. I had an awesome time at RailsConf.
May 27, 2007 18:37
For the record, Bruce Campbell is one of my favorite all time actors. BTW, Scott, I recently started following your site. I must say, I love it. Keep up the good work. I've been subtly spreading your site throughout my colleagues at work. They've started saying things like 'Well Hanselman says this...' ;).

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.