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From: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: The Silicon Syndrome
Message-ID: <726@rti-sel.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 17-Mar-86 12:17:43 EST
Article-I.D.: rti-sel.726
Posted: Mon Mar 17 12:17:43 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 19-Mar-86 01:19:03 EST
References: <42200027@convex> <637@hou2f.UUCP> <2c7dfefa.7005@apollo.uucp>
Reply-To: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Organization: Research Triangle Institute, NC
Lines: 41
Summary: 

In article <2c7dfefa.7005@apollo.uucp> nazgul@apollo.UUCP (Kee Hinckley) writes:

>       ...  How many of you out there find that you can have a 
>long-term relationship with someone who is not involved in computers?

When I get off work I want to discuss literature. Art. Current events.
The weather. Cooking. I DON'T want to spend another eight hours talking about
my work, about theoretical computer science, or about the peculiarities
of a certain UNIX implementation. And I find cocktail parties where
everyone's a compunerd boring in the extreme.

>  ...  I find that I have a hard
>time being with someone with whom I can't discuss what I'm doing ...

Well, then you have two choices, it seems to me: either cultivate an
interest in other things or restrict your friendships to computer
types. I've found there are plenty of technical people who never tire
of discussing their work, so that really shouldn't be a hardship.

>The catch is, that if I *am* with someone who is
>in the field (my SO comes to mind) I tend to expect too much from them.

Expect in what way? You mean expect your SO to keep up a certain level
of expertise in a conversation? And why is that so important in a
personal relationship to you? Seems to me the qualities that are
important in an SO (or a non-SO friend) are things like empathy, a
sense of humor, a willingness and ability to compromise, the ability
to keep up h/er end of a conversation, etc.

I can see it now, the Techie's Wedding Ceremony:

      "...and do you both promise to love and cherish each
       other, as long as you both keep your ACM and IEEE
       memberships current, to attend yearly UNIX conferences
       to keep your technical skills current, and to strive
       for ten lines of debugged code a day 'till death do
       you part?..."

Gee, ain't it romantic?  :-)

                             -- Cheers, Bill Ingogly