I am a member of the geek group.
I could i suppose snark the hell out of most any of these posts, but i'm not going to (which is totally against my nature).
Instead, i'll post my experiences with the group, and let it go from there.
I joined in Feb 2010, and became almost instantly wrapped into the fold. For my inquisitive mind, it was in fact 'coming home' of my technologically oriented mind. At the time, if there were more than 4 people at the lab, it was a party, and an important party, cause 4 people were all that'd show up to even those. It was very small very familiar and in its own right, quite different from what it is today.
To say that the last 3 years has changed the group, and not just the group, but all the people involved in it, is a vast understatement. I remember going to the old lab, in a run down part of one of the worst cities in my home state to being allowed into the new lab as one of the first people. Within 5 minutes of signing, i was one of three people tearing up the floor in MDH because frankly, the awesome could not wait until Chris got there from the realator meeting.
Dig back a little bit, you'll see me throwing down weekends worth of time tearing into the old jank that was the building and generally juggernauting my way through getting things ready for the new hotness.
Prior to that? You criticize that the group is a YT thing only and first? You should have seen behind the scenes when it was a basement thing between the old lab and new. Cramped hardly covers it. During that time so many things were lost to theft at the old unsecured building. More money in copper than what i make in a year was among it. Donated, to build things, to build awesome, and stolen for some meth addict's fix. Let me tell you, there was a few number of people turned sour when that became obvious. I spent a lot of nights working till 4 am at the old building with no heat and no lights in order to tear apart (carefully, and cataloging as i went) with the illustrious Mr. Kidwell main demonstrations. We would spend the days loading when there were people there to help, and the nights carefully dismantling and staging for the next day. It was not only hard work, but an incredible learning experience. I know more about electronics and electricy that i ever imagined possible, and well beyond what i would ever need as 'an average joe'. It led to me getting one of the best paying jobs in my history, rubbing shoulders with people who graduated MIT and showing them how to install custom hardware and software, and me, a college drop out. You should have seen their faces when i told them that. That alone makes the hours grinding away at the labs worth it.
So now, i got a new job, and a new house, and i don't get to spend as much time at the lab. I'm a footnote in videos, when they work with metal occasionally, due to my own hobbies. They're taking what i helped tear down and make ready, and are building the most incredible thing i've frankly ever had the joy to be a part of. I get to the lab once ever couple months, and aside from the hallways being in the same place, nothing is the same. Its constantly growing and expanding, and what you don't see on youtube, well, you're missing out.
Meanwhile, the investment of time money and reputation that Chris has put in far outweighs anything i could ever do myself. I can't spend every day at the lab, its an hour drive away and i gotta pay the bills at home, but even if i could, i could not come close to comparing. There's a certain amount of charisma and sheer willpower that frankly i use as a source of inspiration when i get a little lazy. You see someone who's overbearing and bossy. I see someone who is carving a marble statue from a pile of donated scraps.
I'm three years into my membership, and i have no hard feelings about any and all the time put in. I may not have a lot of physical stuff to show for it, a shrunken quarter... a 10amp variac for a coil i'm building, a few other nicknacks. I can't show you what is in my mind though. I can only tell you about it, and i don't do it justice.
So instead, i challenge you. Find the time to come to the lab. i'll take time out of my schedule to meet you there. I'd say i'd proove you wrong, but frankly, i wouldn't have to do anything as long as you didn't walk in with a blindfold on.
You say cult and cultish. I say rolemodel. I base my judgement on personal experience, and you base yours on fanboy yt'ery. I see someone touring groups of children around science, letting them touch it, see it, and when they show they're safe enough around it, even play with it. I watched a 12 year old come in and stop all the conversations cold with his knowledge of things radioactive, while his mother stood there as happy as i've seen a person to find people who are not only knowledgable (about the topic AND the safety around it) but willing to take the time to stop building their own dream and help this kid build his.
Did you read that last sentance slowly and carefully?
To slander and assign names to the group based on off hand and second hand information doesn't do anything helpful for anyone. I see you guys trying to shame someone who is with their teeth somehow pulling a dream out of impossibility to share science on a scale unheard of with anyone with a passionate desire to learn... and the only person you should try to shame are yourselves. This thread does nothing but ~attempt~ to devalidate the hours and hours spent working hard to share technology with all people of all ages, and all i gotta do is show this video:
(25 min) me, first hand, doing demo's for kids. i've been in the boyscouts and i used to have a job teaching 5th graders after school computers programs. I"ve never had so many kids absolutely attentative when i talked, and ask so many questions. I didn't feel like i was making a difference. I was making a difference. Find me proof that any of the other hackerspaces have such an incredible response by tomorrow's engineers, and you'll have shown me another hackerspace as awesome as the geek group.
check out the kid at 4:40. I haven't seen a kid that profoundly interested in science ... ever. He couldn't figure out to stand or sit, and spent the rest of the time at the front line, asking and getting interested. We all should have had such an awesome opportunity as kids.
Home
Help
Search
Login
Register
