[Suicide Boy]

I'm packed full of self-confidence, but to quote Brian Hook from an article linked to in Michael Hartman's (Threshold/Aristotle's) blog:

"Reality doesn't give a **** how clever you think you are."

I think we MU* players sometimes pat ourselves on the back a bit too much for playing text-based games. Personally, I feel that I have a talent for languages, I consider myself well educated, and I account myself a pretty intelligent guy... but there are plenty of scientists, scholars, and other cerebral luminaries in the world who could no doubt think circles around me. I wouldn't trust myself within sixty feet of a surgeon's scalpel, either. In other words, I find "I do geek stuff, therefore I am intelligent and a nerd" to be a somewhat self-congratulatory and self-indulgent sentiment.

Google "Dunning-Kruger effect" and take a gander at the Wikipedia article outlining the basic tenets of that theory. It's great food for thought and fodder for self-analysis, in my opinion.

As I mentioned previously, being a "stealth geek" is not at all about my being ashamed or lacking self-confidence; on the contrary, I can be a supercilious son of a gun at times (now, for example). I simply don't want unnecessary complications arising in my life because other people perceive me as a weirdo. I have enough to deal with without a conservative authority figure eyeing me askance because he thinks I think I'm a cat person who lives in a magic forest. Again, that's his problem, not mine. I'm protecting myself from his closed-mindedness, nothing more. Similarly, I don't need knuckleheads at the gym asking me if I met any elves on the walk down.