What really upsets me about this article is how he gave advice to that friend of his to suppress his hobbies/interests to get a girlfriend. What kind of bullshit advice is that?
That left me pretty sour, and makes the article feel a lot more artificial/fake.
I happily consider myself a lifelong stereotypical geek but my wife is not. While she accepts and loves me for who I am, I need to have more in my life than just math and Internet spaceships and hacking or we wouldn't relate to each other well.
Hopefully his friend really does have more going on in his life than carefully-organized Star Trek VHS tapes for the sole reason that only having one dimension to his life means he's missing out on a lot.
I read that little anecdote completely differently. It came across to me not as a story about suppressing hobbies/interests but rather being willing to extend your boundaries/experience new things or live with a bit of chaos in your life. Something that his friend with the perfectly arranged Star Trek VHS collection might not have done. (I know I'm generalising massively here but whenever an anecdote is reduced to a sentence or two it typically relies on stereotypes and generalisations to paint a fuller picture)
Judging by a lot of replies in this thread I think the below statement might be well on the money:
> it seems like some people are grasping for reasons to dislike this guy
The point is not to suppress his hobbies, just to be a little more conscientious about how you present yourself. He didn't say get rid of the star trek tapes.
Come on. Not about suppressing your hobby, it's about not being identified solely with it.
That's the stuff you pull out after you get married. Then it eventually ends up in a small closet about 5 years later. Ultimately, it ends up being what you have around you as you get old again. Life's funny that way.
I agree with your advice, but I don't think that's what he's saying.
I mean, a paragraph later he talks about getting an "identity mug" and earlier about wanting to get Shire wallpaper and how he listens to dwarf music. I can't tell if he's being ironic or dense or if he doesn't like Star Trek.
That left me pretty sour, and makes the article feel a lot more artificial/fake.