Specialist or Dabbler geek?

Nazhuret

So I am a Dabbler geek.

I have a very large number of things that I have either a passing or advanced geeky knowledge of.
However, I am a specialist in none of them.

The closest I would say that I come to being a specialist is in the field(s) of:
3D modeling - real world, physical, scratch built models
Miniatures painting - any
Board / RPG game hacking - either physical modding or rules hacking
Desserts - cakes, pastries, etc... You want it? I can make it.


Things that I am a dabbler in (necessarily truncated list and in the order I could think of them):
Cooking - non sweets
Wargames
Steam engines - specializing in trains
Computing - mostly Mac
Video games - consoles / handhelds (see above)
Manga - pre year 2000
Anime - pre year 2000
Indy comics - pre year 1997
Etymology - more than the average bear
Wordplay - very general topic but... I love it and study it amateurishly
Hard science fiction novels
Animation - non anime stuff
Religion - Know your enemy
Board games - in general
"Alternative" transportation - man-powered or highly efficient motorized vehicles and public systems
Micro brew beer - I live in Portland Oregon...
General tech - ok this one is all encompassing. I like to keep abreast of every tech thing that comes down the highway whether or not I know the details or not. I simply need to be in the know.
Astronomy - It's the first step to our continuation as a species
Robotics - yet another step
Publishing rights - you never know when you'll need it and you get fucked by it every day.
Psychology - focussing on media studies 'cause they like to fuck you (see above and Religion)

The list could go on very much longer.

I was just wondering what sort of level you would consider yourselves?
Am I strange in my geekness? Is it an abnormality that I spread myself so thin in so many topics or is this a common trait in geeks?

Discuss.

Thaed

I think a fair amount of geeks tend toward being polymaths at varying degrees. I have a ton of interests like you and I’m a hardcore computer guy, but I’m a lawyer by trade. Go figure.

Da Vinci probably set the gold standard in polymath geekdom. Now there was a guy if he were alive today, could take out Rym in Puerto Rico while simultaneously beating the rest of the FRC in Dracula. Of course, he would have wanted to sleep with Scott…

Nazhuret

Yes, but could he take out Rym in Puerto Rico while simultaneously beating the rest of the FRC in Dracula all _while_ sleeping with Scott?

Now THAT would be a true renaissance Geek!

GauntletWizard

I think most geeks tend to dabble. I can't imagine one of my friends who cannot say they know a little about a multitude of topics in geekery. I'm a computer guy myself, and after that I'd put Anime as #2, but I used to be heavily into video games. I try and dabble in each geeky area I can find, from Board games to Obscure Movies.. I know many friends who are the same. At the same time, while I know plenty of people with similar skillsets, each tends to specialise in a different area. We all have common knowledge, but I know programming exceptionally, while another will know RPG's and Boardgames really well, and another is a god with networking, and another can solve any math problem. Geek society is an attempt to catelogue and index knowledge, unlike normal society that tends to cluster around people with the same knowledge repeated.